Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson, and this is Enhance Life with Music, a holistic look at the power of music in our everyday lives. My guest today is Natalie Hawkins, a board certified music therapist who specializes in special education and works as both a consultant and provider. Natalie has partnered with the innovative motion capture software company Point Motion to create Notes by Natalie, a program specially designed for special education. The program incorporates music to address IEP (Individualized Education Program) objectives, including academic, social- emotional, and physical skills. Natalie is also a piano teacher (yay)! Welcome to Enhance Life with Music, Natalie!
Natalie Hawkins: [00:00:45] Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:50] Natalie, I’m a huge fan of Point Motion. They’ve been a guest on this show. I’ll include a link for listeners in the show notes. And I love how they use technology and music for social good in the medical space. Before we talk about your program with Point Motion and Music’s application in special ed settings, tell us a little bit about how you chose to go into music therapy and also what led you to specialize in the special education field?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:01:15] Yes, of course. So I have always been a musician, even as a child, and I’ve always grown up having music in my life. I knew I wanted to do something with music. I wasn’t sure what that would be else anyway. I wanted to do something with psychology and with people, and I wasn’t sure what that would be either. And over the years, my mom would always mention music therapy. And I was a stubborn teenager and I would be like, OK, Mom, whatever. And I, you know, and I finally one day is my senior year of high school and I just Google music therapy. And I remember I watched hours of YouTube videos of music therapy sessions, and I had this moment of clarity like me, this is this is genuinely what I want to do with my life. This is my life’s purpose. And I think when you talk to a lot of music therapists, it’s kind of that their stories are always similar. They like you. I’ve always heard of music therapy. And I finally looked it up and realized this is what I’m supposed to do. And then as far as special education, I start I had no experience with special education. And I was a practicum student. I went to University of Missouri, Kansas City, and I was a practicum student and an autism classroom. And I was very nervous at first, right, as a student. And then I started forming this bond with one of the students with autism. And it was through music. And we had this relationship. And really that was the first experience that I had in a special ed setting. And I really have never looked back since. I love it. And it’s really powerful to see how music can just kind of like streamline effectiveness for students and special education. And then I started at my current school district and why I think I’ll stay in special education for a while. I really think it’s where I belong.
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:05] Yeah, well, what a great idea to watch YouTube videos. We’ll tell us about some of the most common diagnoses are for those of us who aren’t in that special education world, what are some of the most common diagnoses that the owes in special ed are dealing with?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:03:19] Yeah, so it’s really broad. Honestly, there’s no set common diagnosis for students like students with in special education. You know, we say you meet one student with a special need or with a disability, only met one student with a disability and they’re all so different. But in my specific school district and the diagnoses that and it’s by Natalie is created for it, specifically students with autism and so specific autism classrooms, also students with multiple disabilities. So physical and mobility challenges. And then also I work with students with Downs syndrome as well as learning disabilities. So for those students with learning disabilities, we’re working on specifically academic concepts and the processing through those and then also social emotional learning classrooms as well, working on self-regulation and coping skills and those overall social emotional skills.
Mindy Peterson: [00:04:20] And we kind of outlined the three broad categories of skills that kids are working on, physical like mobility, speech, academic, including math, and then social emotional skills like communication, decreasing aggression. Are those three kind of the main categories of goals that these kiddos are working on and that your program addresses?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:04:45] Yes, yeah. So definitely those those first academic, physical and then social emotional skills and then also cognitive functioning and psychological processing is something that’s a part of notes by Natalie as well. So we’re. Cognitive functions such as impulse control or attention to tasks, sustained attention, these cognitive functions, in my experience, have been overlooked, sometimes with IEPs, because sometimes providers are so overwhelmed focusing in on academic concepts or social emotional learning or just decreasing behaviors that the for a student to have a goal as impulse control is sometimes uncommon in my experience. But I think that those skills are incredibly important to students, academic and social, emotional skills development. And that’s another reason why I created notes by Natalie, is because it addresses those cognitive functions and it fills in the gaps of services that sometimes an IEP can’t cover. Every single challenge that a student has and notes by Natalie can fill in those gaps.
