I love using Quickshifts and Gearshifters.
Vital Link’s biannual beat technology (BBT) products are so well designed for clients with ASD and sensory processing disorders. They are brief, non-irritating, and are engineered to prevent seizure activity in clients at risk. They make my job easier. They entrain the brain to an Alpha brainwave pattern. It is our calm-alert state, getting us ready to engage and less likely to become overwhelmed. I have never failed to see some change in behavior from the use of BBT with headphones. The right album is important, and that is why being a licensed and experienced therapist is helpful.
Good technology is not the same as therapy.
It never was.
It never will be.
As an example, when the music stops, what you say can make all the difference.
Here are the 2 questions that change everything:
- “Do you feel different after listening to “X”? You want to get your client to self-assess. This is really difficult for them to do. You cannot wait to ask this question. Once they remove the headphones and go about their day, the clarity of any alteration in state will be harder for them to see. Building insight is essential in therapy. Without it, you are managing symptoms and reliant on observations alone.
- How much different? You can ask for a percentage with older kids, or use the space between your hands for the little ones. Don’t get too granular on this. Most of my clients can’t express themselves verbally with the kind of useful detail that we’d like. So I go for bold measures and responses.
Bonus Round: If they have used other albums, I ask for a comparison. This is never the most useful part, as what they were doing or what songs they like best tend to influence their answers. The color of the album’s icon on my phone could be the reason they pick one. Not always. A non-verbal client makes sure his mother knows which album he likes best. And it isn’t the color. It is how he feels. Calmer. Quieter. Better able to tolerate household noises.
Read more about Quickshifts and BBT here: Quickshifts: A Simple, Successful, and Easy to Use Treatment For Regulation, Attention, and Postural Activation and Binaural Beats and Regulation: More Than Music Therapy
