2025New York, May 11, 2015 -- /EPR NETWORK/ -- The music therapy department at Rebecca School, a special needs school in NYC for children with neurodevelopmental delays of relating and communicating, attended and presented at the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Regional Music Therapy Conference in Ocean City, Maryland, USA. The conference titled “Riding the Sound Waves with Music Therapy” was conducted from March 19, 2015 to March 21, 2015, by the American Music Therapy Association of the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Rebecca School’s music therapy department presented at the conference for the sixth year in a row. With over 660 music therapists and music therapy students in attendance, the conference was aimed at increasing public awareness of the benefits of music therapy. The members of the music therapy department at the NYC special needs school; Stacey, Zach, Anne and Pete, presented “Sharing an Experience, DIR and Group Music Therapy” at the conference. The presentation shed light on the relevance of improvisational music therapy in the DIR model for providing students with special needs the opportunity to learn from shared meaningful musical experiences with their peers.
The DIR model or the Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-based model was developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan as a framework for assessing the functional emotional developmental capacities of a child and offering pertinent therapeutic interventions to help the child learn and develop to their maximum capabilities. Rebecca School utilizes this model and its key maxim “relationships are the foundation of learning” to provide therapeutic education to their students.
The focus of music therapy within the DIR model is to help children develop relationships through involvement in a variety of music-making experiences. Musical dialogues are fostered between children and their therapists or peers through musical activities focused on the process rather than the end product of the music making process. This helps create opportunities for communication, expression and emotional processing; aspects that are usually lacking in children with neurodevelopmental delays of relating and communicating.
Rebecca School, as one of the acclaimed special needs schools in NYC, also utilizes the principles of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy in their music therapy classes. Members of the school's music therapy department presented a case study at the 2015 regional conference from their training at the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Clinic at NYU. They also presented a continuing class titled, “Finding Freedom at the Piano: Expanding Clinical Improvisational Skills through Innovative Methods”.
Rebecca School provides therapeutic programs to children ages 4 to 21. The school has art and music studios as well as sensory gyms for providing a wholesome therapeutic experience to all students.To know about DIR model visit:http://www.rebeccaschool.org/the-experience/the-dir-model
Contact-Details: 40 East 30th Street New York, NY 10016
Phone:(212) 810-4120