Mindy Peterson: [00:05:54] Yeah, tell us how your program works and how it uses music to address this wide range of skill sets.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:06:01] Yeah, definitely. I’ll start by kind of giving you an overview of what the program looks like and how providers can utilize it. So first, each individual user gets their own login. So in the same way that they would get a login for an email, they’re given a login. A provider or a teacher can go in and choose programs that are specific to an individual students, maybe their IEP goals or maybe those those cognitive functions like filling in the gaps of services that the student possibly has challenges with and then they create a program list for a student. So then when the student this is really functional for classroom use or for taking the program into a sensory room, it could be an additional service like, OK, go do your notes by Natalie program. And that’s how we’ve seen it utilized in classrooms as well as paraprofessional or related service provider or the teacher or the student, depending on functionality, would go into the program. They’d like to run and then run that program. It’s set up in a gamification setting so students are able to choose their background so they can choose from a park or a gym.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:07:17] There’s a basic setting. So for our students with autism, maybe, maybe the background is too much visual stimuli. So they’re able to just simplify that background for better engagement. That’s that’s actually new, which is really exciting. Yeah. Yes. And this is utilized through point motion technology and through the technology body movements are tracked. So students are engaging with the music based programs and they’re given certain poses on the screen or they’re working on academic concepts. They’re prompted to complete a certain pose for the correct answer. And then that leads to automated data collection for providers. And then that’s all stored in a cloud format. So the reason why this is effective is because it’s all music based. So it’s utilizing music to further instill concepts, to incorporate movement, increase engagement for students. It also can induce relaxation. The list of benefits of music is endless, right? Yeah. And it really it cognitively engages the student. And when music is involved, it becomes a whole body experience for a student and that leads to more effective therapeutic results. And then overall, students are having fun. They’re engaged in a different modality.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:35] Mm hmm. Well, there is so much in that that you just did such a great job of concisely describing it, because some of the things that you just mentioned, I was like, oh, man, there’s so much in there. So, OK, let’s take a theoretical situation. Let’s say a student is working on math skills, for example. What kind of walk us through. What would that look like?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:08:57] Yeah, definitely. I love the process because there are very specific math skill programs already embedded and it’s financially. So we have an actual real life example. So working on my skills. So student, there’s different levels as well. So something that is really great about the program is that students can go through and they complete a program and they reach mastery and then they’re rewarded and they’re rewarded by through this auditory feedback, through this gamification set up. It’s it’s fun. It’s engaging for them and then they go to the next level. And so it’s really encouraging for students because it’s literally like a video game, like you passed level one math. Go to level two math. So first, that’s really exciting for students. But for a specific student working on, say, working on specific audition skills, they would go in and they would have a program assigned to them, run the program, and then there would be different math problems that would show up on the screen. You know, two plus five equals with a question mark. And then when they see the correct. Answer than they would raise their hands above their head and complete the pose, and then afterwards the teacher provider would be able to see exactly what answers they got correct or did not get correct.
Mindy Peterson: [00:10:12] And how does the music play into that experience?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:10:15] Yeah, so it’s first of all, it’s further instilling the concept for the student, like I was talking about earlier, music as cognitively engaging a student. So different parts of their brain are activated only when music is involved. It’s also inducing relaxation in the student. So it’s just creating a calmer environment for them. It’s more engaging. It’s taking the pressure off a little bit, especially, you know, I’ve seen students with learning disabilities and often it’s the learning disability is there. But there’s also this very deeply rooted anxiety around school or around just simply math. So it’s creating the safe environment for them to learn and to practice these skills where they get to be rewarded through music as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:01] Ok, so the music as a part of this process, is it just background music or are the students somehow making music by doing these different poses?