Everyday objects in the kitchen or around the home can be played with to expose your young child who is visually impaired to a variety of new sounds, textures, and sources of vibration – all musical concepts that you can use in parent-child play. It also encourages tactile exploration with everyday objects. Kitchen band play is endlessly fun and different every time! Here’s how to create your own “kitchen band,” from music therapist Amanda Bryant, MM, MT-BC, NMT Fellow.
Objectives
Use senses, including touch and sound, to explore everyday kitchen objects.
Communicate and bond with another person by making music together.
Expanded Core Curriculum Areas Supported
Sensory Efficiency: Use senses to explore, understand, and interact with everyday objects, especially functional vision, touch, hearing, and the development of the kinesthetic and vestibular systems.
Orientation and Mobility: Purposeful movement and spatial relationships – in/out, over/under, big/ little, top/bottom.
Social Skills: Bonding and communicating with caregiver during the activity by using duplicates of items which identify that you and your child are playing together on shared items.
Recreation and Leisure: Discover leisure-time preferences like making and listening to music.
Self-Determination: Choice making, decision making and problem solving. For example, what pot will I bang on first with my wooden spoon? Will it make a different sound if I use a metal spoon?
Compensatory Skills: Concept development, touch skills for learning and communication modes, including audio.
Everyday Routines Supported
Music can be incorporated into all kinds of everyday routines, from bath time to mealtime, getting dressed or going on an errand. Active music making is a form of playtime and can be a method for a young child to learn self-soothing strategies.
Suggested Next Steps to Use This Activity With Caregiver and Child
Discuss activity with caregiver to determine appropriateness and relevancy to family.
Forward the caregiver version of the activity to the caregiver.
Remind the primary caregiver one to two days before the home/virtual visit to gather the materials required.
Introduce the activity, discuss the objectives, and provide an overview of the possible steps.
Be prepared to break down activities into a smaller subset as the child and family may not have the time or tolerance to complete all activities.
After completing this activity, consider extension activities that may be appropriate and relevant to the family.
