Kristin Veteto strummed her acoustic guitar and sang a sweet melody while kids at the Special Learning Center waved a round parachute in sync with her directions.
While Veteto's visit probably seemed like a fun visit full of music and games to the young students, they were actually working on improving their motor and cognitive skills. Every activity has a specific goal in mind catered to the age group and need of the students.
Veteto, a board-certified music therapist and owner of Giving Song LLC, has been coming to the Special Learning Center on and off for a couple years, but because of a $2,000 grant awarded by the Missouri Arts Council, she's been at the center more regularly from April through June.
The center doesn't have its own music therapist, so she's also creating professional development the teachers can model after to implement more music therapy into their classrooms.
The Special Learning Center caters to 600 students a year, and serves 200 of them at their facility. They work with 21 districts and in families' homes to provide them resources for children with mild to severe disabilities.
She took the students through a couple activities on Monday, one of which was reading the picture book "Bears in a Band." All the students had their instruments they rattled and shook along with Veteto.
Music therapy is especially beneficial for children with disabilities because of the way it's processed in the brain. The whole brain reacts to the music differently, she said.
"With the parachute, we're working on attention, focusing and following directions to go fast and slow, start and stop," she said. "You put it in music because if I were to just say stop they'd probably keep going (with their instruments), but with the music you lead them to stop."
In the years she's worked with the students, she's seen a noticeable difference in their behavior. The students are becoming more attentive to instructions and better at self-regulating. Some of the students stood up from the square they were sitting on and were able to continue participating instead of running off.
"I love seeing them progress and just open up within the music session," she said. "We work on these goals, and I love seeing them light up and be the best they can be."