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:11:10] Yeah, I love this question. So it really depends. So, for example, with the math program that has background music that’s really designed just to keep the student engaged, it’s you know, it has a little bit of rhythm to it and a little bit of like drums that in the background with melody over the top. And so it’s real simple music just to keep them engaged and focus. And then when they complete the correct when they get the correct answer, they’re given auditory feedback. So it depends on the program. But for this specific program, they’re given a vowel sound. It’s like, well, you got the answer right. Some of the music is background music like that. Other music is more teaching of concepts. So sometimes the lyrics are teaching with the combination of the lyrics and the melody. It’s teaching activities of daily living or teaching about healthy friendships or whatever it may be. So it really depends
Mindy Peterson: [00:12:07] From my my initial conversation with Kevin Clark of Point Motion. It makes perfect sense to me how the physical skills can really be addressed through music in terms of music being an integral part of it. And students are making music through these different physical motions that they make. For listeners who want to learn more about that original point motion program and how it’s used for physical therapy and other physical skills. Definitely. Take a listen to that conversation that I had with Kevin, which I linked to in the show notes. It’s really interesting how some of these skills, though, really fall into multiple categories because, for example, communication, that could be a physical mobility issue. It also is sort of a social, emotional issue. And I know that you’ve you mentioned in some of our previous conversations that one of the things that you’re looking at working with a lot with students is reducing aggression, sometimes with Down’s patients. But a lot of times that’s rooted in barriers to communication. And so communication in that sense, it’s mobility, it’s social, emotional also, you know, it’s so many things wrapped into one. And I imagine that the music can play into that in different ways, depending on which part of that communication is really being addressed.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:13:24] Yeah, absolutely. I love what you said about aggressive behaviors, and that’s often a communication challenge. And I always say that, like, if there’s a student who has a behavior and I’m always thinking they are communicating in some way, they’re trying to communicate, but they don’t have the skills. They haven’t learned or practiced the skills enough to be able to communicate in an effective manner or an appropriate manner. Right. And so that’s another reason why I love music therapy so much, is that this can encompass so many skills at once through music and this program, as well as encompassing physical mobility, as well as increasing movement for students, but also working on academic concepts at the same time. And and like you said, they they all fall into the same categories in so many ways because it’s like they’re all so connected. And music is this link that connects all of these skills to just streamline the process of a therapy.
Mindy Peterson: [00:14:24] Really love that. You’re right. There’s so much overlap. And yeah, music is sort of the common denominator that binds them all together and it makes this work. And really this is such a wide spectrum of skills that these kiddos are working on that your program addresses. What else besides music can have this effects on this wide range of skills due to anything?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:14:47] I mean, I’m really biased in music therapy. I mean, obviously know ABA therapy and physical therapy and occupational and speech language pathology. Those are all really wonderful fields that I partnered with and art. Therapy is really phenomenal as well, but I’m really biased to music, and I think what makes music therapy different is that it really is there’s an emotional piece to it that the arts sometimes get through to just humanity as a whole in a different way that other modalities sometimes can’t access. Right. And music is involved. Like I said, there’s certain parts of our brain that are accessed that are not accessed with any other modality. So, yeah, I’m very biased in music therapy, but obviously I definitely believe in inner collaboration and working with multiple modalities is always important for a student.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:42] Well, another thing about music that makes it so effective in this situation is it does cut across age groups and cultures and abilities, whether it’s physical abilities, mental abilities, emotional abilities. So that really contributes a lot, I think, to its effectiveness in this environment.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:16:00] Absolutely. Yes. I had a student once who he only spoke Spanish and he was an early childhood student and he was so incredibly engaged with music. And I was singing. I wasn’t singing in Spanish. I’m nowhere near fluent. And he was so engaged with me. And that was like a real life example for me. That doesn’t matter what language I was singing. It didn’t matter that I didn’t speak his language or he didn’t speak mine. It was that we just had music as this common love and this Common Core. And we were able to still have a relationship and still have a therapy session, even though we didn’t we couldn’t connect in other ways. Right. We could connect through music.
