Using music to enhance focus

Increasing the Attention of a Student with ADHD and Dyslexia

first published as part of my M.Ed thesis Using Art to Increase Attention in Pupils with ADHD, 2003, Lesley University.

Background, Eitan, 17

Eitan (pseudonym) is a high school student, diagnosed as dyslexic and ADD during his pre-kindergarten years. His parents have always supported his varied interests in juggling, theater and art. He’s been an active swimmer and runner, and with all these outlets for his energy, his parents never considered any need to turn to medication for additional intervention.

In public and junior high school, Eitan was placed in Special Education classes for English, but managed in every other subject to study in the framework of a regular class.

His love of music took him in new directions when he began to seriously study guitar in the 9^th grade. Given a flute by a friend, in the 11^th grade, Eitan started to carry it around with him and play between classes.  He told me that it had become a form of meditation, helping him to release tension and ease away from problems that weighed on him.

Working with Eitan

My work with him started at the beginning of the 11^th grade, when he was 16, and came to me for private lessons in English to raise his level of achievement from a 3-point Matriculation level (the lowest level) to a 5-point level of achievement (the highest).
I found his vocabulary to be basically weak for his level, but he showed an uncanny ability to pick up new words to fit his broad conceptual thinking. The boy was not only clever but also a very creative thinker, re-constructing his sentences and opinions at every opportunity. He was constantly evolving in his point of view and in his manner of self-expression.

We made great progress and bv the end of the 11^th grade, I was confident that with another year of five weekly English lessons, Eitan would do very well on a 5-point Matriculation exam.

However, in the 12^th grade, we could only schedule three weekly lessons, and also at the worst possible time of day for Eitan, after his regular school hours. Not only would we be meeting infrequently, but our time together would find him at his most tired, after pushing his mind to concentrate all day in school.

Need for Drastic Measures

It was clear from the first lesson that emergency techniques were needed to revive him and his flagging concentration.

Therefore, I set about to research theories concerning maximizing concentration. Since Eitan loved music, I began my quest in the domain of sound, rhythm and music. I came across the following from Randall McClellan in his book The Healing Forces of Music.

The belief that music embodies the power to create and sustain harmony originated among the early peoples of cultures as diverse as Mesopotamia, India, Greece, North America and Rome. Shamans, priests, prophets and philosophers across these diverse cultures recognized the therapeutic value of music and shared the concept of music as a healing force that can be used to cure disease, eliminate mental anguish, and function as a bridge through which individuals can attain a satisfying inter-connectedness.
 (McClellan, 1991)

Such a venerable collection of supporters for the value of music confirmed my own experience (playing clarinet, piano and using drumming in order to open my ear to higher sensitivity to pitch and its variations to enhance concentration).

New research in the field of learning is showing what ancient cultures have known all along – that music is much more than recreational filler.  Music brings brain power! Music strengthens attention spans, aids memory, and provides creative outlets.  Music is good for us – it’s good for our brains, our bodies, and our spirits.
(Page, 1993)

As I researched further, I discovered the same concept expressed quite clearly in Nick Page’s book: Music as a Way of Knowing.

Using Music to Enhance Long Term Memory

Nick Page works with special students as a music therapist and, in his book, outlined one specific exercise that seemed applicable to Eitan’s needs. This exercise specifies the following method:

1. Select a piece of instrumental music and to its accompaniment, the students reads a list of vocabulary words that he needs to memorize.
2. When he’s ready, he records himself together with the music.
3. The student then listens to the tape a few times, reading along with himself.
4. The student then listens only to the music tape and discovers that the series of words have become embedded in his mind together with the melody or beat of the music.
5. When the time is right, just a few bars of the piece will summon the vocabulary words for easy retrieval.

I was eager to try the exercise and, coincidentally, at our next meeting, Eitan came with his guitar. I asked him to accompany each word in our vocabulary list of 20 new words with a guitar chord.

My rationale was that focus on the sound would awaken his attention and help him to listen to the new word. (rather than passively hear music that had been pre-selected). I knew my student and that splitting his attention was a way to challenge him to make extra effort. It was a risk, considering he was quite tired, but worth a try.

