Introducing...Sensory Street Kids!

I'd like to tell you about an email I received last March from a mother of two sons (one of whom was diagnosed with speech and cognitive delays at 16 months of age) in New York who also happened to be the founder of Sensory Street Kids.  In her email, Lea Keating wrote:

"Three years ago, after discovering the amazing benefits of music therapy, I started to put together a company called Sensory Street Kids. To make a very long journey short, I collaborated with an speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist, special education teacher, music therapist and songwriter, put together a curriculum and started to offer mommy-and-me type group music and movement classes for children with special needs."

Needless to say, I was intrigued from the get-go. I had some experience with both Kindermusik and Music Together curricula, but Sensory Street Kids was much more aligned with my approach to group music therapy classes.

Lea went on to explain that although Sensory Street Kids was initially a local program, it had grown so rapidly that she felt it was time to take the next step. She shared her plans to launch a national licensing and certification program to offer professionals across the country the opportunity to teach Sensory Street Kids classes in their areas. That way, families everywhere would have access to this unique program that had been so beneficial to children with special needs in her community.

In the end, Lea asked if I would be interested in joining the Sensory Street Kids team, and I happily said yes!  We've spent the last few months further developing the curriculum (which includes several adapted Listen & Learn songs) and I've even begun implementing it in several of the music groups I lead.  I'll be blogging about my experiences as a Sensory Street Kids instructor on their blog as well as keeping you updated right here.

The Sensory Street Kids website is currently undergoing a major overhaul, so in the meantime, you can learn more by following them on Twitter and Facebook and checking out this recent article.