Classroom Time

Story time! Action songs! Counting! Flannel board games! Fun with friends! This is just a part of classroom time at RCA. We do a variety of developmentally appropriate activities to promote early learning skills, body awareness, speech/oral motor skills, and social interaction.

A main feature of classroom time targets the development of early learning skills. Children are engaged in activities that focus on letter, number and name identification, concept activities (i.e. colors and shapes), and math activities. Each classroom time involves a movement activity, action song, or music activity. In addition, literacy skills are promoted through flannel board activities, story time, and rhyming finger plays.

Greeting friends encourages social interaction, as well as turn taking activities, and singing the "Goodbye Song." Fine motor skills are developed through art time and sensory time (i.e. shaving cream, squeeze toys, and play dough).

Classroom time is a great way for children to develop early learning skills while interacting with others in a small group setting. All children continue to gain new skills and have fun each day!

Music Therapy

During group music time at RCA, we use drums, tambourines, bells, egg shakers and other instruments to promote social interaction, vocal responses, self-awareness, and most of all, FUN! There are many features of our group (between four and ten children) music sessions.

Each child attends the music group with his/her behavior therapist. Group music time is a prime opportunity for social interaction to occur. Students and staff sing a "Hello" and "Goodbye" song, which help the children to understand when it is time for music to start and end. These songs are also a way of helping the children identify their peers. Children are given the opportunity to choose and name the next friend to sing each day. Many times names are called out spontaneously during this time of introduction.

The songs that are used during music time are all geared toward learning in some way. Many songs target items like colors, letters, numbers, animals, as well as addressing establishing eye contact, turn taking, and socialization. Many songs are also geared toward using spontaneous words or phrases.

During music therapy groups, children are given different instruments to play when appropriate. While playing these instruments, they are working on both fine and gross motor skills. All of the instruments that the children use promote different applications of both of these skills. For example, playing the hand drum requires fine motor skills for holding the drum and drumsticks, while using the arm movement it takes to strike the drum requires gross motor skills.

Music therapy groups are a great way to introduce children to a group-learning situation. We continue to work toward higher levels of both motor skills and vocal skills while having lots of fun!