This is what happened. Eitan chose a chord to go along with each word: accomplice, apathy, empower, and so on. He named the chord; I repeated it and then he stated the new word. Each time he’d re-play the chord with the word. This supreme effort of inventing the chord and remembering these totally new words lasted for five words.

Five words! I was thrilled. He remembered them all and co-operated even though he’d been exhausted! As Carol Goldfus, Dyslexic Counselor, reminds us: every successful effort of memory is something to celebrate.

What happened next was even more satisfying. He put aside his guitar and with an ease that I’d seldom seen in him previously at that hour of the day, he proceeded to work on the remainder of the list of 20 words and continued on for a total of thirty new words.

We took a short break, easing into lighter conversational work, which he needed for the upcoming English Oral Matriculation Exam. Then we went back to the list of vocabulary words. He had retained most of them, and with only a minor prompt from me was able to recall them all. The following week, I tested him on a few of the harder words and he remembered most of them.

My Observations
Music as an activating tool in the case of Eitan, who is musically attuned, is a successful method of assisting vocabulary acquisition. The exercise that we used, based on Nick Page’s model, was overly complex for most students, yet showed me the great potential of using music as a tool for reviving overall energy. The use of Eitan’s natural affinity for music helped him overcome his academic lethargy, and brought him to a level of keen focus.

Hunger for Listening

Once again, I offer a quotation from Nick Page: “The musical child develops a hunger for listening and learning equal to a hunger for nutrition.” (Page, 2002).

I decided to apply other forms of sound and rhythm to Eitan’s learning sessions. One such device involves voice chanting of a Zhi Neng formula used for brain balancing, Ling Yow.  (click for more information)

Ling yow chee chee chee

Jo ling bah

Ling yow chee chee chee

Jo ar ar su su

Eitan and I, together, chanted the ‘Ling yow’ on several occasions and felt a certain invigorating curiosity, delving into the unknown and waiting for ‘something’ to happen. How does it feel to balance one’s brain? The expectation alone acts as a catalyst for focus.

What we experienced was a sense of refreshment, and a desire to meet the challenge of remembering these Chinese numbers without referring to the printed words. Were our brains affected? My observation was that as an activity for transition and as a pick-me-up to refresh focus, the use of “ling yow’ is highly recommended! Eitan has continued to ask for “Ling yow’ as a warm-up before we begin the intensive language study required before his Matriculation this approaching summer.

Summary

Eitan, someone who has naturally gravitated to music as a method to calm himself, meditatively, is an example of a student with ADHD who has discovered that by integrating music into his school day, and beyond. He has been able to elevate his level of attention, through relaxing, and thereby enhance his long-term memory.

May Workshop – 3rd Meeting “Language of Attentiveness”

May 27^th Meeting

 

by aritist geralt, pixabay

This image, by geralt on pixabay, is descriptive of this 3^rd meeting of “Safat haKeshev” with my 8^th grade group.

As usual, I was both nervous and excited about meeting the kids. Who would come? How would they respond to the techniques of mindfulness? Would they learn something? Anything?

I truly didn’t know what to expect since there’d been signs that the novelty factor was no longer enough to hook the interest of one of the boys. And not everyone was enamoured of the idea of practicing mindfulness

Breathing to Chinese flute

I worked my pre-meeting rituals – arranging the space, adjusting the temperature, setting out my props. Shoes off, I turned on my favourite Chinese bamboo flute music as a delicate mind enhancer as I practiced a  breathing meditation.

Relaxation is the key to be able to be alert to what’s going on within and around me.

.

The children entered, took their spaces. Two boys wanted to hug cushions. I took note, acknowledged how good it feels to hug something, but asked them to leave them on the floor so others could sit on them.

Note to self: Mindful Cushion Hugging – could easily be incorporated into the session. 

The kids had no comments or questions, so I addressed a question from the previous week. What was that singing bowl of mine? Where can you get one?

We had a singing bowl experiment – I asked them to listen to the kinds of sounds and then I invited a few to open the palm of their hand, hold the bowl and feel the vibrations when the bowl was struck.