Mindy Peterson: [00:16:39] There’s something about music, too, that I feel like breaks down some barriers in a way that takes us more quickly to a safe place. Yes. Any thoughts on
Natalie Hawkins: [00:16:49] That? Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s that safe space that you said and it’s just this comfortable place for us to communicate. And music is so powerful for specifically students who are non-verbal as well. So we’re able to communicate through music and through instrument play and through movement in a way that we would never be able to communicate if music was not present. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It just it engages us and it’s just such a powerful way to connect human beings. It’s just so amazing. I’m always just amazed by music. Like, I don’t think I will ever not be in awe of the power of being able to connect people through music.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:32] I’m with you. Well, a couple of logistics of point motion technology and the notes, my Natalie program that I just want listeners to be aware of. One, this is completely accessible. It uses the camera and microphone in your device, whether that’s a tablet or a laptop. A lot of times school districts are providing those devices to students. Talk to us a little bit more about the logistics of making this program work, whether students are at home or at school and the equipment that’s needed or lack of equipment that’s needed.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:18:07] Right. So point motion and it’s by Natalie, our partner. We both really, really value accessibility. This is something that we’re all really passionate about. And we want to bring this to as many people as possible to make the biggest impact possible. Because of that, we have it very accessible. So like you said, there’s no additional hardware needed, like no headphones, nothing to hold. It’s all based. And the device we are seeing that parents are utilizing this at home, especially during covid. Right. So this is a way to utilize screen time in a really productive way. Right. So students are wanting to use their screens at home. So it’s a Saturday morning and they want to get on the iPad. So rather than pulling up a show or playing a game, something like that, they could be completing programs with end notes by Natalie. And it still is those gamification experience for them. It still is fun and engaging. It’s also cognitively stimulating for them and they’re increasing their skills development. So that’s really cool that parents can utilize it and it’s really user friendly. So goes back to that accessibility piece. This is very user friendly. A provider can get on and there’s a big button that says run this program. And it’s very easy to navigate online as well to the point where students can navigate it.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:19:31] And logistically within classrooms, I always get the question of how can multiple students use us at once. I get that question all the time when I speak with school districts. And I think it’s a great question because it’s showing that we have a need for group resources. And so the way that I have seen this utilize in classrooms is one student would be in front of the device and would be completing the program, say it’s a prepositions of place. Program where everybody has Shaker’s and they are working on movement through this program. One student would be in front of the device completing the program. That provider would be getting that automated data collection and report formulation on that one student and could plug it into a smart board or projector. And all the other students could stand to the side or sit to the side and complete the program as it’s on the screen. So then it becomes a group involvement activity. Yeah. So that’s how we see it. And also it’s used in sensory rooms as well for working on self regulation or practicing practicing self-regulation through calm down songs, environments like that.
Mindy Peterson: [00:20:42] That’s awesome. I mean, it can be used individually, it can be used in a group, it could be used in person. It can be used remotely. You don’t have to have that therapist there. And yet the therapist is going to get the reports and the data either way. Let’s talk a little bit about that data in reporting situation, because I understand one of the things that your partners are really excited about is how your program streamlines that data and reporting process or saying we need a better way to report our data and handle it more efficiently. And it’s Natalie is bringing this process into the 21st century. So talk to us a little bit about how the reporting of data is typically handled and how your program streamlines that process.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:21:23] Yeah, absolutely. So in my experience, what I have seen in special education is pen and paper, walls of binders stressed out, teachers stressed out related service providers. It is data collection is really difficult. I’m a clinician, right? I understand it. And I know that it’s really difficult when you’re in a session to constantly be going back and recording that data. OK, what do they do here? How many times do they look? How many times do they say hello, whatever you’re collecting data on? And this platform streamlines that completely because there’s all the data is automated. So these students are completing the programs. And then there’s the automated data collection. This leads to immediate graphs and report formulation. So when it comes to IEP season, when teachers are incredibly overwhelmed, which I have seen and I’m on IEP teams, I’ve experienced the stress of IEP season, it’s really it’s a lot for teachers and administration to it’s it’s just overall IEPs are a lot of paperwork. So this is leading to report formulation. So a teacher literally have their report formulated for them. Here’s all of the students data from the last year or from the last five months, whatever the timeline was, for them to have a standardized way. And then it’s also happened for a compliant data storage in a cloud format.