Summertime Songwriting Activity
Targeting goals in songwriting
Written by Tamara Leszner-Rovet
Summer lessons/sessions are now officially underway! Though I am finding there is definitely a more “relaxed” feel to all lessons/sessions, there is no question that all students/clients are working hard and are motivated to keep working post-recitals.
Summer is a time where I like to do a lot of summer-themed activities to help target therapeutic goals.
One of my favorites that I will share with you today is a “piggy back” songwriting activity about what the particular client will be doing or is excited to do over summer break.
NOTE: This is also a great “welcome back” activity in September for our clients who take the summer off to find out what they did on their summer break – just replace “will” with “did!”
What Will You Do on Summer Break?
Lyrics
We sing to the tune of “She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain”
What will you do on summer break?
What will you do on summer break?
What will you do? What will you do?
Oh, what will you do on summer break?
The client will then have an opportunity to tell the therapist what they will do, and then that can be sung to the same tune as above (examples — go to camp, go on vacation, go to the Hockey Hall of Fame).
This activity is very adaptable and versatile. For our clients who are verbal, we use a visual “fill in the blank” sheet, and for those who are non-verbal, we provide picture choices (see the examples below). This also works extremely well in a dyad with siblings or in a group, or as a turn taking activity between the client and the therapist.
Lyric Sheet & Visuals
Our summertime fill-in-the-blank sheet
Our summertime picture choices
Therapeutic Goals
Though the particular therapeutic goals may vary from client to client based on their strengths and needs, here are some that this activity aims to target:
- Turn taking
- Joint attention
- Speech (articulation, pronunciation, etc.)
- Conversational skills and expanding (I.e., what camp do you go to?)
- Listening and following directions
- Answering/asking questions
- Learning about summer-themed activities
- Decision making/autonomy of choice
- Sentence structure/syntax/grammar
- Promoting creativity and creative ideas
- Understanding of past, present, and future
Once the song is finished, I like to type up the final product and give it to the client as a keepsake of the excitement to come.
Wishing everyone a fun-filled summer full of exciting memories to make!
