Bangalore,
January 6, 2014
An alternate rhythm
The Hindu
Different drum: Snehadhara uses visual arts to help children express themselves. Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar
Arts-based therapy centres that use music and dance to help the differently abled are making their presence in Bangalore.
Music, art and dance is all it takes to connect mind, body and soul.
When these expressive arts help the differently-abled overcome their
challenges and express their voices, Art-Based Therapy (ABT) becomes an
important and powerful tool
A home for everyone
Snehadhara, an ABT centre in JP Nagar uses multi-arts to help its
students with motor, language and speech, cognitive, sensory and social
skills. Research to refine and improve methodologies using ABT is also
carried out at the centre.
The foundation, started in December 2012, uses voice, language, songs,
dance, drama, puppetry, story-telling, drumming, music and visual arts
to help children and adolescents with skills and self- expression. It
works with differently-abled children and adults, their caregivers and
parents.
“The differently-abled seem to experience the world in their own
ways as their perceptual world varies from ours,” says Gitanjali
Sarangan, the director of Snehadhara Foundation. “We can make learning a
fun filled creative journey for them with the help of music, songs,
drama, plays in different languages and visual arts.” The organization
has 10 facilitators and seven caregivers who engage the students in
different activities on a daily basis. A unique feature is the Oota
Thota, an activity which encourages students to prepare food from
scratch as a form of therapy.
“When students go out with us and buy the necessary ingredients, it
helps to build their sense of weights and measures. The smell, the taste
and cooking helps develop their sensory perceptions,” Gitanjali adds.
Pallavi Chander, a therapist at Snehadhara feels art lies in the process
and not the product. She and other facilitators use dramatics,
storytelling and role-play to help children.
“For instance, while staging a drama every aspect from script, costumes,
stage props to backstage activities and performing can be deconstructed
to achieve a certain physical or emotional goal and help one overcome a
certain challenge.”
On a new note
Vocal, instrumental and rhythmic movements in music and musical
instruments can be applied to achieve developmental goals in autism.
With this conviction, Ganesh Anantharaman heads the Sampoorna Music
Therapy Center for Children with Autism in Horamavu. With 11 students
and four therapists, the organisation completes its first year in
January. Their focus is developing skills in social, emotional, motor
and cognitive areas for children in the spectrum through a structured,
wide-ranging and long-term music intervention program.
“Music and movement therapy evokes the innate desire and motivation for
self-expression and self-regulation in children on the spectrum. This
expression seems to be a reward in itself, an affirmation of the
personhood of each child,” writes Anantharaman in an article on a web
magazine, The Alternative. Individual and group sessions are
conducted for children at the centre with a different module depending
on each child’s need. Group sessions involve instrumental improvisations
and singing. “A child who in February, would only play instruments and
listen to the instructor, can now hum and sing. Another child who had
speech difficulties can now sing full lines of a song. The progress
varies in each child,” says Shruthi V Kumar, a therapist at Sampoorna.
Using rhythm and movement
Studio for Movement Arts and Therapies at Richmond Town has initiated
art and movement therapy programmes for children with learning
disabilities in Bangalore since 2010. Movement is used as a medium to
gain access to the sub conscious and thoughts for a positive change. The
centre also provides an intensive one-year certificate training course
for creative arts therapy and organises workshops for therapists.
“Every child is different and before designing any activity, we first
assess the child. The activity is goal oriented and depends where the
child is on the spectrum. These activities help develop his gross and
fine motor skills,” says Brinda Jacob Janvrin, founder of the centre.
“Some autistic children respond well to music, while others might not.
Sometimes, it takes months to help the child maintain eye-contact. It is
a slow and effective process which may take about a year to show
results,” she adds. Just like any form of therapy, ABT too requires time
and patience. With care and long-term programs like these, children and
adults with various difficulties can be empowered to use the arts to
express their world.
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