When we arrived at our session today Leanne seemed relaxed and happy and, as she was opening her eyes widely and moving her eyebrows right up, I decided to reinforce the fact that I’d noticed this by moving my finger along her face from her brow to her jaw each time we reached her name in our greeting song. She smiled broadly as I did this and leaned her cheek into my hand, seeming to enjoy something about the sensation. As Leanne seemed to be enjoying the contact, I extended the interaction by adding some anticipation. I counted “1, 2, 3 …Leanne” making the same contact on her face when I reached her name. It seemed she was anticipating the contact because each time I said “3” her eyebrows lifted and her smile increased.
She remained alert throughout the session and when we sang “Wonder if Leanne will join our song?” to the tune of “drunken sailor” she used her voice enthusiastically in the spaces we left for her. When one of the other people in the group accidentally (we think) pressed the demo button on the keyboard she became extremely animated, dancing with her head and her hands and smiling.
Later, when Leanne responded in a similar way each time we reached the chorus of “My Bonnie lies over the ocean”, we adjusted our tempo to fit with the rocking of her head movements; slowing, speeding up and stopping whenever she did. Her smiles and movements increased each time we did this and she was, perhaps, realising she was in control.
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