“What is ‘vibrations’?” asked one girl.  I explained and let her feel them.

Ah. the simple joy of noticing vibrations. Isn’t life wonderful? (I think to myself)

Next, we carried on to noticing our breathing.

It’s true, I said, we all breathe. We don’t need to learn how, but sometimes it’s easier to notice it if we make a little change.

Straws!

I pulled out the straws (thank you Rina Tal for the idea). We examined them and then used them to breathe – inhaling through our nose, exhaling through the straw.

We then tried to sync the timing – timing the inhalation and then noticing the exhalation.  No dizziness? I asked. No, they responded.

Straws aside – there were no comments.

Unsually quiet, I thought. Something’s up…

We headed ‘mindfully’ over to the floorspace to do t’ai chi warm-up.

For the first time in the session, there was chat going on. Boys were looking at girls – aha! Grade 8-ness had shown up, making it very difficult to simply notice one’s own body while doing the warm-ups. (Note to self: make a comment about that next week – what happens when others chat, or look at me. Can I gather my concentration and continue?)

I tried to pull them in. I reminded them out work is to notice our ‘own’ bodies.

I reminded them that there was no need to speak.

At the end of the familiar warm-up, I added the ‘Tree’. I had their attention. Something new, something challenging.

Vector – Woman practicing yoga, tree pose

And then cool down.

My plan was to stretch the Chi Cong movements – to direct their attention to how they moved via the mention of yin/yang.

This worked for a few of the movements, but the former chatty situation re-surfaced.

I suggested that they turn their backs to the center – facing the wall and that I’d walk around to show them each pose. This idea was a relief to the girls (not having to be watched), but it was hard for them to simply wait till I came around the circle to illustrate the pose.

(Note to self: teach self-regulation – have them mindfully wait till I come round)

or I could also just go an easier way: Have them line up along the length of the room and face me.

We cooled down. They were tired and asked for the mats – and so with 7 minutes left in our session, we shifted to attention while lying down.

Noticing their body on the mat, part by part, and then their breathing. Listening to the music to help them focus. Was the feeling pleasant? (they seemed very pleased).

I asked them to consider another pleasant situation they’d felt that day. When it was, where. Were there people around, were there smells, or colours. To let themselves re-enter that experience.

To notice their breathing.

Quietly, I told them I’d soon be giving them the signal to re-surface. One girl objected – she wanted to stay.

Others were fine.

I wondered if there was a party going to happen that night. After all, one curly haired child had straightened her hair (a sign of an upcoming social gathering)

The signal was given. For the first time, I told them that the next week we’d be examining ways to de-stress. Only those who wanted to come were invited.  (“Could T come?” asked Y. No, I said. I’m speaking only of those who originally signed up).

And they left.

………………….

In doing my reflection after the lesson, I thought of the many elements that had appeared during the session. The restlessness of one boy. The desire to chat.

There had been a little magic in that they spent most of their time following the instructions and showing interest. But that little bit of unwanted break from concentration reminded me that there is no magic in Mindfulness practice. It takes work!

The teacher must learn along with the student.

Till next time.

May – Workshop month

May 21: May workshop Meeting 2

Theme: Self-check & tuning in to others

How to separate school regular ‘stuff’ from a small slice of time devoted to ‘doing nothing’ except monitoring breath, pulse, body sensations and maybe thought?  How to create a switch to turn off ‘automatic’ me and turn on a more mindful me?

We are working on that. We use Safat haKeshev (The Language of Attentiveness) and it’s my privilege to conduct small sessions with 12 students in the 8^th grade in my school, Nofei Habsor in the Western Negev.

This past Thursday, at one p.m., we began in a circle, sitting on comfortable puffy cushions. This week we looked at our immediate mood as we began the session, linking it via a thin blue ribbon which outlined our circle of kids. I took the ribbon, said I felt tense and passed it to Y, who felt good, repeated that I’d felt tense and passed the ribbon to M. M felt okay and she repeated Y’s ‘good’ and my ‘tense’, and on we proceeded to B who felt bored but didn’t know what anyone else had said. We repeated what we’d said, and he still didn’t get it. A third time – and he got it all very quickly. (Interesting how attention gets turned on) and round we went.

