Fuel for the Fire

Our long time student and friend of the studio, Hal, sent me the link to this article earlier this week.

It’s short and sweet, and the video is well worth a watch.

This little boy with Down’s syndrome is learning to talk because his very musical sister has taken to singing songs with him to help him develop speech. She is, in every sense of the word, a music therapist in the making. At such a young age, she is already utilizing basic principles that music therapists with years of training still put to work. But there’s more than that – it’s her attitude.

The family’s doctors told them that the boy was nowhere near learning to talk. A true music therapist hears that, and without flinching, says, “Watch him.” This kind of thing is fuel for the fire that keeps music therapists going. As long as doctors keep saying things like “She will never,” or “He won’t be able to,” or “She just can’t,” you can bet that music therapists will continue to wake up every morning and get to work. We exist solely to prove statements like that to be wrong.

I have a theory that doctors only say that kind of thing to motivate music therapists. ;D