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:22:47] So this is data that can be continuously accessed. So the beauty of this is I love this so much is that if there is a teacher who is transitioning a student to another teacher, they can just say, here is all of the students data collection. It’s all in one place. It’s not hard to find. It’s user friendly and they’re able to get a really comprehensive standardized look at the student and also this, the gaps in the student services. So maybe the student has three IEP goals and they’re all being addressed through notes by Natalie. But maybe they also have gaps in services. Right? Like they maybe they’re working on attention to task, but that’s not an official IEP goal. Or maybe they’re working on self advocacy, but that’s not on their IEP. That teacher is able to see every area and challenge a challenge that that student has. And it’s also wonderful for parents and guardians to have standardized data because sometimes there’s bias and sometimes there’s relational conflict between parents and teachers, or maybe there’s something like that where it’s really emotional for a parent. Right. IEP meetings are really emotional for a guardian. And to be able to have a standardized way to look at the student I think is really powerful as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:01] Oh, yeah, that sounds huge. I mean, just to take that subjectivity out of it and make things more objective and just kind of neutralize some of that emotion, that’s got to be a part of the situation. Absolutely. Well, no. Why Natalie is past the beta stage. What are some of the organizations that are already using this program?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:24:21] Yes. So we really greatly prioritize confidentiality. So I can’t name any actual organizations, but I will say that we partner with public school districts. This program has been utilized with thousands of students nationally and his platform is in over two hundred school districts globally. And we also partner with a local organization that I can talk about in Winston-Salem. They are a smaller there, a very large organization, but they’re focused in on specifically special needs and social emotional learning. And we partner with them. They are one of the organizations that. Is really passionate about data collection and being able to have this standardized way to report students progress and how they are therapeutically progressing through the program as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:25:13] Are you getting any feedback from any of these partners in terms of lowered costs by using notes by Natalie or improved IEP outcomes? What are what are you hearing in terms of results and feedback?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:25:24] Yeah, absolutely. So across the board, we’re seeing an improvement in academic and social emotional development. And I think the reason why this is happening is because this is different. This is new. Right? This is it’s not new as a company, but it’s a new concept. So we’re incorporating music and technology and movement and we’re engaging students in a different modality. And it’s allowing them to take more ownership over their learning. And I think that’s what is making it so effective. As far as lowered costs, like I mentioned earlier, this is filling in gaps of services. Know, this is never designed to take away positions or anything like that. This is really to create more positions and to create more change within the field of special education. And we’re seeing that rather than hiring two or three extra therapists were able to lower the cost and have maybe lower time for one therapist. And they’re able to really pioneer this program within a school district or within an autism center. So it’s giving more opportunity within those organizations for therapists or providers to kind of like be more engaged with what they’re doing, but have a new modality, a new way to offer services as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:40] Well, I’ve got to believe this program is really reducing the administrative burden for these music therapists and maybe administrative positions within these organizations, as well as with all that reporting and data handling. So I’ve got to believe that at the very least, it’s allowing the music therapists to really be more targeted with how they’re spending their time and really be practicing music therapy rather than spending is high a percentage of their time on paperwork.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:27:08] Absolutely.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:10] And I’m not sure if these organizations have a way that they’re tracking those costs and the changes in those costs. But I’ve got to imagine that’s huge.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:27:18] Yeah, absolutely. I think also just the boost in morale is something that we’re seeing as well. Like this is giving time back to teachers, to therapist, to paraprofessionals, to administrators. It’s giving time back for them to be able to be more present with a student when normally they would be working on IEP report formulation or they would be working on completing their data for the day, whatever administrative tasks that they would have normally have had. This is a time for them to be present with their student and be able to engage with them. And then in turn, that’s leading to better relationships overall. And then that’s leading to the ultimate goal, right, as a success of the student and the well-being of the student. And that’s leading to improvement of that as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:05] Yeah, a lot of those things are hard to quantify, but when you talk about the morale of the teaching staff in the music therapy staff, but that also the morale of these students and I love who you’re talking about, how this program really does tap into that self efficacy that we all have this desire for. It really makes these kids feel like they’re in the driver’s seat of their own life and their destiny. Absolutely. Whether it’s just choosing the background on the screen or feeling like, boy, I am playing this game, I am advancing from level to level. I know what the expectations are to get to the next level. And they don’t have to think, you know, I’m kind of at the mercy of this teacher who doesn’t like me or, you know, maybe they just start thinking the teacher doesn’t like them. And so they’re creating these biases in their mind. But it just really takes that subjectivity out of it and makes them feel like they’re more in control of their own destiny, which I think is huge.