I asked if there’d been one feeling, an average feeling. The kids noticed that there hadn’t been. Lots of individual feelings.  We placed our bit of the ribbon on the floor, touched it with our hands and then sat back to look.  That was the thread that joined us in the room.

Then we thought about our physical bodies. How about our pulses? How many did we think we had per minute? We counted out 20 seconds. How many had we counted? Pupils tossed out their numbers and again we noticed that we all had a different count.

We headed for mats, stretched out on our backs and scanned our bodies. Enjoying just lying down. We checked our bodies. Did we feel the mat supporting us?  Was it comfortable? Our heels, our calves, our backs, our heads. We noticed the parts that touched the mat. We stretched out and then relaxed.

Breathing through our bellies, we lay hands on our bellies, trying to see if our breath could move our hands. Then we rubbed hands and placed them on our hearts. Could out breath move our hands now? Back to our bellies and up and down, then arms at our sides. Delicious rest. No need to do anything.

We shifted to sitting attention and stretched out – from side to side, to the ceiling, to the walls, to the floor. And we did deep breathing through the candle breath technique – in through the nose circling arms up to meet over our heads, and out through our mouth, folded hands lowering until opposite our bellies. And again. I circled to watch them.

How was our pulse? We checked again. We went round the circle. Again, everyone had a different count from before and no one in the circle matched numbers.

We stood (slowly along with 4 claps)

Pushing aside the mats, we stood firmly on the floor, feet shoulder width apart and we again did the T’ai Chi warm-up gently rotating our joints and practicing balance.

We began to learn the 8 Pieces of Brocade – a wonderful Chi Cong cutta. This particular set of movements is a marvelous brain and body balancer – using the body and breath to work the yin and yang of movement. I told them that these movements act as an energy generator – to fill up their batteries.

from Chi Cong’s 8 Pieces of Brocade

We began by breathing, and doing the Chi Cong postures starting at ‘neutral’ and extending the arms, one up slightly bent, one down slightly bent and coming back to neutral. We repeated 3 or 4 times and then went on to a few other postures.

Note: This work is invaluable and interests the kids. I believe that I will slow down the process. We need to do less but with more attention. It isn’t easy to grasp a new movement when we transition  quickly from pose to pose.

I’ve also observed how students of various learning styles grasp various forms of meditation. The study is fascinating. Could work in this field remediate those with learning disabilities? I’m sure that it can.

We shook out our bodies. and as we ended the session in a seated position, we spoke about what we had learned that day. Some commented that I was relaxed! (That was unexpected, so I asked again what they had learned about themselves). Most commented on their pulses, their breathing.

I invited them to share observations with me during the week, in person or privately on What’s App.

And we silently left the room.

Tibetan Singing Bowl

May 14!

Class Relax brings “The Language of Attentiveness” to Nofei Habsor High School.

10 eighth grade students opened the door to the ‘Relaxation Room’ in the Grade 8 Building, took off their shoes and found a spot in our gathering circle.

I welcomed them along with music (the favourite Chinese Bamboo flute). I invite you to listen to it as you read this blog entry.

It is most important that the first impression of our workshop shows that the coming space and time will be separate from their usual school experience. I outlined our basic guidelines: that there would be no signs of violence (verbal or physical), that each one would maintain respect for themselves and others  with no intrusion of limbs, opinions, or stares.

They each drew an outline of their hand and offered one word about what they expected to get from our sessions. In our circle I asked them what they thought we’d learn in the “Language of Attentiveness”.  Their responses included focus, concentration, being more calm.

What do we expect?
May 14, 2015

Then one boy said: “Let’s do it!” and we got into things. We took mats, arranged them in a circle and s0 we began.

The session consisted of a few activities, from lying down and noticing our bodies on the mat, to noticing our breath in the rising and falling of our bellies.

We counted breaths using the five fingers of each hand to aid our focus.

We stretched our bodies, made our bodies small – we explored our boundaries on the mat.

