n a sunny March morning, parents and children streamed through the door of the White Plains Good Counsel Elementary School at a steady flow. Inside, the bustling lobby resembled that of any school--sleepy parents peeled off layers of clothes; a mother tried to feed a slice of bagel to a reluctant child; a dad told his boy to settle down.

The scene would have been familiar if the children had not seemed so delighted to be at school on a Saturday morning. Perhaps that is because they had not come for school. They had come for their weekly session at the Heartsong music therapy program for disabled children, which they always look forward to, because, as one mother put it, "It's the one place where they can be normal."

As they arrived, the faces of the children revealed more of their excitement than their disability. Miki, a 5-year-old who looked like a young Pocahontas, kept sprinting up and down the hall, stopping only to plant a loud kiss on her mother's cheek.

Miki, who has been coming to Heartsong for a year and a half, used to have difficulty processing information. "You would ask her a question, and she would say something completely off the wall," says her mother, Laura Nabetani. Today, Miki can answer questions about her name, age or what she did in class without missing a beat. "I played the big drum really loud," she said before hiding her face in her mother's neck.

The progress of children like Miki is what keeps Gayle Cratty going six days a week. Cratty founded Heartsong 11 years ago after seeing how music helped her daughter, Jennifer, who has cerebral palsy. "The program is meant to improve the life of disabled children through music," said Cratty.

The mother of two believes that, whether a child suffers from autism, Down syndrome, spina bifida or other disabilities, music therapy can improve his social and motor skills. After witnessing the positive effects of the therapy on her daughter, Cratty decided that children in Westchester County, New York, should be able to benefit from the same care. Since there was no music therapy program around, she founded one. Even with two sites, there are 113 children on the waiting list.

eartsong provides one 45-minute session a week to each child enrolled in the program, free of charge to the parents. Each group is made up of about eight children, from birth to teens. They sit in a circle in coloured plastic chairs banging drums, hitting wood sticks or justening while a music therapist, helped by an assistant and volunteers, engages them in musical activities.

The 11 music therapists who work at Heartsong each have their own style. Some like to sing while the children accompany them with maracas, drums, bells and wood sticks. Others read stories that encourage them to talk. There are, however, two invariable features to each session: each child is engaged in the music therapy process through musical instruments, improvisations and completing an activity with the help of music and their therapist. The therapist adds structure to the session by providing a hello song in the beginning and concluding by a goodbye song.

In a 9 a.m. session one Saturday, music therapist Elizabeth Balzano sat with her guitar in front of her small wiggling audience. During the hello song, each child played the rain stick to encourage attention, but also to promote the use and control of arm muscles.

PHOTO: Kodi Barth A sung command: "Follow my hand."

   Five minutes into the session, personalities started revealing themselves. Jessica, a
6-year-old with chestnut bangs and intense blue eyes sat tight on her yellow cubic chair and listened attentively, while Lucas, a blond boy with a whimsical smile, called out his neighbors' names as soon as their turn came.

When time came to play the big drum, Jessica stroked it softly, holding her beat when the lyrics told her to do so. Lucas banged it hard and didn't want to stop. Jarrett, an older child with a mop of chestnut hair and high cheekbones, could hardly find the strength to beat the drum, but he made soft moaning sounds with the musical instruments.

During the sessions, music is not only used for the pleasure of the children's ears. The therapists also use it as a vehicle to learn concepts such as waiting, taking turns, stopping, going slower and faster.

Margaret Overton, whose child Toby, a 3-year-old with a swirl of blond curls suffers from spina bifida, explained that her son learned the concept of waiting from his therapists at Heartsong. Toby sat quietly on a chair during his session, only interrupting his therapist Kristen at the end of the session to spray kisses all over her face.

"He hates to leave," said his mom.

>> Next: Uses of music therapy

PHOTO: Kodi Barth
Gayle Cratty,
Founder and Director
of Heartsong with Toby and Miki.