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:29:00] Yeah, absolutely. I think the social emotional learning piece is is really powerful, too, because we’ve often gotten comments about, well, know we’re working on these skills and we don’t want to use technology to reach the skills. And I think it’s important to address that. This is how our world is, right. It’s twenty, twenty one. The world is different now, especially during covid. The world completely changed. And this is how our students learn now. And they are practicing these social emotional skills in a way that’s safe, like we’ve talked about the safe space of music and also the safe space of technology. This is a safe way for students to learn and feel comfortable because this is how they learn. And then they’re able to take those skills and take ownership of those skills and take them into the real world. So they’re learning in a more effective, engaging way and then they’re able to practice those skills in real life in a more effective, engaging way as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:29:59] One thing I just want to make sure our listeners are aware of, too, is noticeably, Natalie program provides a scaffolding, but it’s very much can be tailored to the individual student’s individual situation, the individual environment.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:30:13] Yeah, I’m so happy you mentioned that. I think that’s another piece of what makes this program different, is that this is providing the scaffold, like you said, for teachers, for providers. It’s so incredibly finite, how versatile it can get and how specific it can be for students. So a great example is I’m working with a summer program and they have specific skills that they work on every single week. And so I am creating programs that are specific to the skill that they want to utilize that week. So week one was working on attention to task and it was they have different themes, like a Star Wars theme or whatever the theme would be. Right. And then I could go in and create specific programs for those interventions for the summer program. So within a school district, we have the broad goals that we work on. That’s by Natalie has programs embedded into it, working in the different domains, academic, social, emotional, physical, cognitive. And I can go in and create specific goals for a student. So. So you have a student who is learning how to spell their name as specific as that. We can go in and I can create a program for that student to work on that specific skill. Or it can be more broad music based resources like working on overall just movements like movement in the classroom or transitioning in the classroom. And there’s actually resources that are a part of notes by Natalie that are working on those broader skills for teachers. And then I’m also in the process of creating a parent resource library where they can go in and work on transitions in the home, work on activities of daily living through music, practicing self-regulation at home. So there’s really it’s it can be so broad, but also so incredibly specific.
Mindy Peterson: [00:32:07] Yeah. And at the same time, very user friendly and easy to use right out of the box for people who want to write. Love it. Well, one thing I just want to mention, too, that I thought was really interesting is one of your partners, at least one, is also using notes by Natalie for neurotypical students as well to develop social, emotional learning skills with them. Is that becoming more common?
Natalie Hawkins: [00:32:30] Yeah, I think overall pre and I say post covid, but covid still happening. Right? So during covid this new era of life for our students, I think social emotional learning is no longer this just umbrella term. And I would I would love for us to continue in this direction and special education, but general education as well, really focusing in on specific skills. And I think that we have seen and I have heard this from so many school districts across the board, there’s been a regression in skills development within social emotional learning for obvious reasons. I mean, our students are going through a global pandemic. They lost routine. They lost communication skills like there. So they lost seeing their peers there, peer interactions. That’s so important to practice those skills. But I think across the board, I’m seeing in special education that there is a greater need for social emotional learning and then with neurotypical students as well, like these are the most important skills to learn. Right. Like, obviously we have academic, physical, cognitive challenges. I really think that social, emotional learning is so incredibly important for all success in all of the other domains.
Mindy Peterson: [00:33:47] Well, I think this is such an exciting program and application of music. I just love what you’re doing. To use the power of music to enhance the lives of these teachers and students and parents and administrators is fantastic. Well, Natalie, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending a coda by sharing a song or story about a moment that music enhanced your life. I imagine you have many of those moments this song share with us today in closing.
Natalie Hawkins: [00:34:17] Yes, absolutely. So the song I’d love to share today is called We Are All Different. This is a song that I recorded two years ago, right? Actually, right before covid happened, I recorded it for some of my students. We’re going to have a talent show in May. So this was in January or February of 2020 when I recorded it. So a year ago. Not two years ago. And what is time anymore. Right anyways. And I recorded it for them January, February. And they’re supposed to perform it in May. And then as we know, the world changed and they were not able to perform it, but we were able to do a virtual performance, which was. Really powerful and really cool, and the song really encompasses the higher purpose of Notes by Natalie, obviously focus in on the therapeutic outcomes of students and assisting with classroom facilitation for teachers and helping parents through music. But it’s also the higher purpose of empathy and diversity and valuing accessibility for everyone and really emphasizing that our differences are what make the world so beautiful. And I love that to provide that message through music to children. And this really just encompasses the essence of the higher purpose of notes by Natalie.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai