STIMULATING SOUNDS AND VOCALIZATION THROUGH BODY MOVEMENT AND RHYTHM WITH HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN

Norma Canner, ADTR,

Professor Emeritus at Lesley College Graduate School
(Monograph of the American Dance Therapy Association, 1972, 1-12)

I was asked by the speech and hearing consultant at the State Hospital to think about a project which would help language development in non-hearing and/or non-speaking children. This was to be part of an In-Service Training Program. With two assistants, both experts in the field of child development, I drew up the following plan:

Sounds and Vocalization Through Movement and Rhythm

Goals:

1. To stimulate vocal sounds through rhythm and body movement.

2. To reinforce recognition and understanding through appropriate sounds and movement: i.e., appropriate gestures for better communication, such as shaking head "No" or shrugging shoulders, "I don't know."

3. To help adults interact with children in a free and creative manner which would stimulate dialogue on a level meaningful to both.

4. To develop some basic tools for language stimulation.

5. To develop and use new materials which would contribute to muscle development of speech organs.

6. To develop the ability to listen and appreciate the different sound qualities: pitch and tone (loud and soft).

7. To develop an awareness and appreciation of their own image, to know their own faces and to recognize the separate parts of their bodies and what they can do.

8. To develop sound-producing toys for individual use and ownership which again reinforces self-appreciation.

Plan for Workshop:

1. A series of ten workshops were planned to be followed up at a later date.

a. Materials: sounds and instruments to be developed.

b. Workshops: adults and children, one to two hour follow-up, discussion and recording of same.

c. There will be six adults and six children. Each child will be assigned to an adult. The adult will try first to establish a good relationship with her child, using playful, free use of voice, face, hands, or any other part of the body which will evoke responses in a positive way.

2. In the workshop for adults we will have explored the feeling of these vowel and consonant sounds by improvising feeling in movement while speaking the sounds. Experiment should start with sounds as well as movement.

Vowel Consonant

Ah B M
Oh F P
EE G R
T
OO H T
AW K V
AI L Z

Blowing --out air
Hissing --put hands on lips to feel
Buzzing --air and vibration
Humming
Clicking --use mirror to see tongue: action and placement

3. Instruments

a. Use instruments with strings - to feel vibrations with fingers and to share, adult and child playing on same board.

b. Use elastics for swaying and stretching, sound-making together as a group or. alone or in duets.

c. Use mirrors and flashlights to explore inside mouth and eyes and beams on floor and ceiling.

d. Use finger cymbals, drums, shakers and sticks.

e. Touch face and body parts, use names while moving each part.

head eyes elbows face wrists legs neck shoulders feet

4. Teacher and child:

Touch each other's face, neck, head, hands, elbows, knees, etc.

Put child's hands on you, naming the parts.

Use words such as (see below) and do with hands and fingers:

slap open
clap close
tight banging
rubbing make up your own

Combine various speech sounds. Make syllables.

Improvise sounds. Make up nonsense words and songs as well as discovering what sounds and words you make up together.

Have teachers explore the making of simple instruments and sounds.

On March 28, 1969, we made our first trip to the school and visited Wards I and II, where the youngest children live. I was not a stranger in this building. I was remembered by some of the staff, as I had done a workshop and demonstration with the children and nurses in October of 1968. The Director was familiar with my book, And a Time to Dance, and had seen slides showing retarded children enjoying creative movement. The visit must have been successful, as we were warmly received and helped in everything we tried to do.

After some discussion with the nurses and the aides who would be working with us, we decided to choose six children, none of whom spoke. Lack of hearing was not made a criterion, since there was no final diagnosis and in most cases it appeared to us that the children did have hearing.

We arrived each Thursday morning at 10:30 and stayed until lunchtime, when the children were called for by six older children who were on their way home from school to "dinner", as they called it. The older children learned about the dance-and music-making sessions because they were close to our six in a type of older brother- or sister relationship.