Then we transitioned to a sitting position – dividing our movements with the help of five sounds of the tibetan singing bowl.

I asked for comments and received: “That felt good!”

Again we did some stretches and practiced listening to surrounding sounds. (We rubbed our hands, covered our eyes, looked into the darkness and paid attention to the sounds in the room, outside of the room and then to the sounds of our own bodies)

Standing up, noticing how we go from sitting to standing, to the rhythm of a hand claps, we then explored balance – sideways, or front to back. Once steady, we began a warm-up, rotating each of our joints. We practiced balancing our weight (t’ai chi warm-ups are the best – thank you, Doron Lavie for years of doing this fine warm-up).

We cooled down and transitioned once more to sitting and noticing our breathing. Was it different now after exercise?

Responses: yes!

We returned to lying down on the mat – in whichever position was most comfortable. Everyone chose to lie down on their stomachs. How they loved it!

I invited them to notice if their bodies felt different: their backs perhaps (warmer or cooler – heavier or lighter), their arms, their hands. Was there a change in their legs or their entire bodies, perhaps?

Responses: I feel lighter.  I feel comfortable.

I then led them through a short guided imagery. I invited them to remember coming to school that morning. They came through the gate. Who was the first person they saw. Were they happy to see them or not so happy? What did they say? What did someone say to them.

Did they remember they’d forgotten something. Did they forget that they remembered?

And in this room, had they done something they liked? Or something they never wanted to do again? Was there something they’d like to do more? Had they noticed anything new about their bodies?

And then at rest, simply listening to the music,  I told them that soon, I’d be going around the room, gently touching each one on the back and that was their sign to get up slowly. If they chose, they could add a few words to our Hand collage. They were to put on their shoes, in silence, and one by one leave the room

And they did. One girl wrote that the session was ‘Amazing’. And another girl helped me gather up the mats and put them away.

Reflection: As the music kept playing, I gathered the materials and considered my lesson plan compared to my actual lesson. It was quite accurate, really. I’d overplanned. 45 minutes is not very long when each sentence is new and each student must be examined as carefully as possible.  Who were these students? Had they felt noticed, cared for? Had they received something from the session?

I liked the use of humour. I liked the kids’ participation and acceptance of what we were doing.

I’m interested to see how they explore themselves next week as we look at our relationship with others. What happens when personal space meets the space of another.

May 6

A name filled with humour and smiles.

 This month we’re beginning a ‘Safat HaKeshev’ (Language of Attentiveness) workshop at Nofei Habsor for a small group of 8th graders. The group includes pupils who have asked to be included in the 5 session workshop.

Pre-Workshop Preparation

I went to visit Tel Hai School in South Tel Aviv to observe and participate in a session given by Maya Shalev who has been instructing pupils for many years.

The lesson began with a personal greeting from Maya as, one by one, each pupil removed their shoes, entered the room and found their personal mat on the floor. As they waited, they lied down, sensing their bodies on the mat.

The pupils were taken through body attentiveness exercises, breathing exercises and transitions from lying down to sitting to standing, marked by the gong of a Tibetan Singing Bowl. Guided imagery allowed the imagination to get a work-out. And all was done with marking, noting the states of the body and mind. When sharing experiences at the end of the session, it was clear that pupils had thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and Maya guided them a little deeper to express what exactly had felt ‘good’ or unpleasant. The language of attention is a system of non-judgement but of registering what happens inside of us.

In this way, we can learn how to self-regulate, how to breathe before automatically reacting, before instantly bursting out, and how to notice when we are imagining reasons for stress when they aren’t really there!

Tibetan Singing Bowl

My own Class will meet on Thursdays, mid-day. This is a time when pupils are tired, are thinking about lunch and the end of the day.

We will learn about ourselves as we are, our expectations of what we hope to learn, and our automatic responses to daily life. What makes us feel pleasant, what triggers anxiety. All these matters will come up for observation.

We will look a bit at our brain, at our perception of our selves. We will draw a little, dance a little, breathe a lot.

Now, I’m preparing the Introductory lesson – a taste of what’s to come and an experience to let each pupil consider the rich inner world that often goes undetected.

Have a good week!