Music therapy expert Suzanne Oliver to be first guest of FCI’s Friday/Saturday Project, Nov. 3-4

Music therapy expert Suzanne Oliver to be first guest of FCI’s Friday/Saturday Project, Nov. 3-4October 25, 2006Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

Nationally recognized music therapy expert Suzanne Oliver will be the inaugural speaker of the Facilitated Communication Institute’s new Friday/Saturday Project, on Friday, Nov. 3, from noon-2:30 pm in Room 304 of the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center. This new series of intensive Friday/Saturday skill-building workshops is designed to address the needs of people with disabilities who require some form of technical support for effective daily communication. The project is supported in part by a recent New York State grant sponsored by State Sen. John DeFrancisco and Assemblyman Jeff Brown.

Oliver has been a board-certified music therapist for 25 years. An advanced-level neurological music therapist (NMT), she completed her NMT fellowship training at Colorado State University’s Center for Biomedical Research in Music. She is the founder and executive director of Neurologic Music Therapy Services of Arizona, a nonprofit organization that serves more than 350 individuals with neurologic impairments.

Oliver’s keynote presentation, called “Individual Functional Rhythm Analysis,” will demonstrate how the use of rhythm with persons with autism can increase skill demonstration and promote fluency and independence of movement. Through a variety of rhythm/movement tasks, Oliver will help participants to identify the impact of rhythm on functional movement patterns and establish a useful set of home rhythm exercises. Oliver also will hold individually scheduled clinical sessions on Saturday, Nov. 4.

Saturday’s program includes the following activities (also in Room 304 in the Schine Center):

• 9-11 a.m. — “Building Communication Through Technology” (general communication support)

• noon-2:30 p.m. — “Orientation To Skill-Building” (basic facilitated communication skills) or “Making Practice Fun — Working Toward Independence” (advanced facilitated communication skills)

The Friday/Saturday Project is designed for individuals who use or would benefit from communication supports; family members and friends; and teachers, therapists and other professionals and advocates.

Participation in the Friday keynote session is free, but pre-registration is required. Saturday clinical sessions with Oliver should be booked directly with her, by calling her at (602)840-6410 or e-mailing her at olivermtsa@aol.com. To insure availability, those interested should try to schedule their sessions with her before Tuesday, Oct. 31.

To pre-register, call the Facilitated Communication Institute at (315) 443-9379 by Wednesday, Nov. 1. Fees for one or both Saturday workshops are $10 for one attendee (or one FC user/ facilitator team) and $10 for each additional team member, with a maximum of $25 per team. Fees can be paid on the day of the workshop.