In planning for the workshops, I had thought it would be a good idea for one adult to remain each time with the same child. This turned out to be undesirable. As we got to know each other, it was more satisfying to move around and change partners. However, Dorothy did work mostly with Dale, and his behavior changed from bizarre to a point where, at the last session, he could join the circle, aware that there were other people in the room (see description of Dorothy T. and Dale). Sara worked mostly with Mary Lou in the beginning, Mary with Mrs .H., and I was with Dorry.

Dorry is a small blond Downs Syndrome child who would confront me with folded arms, saying in her way that we were partners. When I tried, after we had danced together, to move on to another child, she would spit in my face. What to do? We just carried on and danced some more; eventually we worked it out. She began to trust that I would return so that we could be partners and dance again.

By the first of May, our sessions with aides and children were more involved and the interaction between the children and their adult partners more spontaneous. The stringed instruments, the small mirrors, and the elastics proved to be successful materials and we were becoming a group. Randy danced alone in the circle and the group accompanied him. Mrs. H., a sensitive and acute observer who is herself a dancer has, it seems, a variety of functions at the school. One function has been to help to continue our efforts at establishing the creative movement program as a part of the daily curriculum for the children. She always had them ready for us to begin dancing, and when materials were suggested, she was more than conscientious about securing and preparing them for us in sufficient quantity for all children on the wards. Miss S. is a college student who, along with another aide, was skeptical about the whole idea. But as time went on they became enthusiastic and firm supporters, contributing in every positive way to the success of our experiment. All of the people who spend so much time with the children on the wards report that the six children are making sounds that they never made before.

After lunch, we met in the administration building with the adults. We sat around a long table getting into the core of the materials. I made a few introductory remarks attempting to describe how important it was for all of us to get personally involved with the materials and the making of sounds through movement. If anyone was to realize what this experience could mean to the children, it was important to become involved with the movement and sound processes. Therefore we moved away from the table into the middle of the room and formed a circle.

Sitting on chairs with our backs to the center, our eyes closed, we started by making free vocal sounds, listening to and putting all of our attention on the sounds others were making. As voices started to loosen and increase in volume and quality, people became more relaxed, both physically and mentally. The warming-up process seemed foolish and meaningless to the uninvolved outsider.

As the workshops continued, the nurses, particularly the aides who worked with the children's group in the morning, became less self-conscious and more able to involve themselves. As this happened, the giggling and talking ceased. Each participant was able to relate the importance of simple exercises to her eventual growth and ability to apply these new skills, first with each other and then with the children. In fact, at each session one of the nurses would remark how relaxed the exercises made her feel.

But it wasn't always so smooth. When one nurse joined us for the first time, she was tense and uncomfortable. She kept muttering under her breath that it was "silly" and she couldn't stand it. "That's what the kids do on my ward", she would say. "I don't have to come all the way over here to do this, " and so forth. Mrs. G., an R.N. who is an especially outgoing and enthusiastic member of the H.I.P. team, kept urging this nurse to participate, saying she could enjoy it if she knew how much pleasure the children derived from the experience. At any rate, I suggested she sit out and watch if she wanted to, but not verbalize her negativism.

She finally did get involved with another nurse, Mrs. G., and worked on a hand dance duet, but her face clearly expressed her anger and displeasure. However, when we moved back to the big table to explore the instruments again - the spools with elastics, the bones and finger symbols (see detailed description of instruments), she became very interested and even involved, taking part in the sound duets and adding new ideas as to what I could strike to make new sounds. As she continued to participate her face relaxed, the tension and anger disappeared, and one of the nurses remarked that that was the first time she had ever seen her smile.

Relaxation of the mind and body appear to have the same effect on all of us. It increases our ability to produce sounds with a wide range. Both adults and children could now experiment with their voices, giving us all the courage to go farther and be freer, because it felt good and sounded very beautiful. We were starting to hear and to appreciate the human voice and its potential as an expressive therapeutic tool.

