MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - Tera Glover is a music therapist who started the neurologic music therapy program at Bynum School. It started with just a handful of students, but over the last 22 years, Tera has helped hundreds of students.
In fact, one of her first students still works with her today.
It was also a discovery for Samuel’s family.
Samuel started music therapy with Tera when he was nine.
The focus of their sessions is communication.
That technique is called therapeutic singing.
Samuel still uses the AAC device to communicate, but he is able to have a conversation with Tera through that.
Music therapy is helping Samuel with more than just getting words out. Music therapy also gets him excited for the day.
Kyndai has worked with Tera since starting at Bynum School in Pre-K. They started working on communication and learning how to talk.
While Kyndai has mastered communication, she is still working with Tera on walking.
The focus is on Kyndai’s gait, which is the way people walk. To help with this, Tera uses rhythmic auditory stimulation. They started by finding out what Kyndai’s stride and speed of walking.
Kyndai gives her own input for the music she wants to listen to during the training.
Kyndai is relentless in working to regain her ability to walk. She can now walk down the long hallway in the school on her own.
Joe is a more recent addition to Tera’s music therapy. He has been seeing her for almost two years.
Joe has autism and was recently diagnosed with PANS, meaning when he had an infection, his antibodies would attack his brain instead of the infection.
Throughout his life, his parents would notice times when he would be extremely high-functioning and times when he would be extremely low-functioning.
Losing all motor functions meant Joe had a lot to work on with Tera, but he made quick progress.
They were also working on his communication. On the AAC device, his response time when asked a question plummeted from 35 seconds to just three within months.
But actually getting words out is still a struggle. Right now he speaks in a whisper, but after a little bit of singing, he’s more open to holding a conversation.
All of the improvement at school is also translating to life at home. His mother says he is becoming himself again and is showing some tendencies of a typical young teen.
The music therapy Joe receives at Bynum is changing his life for the better in ways his mother could not have expected after ending up in the hospital.
And Tera is learning more than she ever thought she would as a music therapist by working with Sam, Kyndai, Joe, and the hundreds of students she’s been able to help.
Tera Glover has no plans to stop helping these students anytime soon and her work really makes a difference in the lives of not only the students but also their families.
