Stayin' Alive: Sing it for CPR!

This is a great story about how music makes sense!

The American Heart Association has been using the original 1977 song from the Bee Gees as an aid people learning CPR. It turns out that the song has 103 beats per minute. The AHA recommends that chest compressions for CPR be given at 100 times per minute.

I usually have to maintain my CPR certification in order to work with certain populations. I have often wondered if I would be able to remember the instructions if the time ever came that I had to perform the life saving procedures. This song is the perfect combination of lyrics and rhythm being key factors for the therapeutic use of music. The AHA even tested their theory about the song by having a small group of medical professionals do CPR while listening to the song. They were reported to do the chest compressions at almost the perfect rate. This same group was then tested to see how they would do without the recorded music, but still singing the song in their heads as they did the chest compressions for CPR. Amazingly, they were able to maintain very similar rates of compression without the recorded music!

The story is here at Fox News.

...Somebody help me, yeah. Stayin' alive!

Side Notes! Sarah Palin: Overture for Special Education

The current presidential election has created a novel situation for those of us who work with kids with special needs. Governor Palin has promised that if she is elected to work with John McCain in the White House, she will be an advocate for families who have children with special needs. As I thought about the possibilities this might present for reform of the special education system, I inevitably considered the TAKS testing that goes on in Texas. This is the Texas Assessment of Skills and Knowledge test that is used to establish minimum standards for passing certain grade levels. The results of the exam are used to meet requirements for the federal guidelines in No Child Left Behind.

I am just an observer of how TAKS testing is implemented, but I may have an idea for Governor Palin and others to consider. I have watched the teachers I work with spend countless hours trying to figure out how to implement TAKS test alternatives for the children in the special education program. The way I understand things, every child has to be tested on subjects and knowledge areas according to their grade level. therefore, special education teachers have to take knowledge questions that would be on the regular TAKS test and break down the questions into fundamental skills that would be necessary to answer the target question. They do this until they get to a level of question that would be possible for a specific student with disabilities to answer with a reasonable degree of success. They do this for every child who has an Individual Education Plan in the grade levels that are testing. This means that every child with special needs ends up with a different test. This makes sense since we are talking about children with Individual Education Plans.

What does not make sense to me is why teachers are spending so much time on making up tests that will be different for every child and turning that in for use with standardized tests as a measure of a school's performance? In talking with professionals in the public education system it seems that before TAKS-alt became the rule, some schools were "hiding" poorly performing students under the special education label so that they did not have to take the test or at least did not have their scores counted toward the school's overall score. Since then, everyone has to take the test regardless of its educational value for the student.

The great education bureaucracy in their wisdom has apparently decided to make everyone take the test so that nobody can hide. I think this is an abrogation of their duties in oversight and now an unfortunate waste of valuable time resource for many of the teachers and students who now have to participate in this TAKS-alt system. I have no idea how scores are reconciled or accounted for in the broad scheme of things or if the scores from TAKS-alt figure into achieving "Exemplary" or "Recognized" status for individual schools and districts. Maybe we can open up a discussion here and find out? My initial thought about the situation is why didn't the people in charge just fire people who were misusing the special education labels? How does it serve the children with special needs to take TAKS or TAKS-alt? I think this has come to pass to satisfy a bureaucratic need instead of an educational need.

The bottom line in my view, is that many of the children in special education are not in school to prepare for college or some kind of career. We are teaching them skills of daily living and preparing them with basic knowledge to live a quality life at whatever level they can attain. Many of the test questions developed for TAKS-alt are about skills and knowledge that would be taught regardless of the existence of the TAKS exam, but the time spent in developing TAKS-alt for every student is misplaced effort. I also must assume that scores from TAKS-alt testing will be statistically meaningless since every test is individualized. There is no way to create a standardized test for special education or compare scores across student results.

I don't know if Sarah Palin will have any way to help bring some sense to the realm of special education, but we can start a conversation and see where it leads. I welcome comments and feedback for this topic. I am not an expert on the law and implementation for No Child Left Behind, but I see its effect in the "trenches" so to speak. For the most part everyone is trying to help the children, but sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees!

**Please see related post: Side Notes! TAKS and Adequate Yearly Progress

Lyrics Mean Things!

We have all heard the phrase, "Words mean things!" This leads me to emphasize the importance of music as a carrier of information. One of the most powerful tools we have as therapists, teachers and parents, is using lyrics to provide directions and knowledge to our target audience. Advertisers have taken advantage of this phenomenon by using jingles to help people remember important information such as phone numbers and company mottoes.

I like to use songs to deliver one and two step directions such as passing objects, raising your hand or to indicate gross motor movements. Another useful way of using lyrics to convey ideas is with social stories. Social stories put to song can greatly augment its effectiveness by increasing a client's attention and promoting memory and portability of the intended instructions.

One example of this is how I used a song to help a student put on his shoes and sit up straight. I used a familiar melody from the song, Skip to My Lou, and imposed new lyrics, "Put on your shoes and sit up straight, time to get ready for music." The use of a "piggyback" song was intended to help teachers use the song when I was not there. I often stop singing the lyrics and allow my student to sing to himself as I provide accompaniment on the guitar, but because of the familiar tune, his teachers have also been able to start singing the song and then the student finishes it himself.

Here are some key ideas about using lyrics:

1. Provide multiple opportunities for the listener to comply with sung directions. In other words, use a song with a repeating lyric line and sing the song several times in order to provide enough time for the listener to process the information and respond.

2. Don't re-invent the wheel! If you can fit some lyrics to a familiar tune or song, then it will be easier to remember. This is what we call "piggybacking" new words on an old melody. One example is how the ABC song is traditionally sung to the melody for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

3. Keep it simple and direct. Try keeping the lyric instructions limited to one or two-step directions.

4. Be consistent. Many of the children that I work with respond well to structure and routine. One advantage to using music to convey instructions is that you do not always need accompaniment from a guitar or piano. If you have used the lyrics with a piggyback song, then the tune should be easy to remember. Sing the song with your student whenever the need arises. Music can be a great tool if you have gone off and forgotten the picture cards that go along with the needed social stories!

5. Follow through! In my example above about singing for my client to, "sit up straight and put on his shoes," I did not begin the music therapy session until he had complied with the instructions in the song. I sang the song together with him many times and kept singing it as he started to put on his shoes. One word of caution, however, since I know this client very well and realize the power music has with him. Just because you sing a song with instructions does not mean your listener will follow through, but it is important to make sure that they understand that the words mean something. In my example, perhaps the student reaches for his shoes and that is as far as he gets. Take that progress and build on it next time so that on the next occasion that it is necessary to sing the song, try to hold out for a higher level of compliance to the lyric directions.

Altogether now - "Put on your shoes and sit up straight, time to get ready for music!"