There are many ways of stimulating spontaneous expression. When the leader is in touch and senses the mood of the group, the moment of improvisation evokes responses from human beings which transcend exercises and become unique moments of expression. For the leader, as well, it is always a creative experience from which he or she derives nourishment.

Most of the children's sessions were begun by presenting the elastic, which is about two inches wide, sturdy and soft. We all took hold of it, helping those children whose grasping muscles were too underdeveloped to hold on to it. This was a good way to start, because the children who are not accustomed to belonging to anything or anyone began to look around, seeing each other in a new way. They were attracted to the group by the rhythmic movement of the swaying and the singing sounds we were making together. The children's ability to enjoy the elastic increased. As the circle changed form, as people pulled, stretched and reached, we would stamp our feet, pull up high and down low, stretch out sideways, moving around the entire room, always attached to each other by the elastic. When a child could not bear this closeness any more, he was free to leave or come back as he chose.

The next part of the morning was usually spent on exploring the parts of the face: eyes, nose, mouth tongue, teeth, lips, and throat, sometimes naming the parts while touching each other. Those who couldn't touch were helped by their adult partners. We used small hand mirrors which helped the children to work at looking and seeing. Some, for the first time, were aware that they had separate parts to their faces and bodies which had separate functions. Each child's facial expression changed as he realized that he was a person with a face and a body capable of doing many things: with a tongue that clicked and made other funny sounds when he moved his lips and teeth. We touched each other's throats while humming and felt the vibrations.

Dorothy T. said of her experience with Dale, "In terms of sound, it didn't work to name parts of the body or things." In order to get a response from Dale, she had to establish her relationship with him by using her whole body. "I realized then," she said, "that I had so much to do with our relationship." When she made the same sounds as he did when biting or licking the mirror, he began to be aware of her. Since she removed all the things he threw, Dale was forced to make other sounds, like striking the cupboard or table; he had to become involved with a thing. By the third meeting, he knew the mirror was for business. Mrs. T. held the mirror firmly so that he couldn't lick it away, bite it away, throw it away, or even turn his back on it. "I got wise, " she said, "and felt it was important. There was a firm reality we had to face.. And we did; he finally stopped resisting. He looked at his tongue and lips and was even beginning to look at his eyes." She was able to get nearer to him and sometimes he would even stop and look around the room, enjoying the other people. In the last session, he came to the circle holding out both hands and reaching for the elastic while Mrs. T. stood behind him, hands on his back, reinforcing his effort to join the group.

It was good that each child had his own instrument and .could explore its size, shape, texture, and sound in his own way and could find his own only possible rhythm. It seems true for all of us that it is easier to relate to others after discovering ourselves. In exploring new materials, time is essential: to feel, to test, and to try out the instruments themselves (see detailed description of instruments), including those with strings, the drums, hard sticks and shakers. A stringed instrument which is very wide and sits on the floor allows four or more of us to play at once. As we plucked or stroked the strings - alone and in duets and trios -we saw many hands making beautiful designs and music together

From time to time, we would change roles with the children, sometimes leading, sometimes following. This is one of the subtle but very positive aspects of the creative movement experience. It allows the teacher, the nurses, the aides and the children to communicate on the same level. Perhaps. for institutionalized children this is one of the most important factors.

They can feel the intimacy and respond, gaining a new feeling of their worth. It does matter, after all, that I am me and what I say is being heard, not as a child to an adult or vice versa, but together. The nurses and aides varied greatly in age and in size and shape, but what they had in common was the desire to help the children. They were all interested in and willing to explore new ideas in sound, movement, and rhythm, especially hearing how well the children were responding to the dance sessions.

