It's that time of the week again, where I bring you yet another update on the quirky happenings of my SRP!
As you may guess from the title, this past week has been centered around settling into more of a routine and really getting started on the bulk of the research I'm supposed to do. My first two weeks were more of an introductory, "can you get used to everything here" sort of period, but now, I'm slowly starting to work more and more on the primary goal of this experience: to research and present my findings. I just received a finalized schedule yesterday, which will help, so I won't have to keep running back to my on-site mentor when I'm not sure where to go. I've been doing more and more reading of articles and books, and I've begun working out consent forms that I'll be distributing to parents of patients before I begin with my case studies. All in all, it really feels like I'm moving on with my research and getting on the right track, which I find quite exciting!
But of course, not everything is serious work, and I couldn't leave a blog entry without at least one recount of sessions during the week. There's one in particular that really had an impact on me, and that I'd really love to share. It was one of the individual sessions I'd observe and take part in every Tuesday, where a girl my age-- let's call her Agent P-- would come in for her NMT appointment. Unlike many of the patients at the clinic, Agent P doesn't have autism; instead, she suffers from a rare mitochondrial disease (which I don't know the official name for yet, unfortunately), which distorts the energy production process in her body. This greatly impedes her movement and speech developments, giving her jerky and haphazard movements at times, and making it difficult for her to speak, let alone in complete sentences. Now, in the past few weeks, I've already come to realize how hard a worker Agent P is. She's always laughing and smiling, never giving up or being stubborn. She's always been like this, at least in NMT, according to her therapist, and she's an absolutely joy to be with.
In all fields of therapy, therapists will set goals for their patients to fulfill over a certain period of time, oftentimes a month or so, as well as more long-term goals. One of Agent P's primary goals was to fluidly and consistently formulate and speak sentences with five or more syllables without prompting. As such, it was common for her and her therapist to spend a great part of the session focused on communication, where Agent P would try speaking her mind, her therapist would write whatever words she said, and together, they'd try to come up with a complete sentence.
This past Tuesday, however, Agent P wasn't just speaking for the sake of her NMT and whatnot; she was flat-out holding full conversations and getting all her thoughts out there. The moment her therapist and I came out to get her from the waiting room, she was talking, telling us all sorts of things about her "tooth doctor" and her new green toothbrush and her eye doctor who'd "get her glasses." Even while doing some movement exercises, she continued talking about how the next time she'd go to the tooth doctor would be in August.
By the end of the session, she had come up with a 14-syllable sentence on her own, and only made one small mistake with the placement of the word "is." While I was surprised, I figured she must have just been talkative that day, and I just hadn't seen that side of her before today. Boy, was I wrong. As soon as we left the waiting room and returned to her office, her therapist started gushing about how proud she was of Agent P, how that had rarely, if ever, happened, and so on. And I couldn't help but share the sentiments. I've grown attached to a lot of these patients in the past few weeks, Agent P in particular, and seeing her work so hard, without any complaint, to achieve things like long sentences for, apparently, the first time, made me feel like a proud guardian or something.
All the patients here, no matter their personality, diagnosis, family life, or whatever, try so hard and achieve so much, it's baffling, but no doubt amazing.
What I've Learned
Really, I'm surprised I've managed to keep this segment up so far. I feel like my points are getting less and less serious as we go on... though, is that really something to complain about?
Anyway, without further ado, here are five things I've learned...
1. NMTSA's front door's passcode
2. Three of the music therapy interventions/practices: MACT (Musical Attention Control Training), MIT (Melodic Intonation Therapy), and APT (Auditory Perception Training)
3. If I ever decide to go into music therapy in the future, I really need to learn how to play the guitar
4. Don't let the autism fool you-- kids will be kids, and kids are sneaky.
5. If you accidentally throw a bouncy ball at your on-site mentor's head, and it's during an NMT session with a patient, they probably won't chew you out for it. (Probably)
Aarthi: This is very fascinating. As you relate your observations I become more and more drawn into your SRP. Keep up the narratives. They really bring your experience to life. This one makes me feel like I'm looking over your shoulder during the session.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Mr. Nishan! I'll make sure to continue with many narratives; the only question is, which ones to choose... ;)
DeleteHahaha what's an instance of sneakiness you've had to go through? And this is absolutely wonderful. I can't even imagine the joy that must be felt when progress is made :)
ReplyDeleteLet's just say that, even if you only mention it in passing once, kids will remember that you can't play guitar, and act accordingly when they're told to set up a band... ;)
DeleteAarthi you have an odd propensity to throw round objects at people's heads. I love the compassion both you and Julius are coming across, and I hope it can shed some light as we go further into our projects. Best of luck as you begin the work part of the SRP :D.
ReplyDeleteOh hush you ;D Thank you so much for your kindness Ali, it really means a lot!
DeleteWhat I love about the SRP's are the personal reflections of being in a work place as opposed to the classroom. Although you guys are doing projects that result in research and analysis of data, the real learning is what won't be as apparent in your SRP product like learning front door codes and throwing bouncy balls at mentors' heads. :)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work and learning!
Thank you so much Dr. Duffy! It's definitely been a great experience so far, with a great balance between serious and light-hearted, I'm excited to see what the rest of my internship time brings me!. :)
DeleteAarthi I'm so glad you shared this story with us. Agent P sounds like such a fun person to be around with! I'm glad you're making progress while forming new friendships. Good luck as you start to work on your research!
ReplyDeleteShe definitely is; I'm always smiling during her sessions without fail :) Thanks so much Julius!
DeleteI can tell you're having such an awesome experience! Will you be sitting in on any MACT, MIT, or APT sessions?
ReplyDeleteMACT, MIT, and APT aren't so much sessions, as they are practices used in sessions. So, certain sessions may only be focused on one intervention, based on the patient's needs, and other ones may include a mix. :)
DeleteHi, this is Noah from Lutheran High School in Parker, Colorado. I was wondering if you would be doing research to find out whether different types of music make you behave differently. Obviously there is something already there, because you are doing a research project on it, but I was extremely curious as to whether music makes you feel differently versus acting differently.
ReplyDeleteHi Noah! Unfortunately, I won't have time during my internship period to study, in detail, the effects of different types of music's impacts in behavior. However, from what I have observed so far during my time at the clinic, there most certainly is an effect, and it's primarily found in the link between rhythm/timbre and arousal, rather than with the tune or melody of the song. Of course, as would be expected, louder and faster music will tend to raise arousal as slow and soft music decreases it, but there's another side to that too. Oftentimes, if a therapist doesn't a patient's arousal with the music beforehand, it can cause great fluctuations. So, for example, if an autistic patient is in an extremely excited state, and the therapist plays the drum at a very low pace, that can actually cause the patient's arousal to increase even more, and possibly even peak over. This is because the use of rhythm is to give the patient an expected variable in their sensory input, and having something slower (or faster, however it may be) can make them feel less in control of their bodies and inputs. This also ties into your mention of acting and feeling differently, as this lack of control often isn't in direct correlation to their conscious mind, but rather to their subconscious. The body will be moving and acting out, despite the commands and desires of the conscious mind, which can cause great frustration and emotional downturn.
DeleteHopefully that helped, and if not, feel free to ask more!