For Autism Acceptance Month… a FREE song for you

We are shouting out Autism Acceptance Month for all music therapists who serve kids and adults with autism. The song is about rainbows and splashing in puddles. Most likely you’ll need to adapt the song to serve your clients, depending on your specific goals.

You can remove the instructional aspect, replace the words with humming and modeling, only use part of the song, switch parts, allow your client to lead, allow your client to choose when to go and stop, follow your client’s lead, and many more adaptations! You could also use the song with early childhood.

Here are the words:

Make rainbows over your head
Way up high in the sky.
Make rainbows over your head
And when the rain comes down we’ll jump high…

We’re gonna splash splash splash in the puddles.
Splash splash and get wet!
Splash splash splash in the puddles.
Mommy won’t mind I bet!

Make rainbows over your head
Way up high in the sky.
Make rainbows over your head
And when the sun comes out, we’ll be dry. Say “All dry!”

Do YOU work with kids or adults with autism? We’d love to hear what your favorite resource for this population is. Leave a comment below!

22 Comments

  1. This is adorable Kat, I love this song!! I am always looking for new scarf activities to use with my children with autism. Is this an original song? Is the sheet music available somewhere? Thanks so much for sharing!

    • It’s original! No sheet music yet… but I use I, IV, V7…. =) Thx for the kind words. I’ve used this song for YEARS! Made it up a long time ago.

      Means a lot coming from a songstress like yourself!!!!

  2. Love the Rainbow song and can’t wait to use it! I am a general elementary music teacher and recently used a slide whistle for high/low awareness. The students moved their bodies in response to the sounds of the whistle. (Sitting to standing etc.) There are several inclusion students in my classes and the level of focus and response from my friends with autism was amazing!!

  3. Hey, Team Awesome. Thanks for sharing this song. It’s really cute!
    One thing for all of you to consider – turn any spoken directions into song or just model rather than giving spoken directions at all. My motto for autism families: make your life a musical! There’s some fabulous research that includes images that tell it all. Even if you don’t have time to read the entire article, look at the MRIs of the neurotypical brain and the brain of someone diagnosed on the autism spectrum: Fronto-Temporal Connectivity is Preserved During Sung but Not Spoken Word Listening, Across the Autism Spectrum. Megha Sharda, Rashi Midha, Supriya Malik, Shaneel Mukerji, and Nandini C. Singh (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.1437/abstract)

    You can preview the article without purchasing & even though it’s blurry, you can still get the gist of the images!

    • Awesome advice – We can depend on brilliant music therapists to give helpful tips! Thanks Angie!!!

      The song is not meant to be a “prescription” for someone with autism. Adaptations according to client needs are mandatory. And adaptations are best employed by a board-certified music therapist, of course.

      For someone who RARELY works directly with kids with autism, I appreciate this — Kat

  4. I loved this song as well! Thanks so much for sharing…. I do a similar thing but with bunnies sleeping and bunnies hopping for the slow/legato movement verses the fast/staccato movement. Works great with a clear division and the kids find it hilarious!! Can’t wait to use this one too!

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