When I showed the film "and a time to dance" (an early twenty-minute 16mm film accompanying Ms. Canner’s book of the same name, not to be confused with the full-length documentary A Time to Dance: the Life and Work of Norma Canner) to the staff, they responded as if they "had been there. They had experienced making sounds and movements, they understood. Thus we could continue our experimentation with deep breathing to help relaxation and sensory awareness, discovering our separate body parts (eyes, mouth, tongue, cheeks, etc,), and by making free vocal sounds just as the children did. We also experimented with the elastic in duets and groups. We did hand, arm, face, foot and leg dances in groups of twos and in a big circle. While sitting on chairs, we experimented with sounds coming
from the movement of hands and feet. Everyone began to feel more at ease using their bodies in this creative way. Soon we moved off the chairs into the room, dancing together while exploring the sound and tactile qualities of colored tissue paper.

The nurses would come to the afternoon sessions looking tense and fatigued. They had to go through a transition period in which I would help them to relax . When at 3:30 the creative movement time was over, they would leave wanting to take with them their new-found feeling of relaxation and sense of freedom. We, too, shared in their joy at being together in an environment that allowed them self-nourishment, self-discovery and mutual trust.

Eventually, it became clear that we were going to leave behind us a group who could look at children and expect that there was a great deal of potential in them for moving out and beyond their current level of physical and mental development, because they themselves had done this. As they continued to become more sure of themselves as lively moving human beings, I asked if they could wear slacks or some other clothing which would allow more freedom to move. Some of the women said they would, and they did.

We spent the last part pf one meeting playing with an instrument which grew out of this experience. It was an eight-inch cardboard bobbin strung all around with rubber bands. When this was plucked and held close to the ear, it produced a delicate and satisfying sound. Each of us had one of these shoulder harps and we played alone and then together. The quality of the sound varied from person to person.

This, combined with the fact that each person was playing on the same instrument as the next, accentuated the experience visually while reinforcing and activating each person's ability to express herself. I have found this to be true everywhere, no matter what the level of intellect or sophistication.

Valerie, who is the head nurse in the Infirmary, requested that we have a workshop devoted to the children confined to wheelchairs and beds. She had been a conscientious participant, but skeptical as to how creative movement could apply to these children. Focusing our attention on this problem helped us to increase our understanding of what it feels like to be physically restricted. I asked everyone to confine their movements, putting limits on themselves, based of course on their own observations. Through her physical empathy, achieved by making sudden, jerky and sometimes excessive movements, Valerie came closer to these children. This was the moment for her to use movement as a new language. With the bells held tightly in their hands, she and her partner did a beautiful dance using limited, tight, spastic movements.

We then talked about attaching instruments to the children's hands and feet if they were unable to hold them. All of us became involved with Valerie's concern to help her children have a dance experience, too. This same day she asked if we would come to the Infirmary and dance with the children there? We agreed to plan our next session in the Infirmary and we ended with a discussion about which instruments could be prepared for the children in wheelchairs.

The following week when we arrived at the Infirmary, the children were ready and expectant. On a table nearby were stacked the cardboard spools strung with rubber bands, a generous supply of plastic shakers, wrist bells, and bones, all assembled and prepared by the "workshop" ladies ," under the direction of Pauline.

We moved in quickly to join the twenty-five children in wheelchairs. Their disabilities were severe -from total incapacity of a crib-ridden hydrocephalic girl to one or two children who could take a few hesitant steps. There seemed to be six or seven aides and the same number of nurses. As the four of us started to move from child to child, we sang, hummed, took hold of hands and moved our bodies with theirs, with any part that could move. We gave shakers, bells or bones to the children who could hold them and supported those who could not. Three or four children were helpless. Sara said, "I tried to move from one to another to bring them into the group."

Dee, the fourteen year old hydrocephalic, could only move her hands slightly. She fluttered her eyelids and smiled faintly. I touched her hand, at the same time picked up the humming sounds she made. We exchanged and interchanged our song. Her mouth moved spontaneously. I heard"ba-ba-ba"; we were communicating. I plucked the cardboard spool under her fingers,

showing her how even a delicate touch produced sound. She smiled and touched it voluntarily. In another corner, a blind child sat in her wheelchair smiling at the sounds which were gaining in momentum and feeling. I offered her a pair of bones and she clutched them, striking them on the tray of her chair. Her mouth worked and sounds came out. Her face lit up with a crooked smile and her grin widened when I placed the wrist bells in her other hand. Across the room a child in a bed lay crying. When I touched her hand and picked up the melody the others were singing, she ceased her crying and appeared to be comforted. When I returned to Dee, her hand still rested on the spool, her fingers lightly touching the rubber bands. We continued our music-making, taking turns plucking on the bands.

As the session continued, the nurses and aides became more involved with the "happening", moving about and adding their voices to the sound and movement, while others provided support for the fringe children. As the songs, sounds and movements crescendoed, the faces in the room became more and more alive. The session climaxed as though directed by a hidden force: the human need for expression. When I looked up, I noticed some nurses, aides and children from other wards had come in to see us and to share in the excitement.

When we reached the waiting and meeting room outside, we knew there had been a "happening." Valerie was glowing as she described her reactions to what had happened. "I would not have believed it possible for them to be so animated and so noisy. They are so quiet, so passive, and there is always such silence."

The following day we visited the Boys' Infirmary. Again we were met with warmth, anticipation and a certain amount of noise. Those who were able reached for the instruments. Some managed to crawl over to where we had them stacked As we started to hum and sing free sounds, the response and excitement brought us together. We sang and clapped the rhythms of the boys' names, varying the sound and beat to suit each name. An older boy who had more mobility than the others and could more easily express his rhythmical feelings, loved this game and put his whole heart and soul into playing the beat on a large yellow drum which was placed in the middle of our circle. At times, he was the leader for all of us. The boys, as a group, seemed to have more physical control and were able to express their movement feelings with less effort than the girls, but they were, we felt, not as creative. It seemed as if they had been taught more traditional songs, etc. It took us a while, but before long the children's pleasure and joy was moving all of us to do more than we had thought possible.

One little boy, confined to one small bed, was only able to move his head side to side with the rhythm. Mrs. T. approached him with a shaker in her hand and followed his eye movements with shaking sounds, and he smiled. Then they both moved their eyes together. She later told me that she now understood why we did eye exercises in our workshop sessions.

The aides who were not involved in the workshop participated, but were unable to follow the children's leadership or exaggerate their movements. They were less gentle and unable to wait for the child to instigate the movement. They were, as a whole, unaware of the quality or potential of movement or dance. They made sounds that were loud and harsh. They were unable to soften sounds or bend their bodies to permit and express the flow of movement from within. But they were warm and friendly and did want the children to participate and enjoy themselves. Some aides, after witnessing a dance, internalized the experience and wanted to tell us about the children involved. They felt that we were friends of the children, too.

Before the last dance session with the younger children came to a close, their older friends came to join us. They just walked in as usual, picked up their favorite instruments and became part of the group. We all responded to their joy and excitement with new energy.

Teddy is one of the older group. He was aware of people, relationships and rhythms. When he was playing for the adults to dance, he knew that he was accompanying them. Diana, wearing two hearing aids, was one of the most vigorous and excited drummers. Her face was an ecstatic reflection of the joy she felt around and inside her. Steven played one of the stringed instruments like a strolling troubadour. He played it with delicacy and sensitivity. He watched the dancers and responded by stroking the strings appropriately.

These children are examples of how creative movement and music transcends the labels and limitations society imposes upon the Deaf, the Retarded, the Blind and the Physically Handicapped.

As I look back over our plans and goals, I think about the results and realize that we did accomplish some of what we set out to do. But the most important and positive aspect of our ten meetings was the development of deep relationships among the children, the nurses, the aides and ourselves. Now in 1972 --three years later --I have heard the program is being continued and is flourishing.

Norma Canner