New Tune Tuesday: “Change My Channel”

Today I bring you the first of at least 8 songs inspired by a book I stumbled upon last month. Lora Copeland, LPC, wrote the book, “Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control”, and it was written to teach children with ADD and ADHD how to gain control over their attention. It has such a creative approach to teaching the terminology and tools needed to become a master over attention that I feel it is a great tool to use with many different children.

To briefly summarize the include, illustrated storybook, one day when Hunter’s little sister changes the channel during his favorite T.V. show, he realizes that when others continually tell him to pay attention, that his channel has changed. He then goes on to assign each button of the remote a function, which helps him to be less impulsive, keep on task, and have a greater sense of self-esteem. I love how concrete it makes the idea of paying attention. You can pick up this great tool here!  I am going to begin using this book soon, and I can’t wait to see how kids respond firsthand.

The first song I wrote is called “Change My Channel”. In last weeks “Singin’ The Blues”  I told you how I struggled determining the time signature for “A Few Magic Words”. Well this week I purposefully play with the meter to give a musical example of “changing channels”. The song starts in 3/4, moves to 4/4, and then finishes back in 3/4.

I have made the song available for a free download. So pick up the book, download the song, and you’re ready to go! Try not to change your channel while listening to this weeks New Tunes Tuesday! Enjoy!

Change My Channel

by Emily Sevcik, MT-BC

Sometime I feel distracted
My attention's on a different thing
I try so hard to stay on task but still sometimes

When I'm in math and I think about recess
I need to change my channel to the teacher
My attention's like I'm watching TV
And the channel's changed on me
When my friend talks and I think about my dog
I need to listen to be a good friend
I need to get my remote and change the channel back to where it needs to be

There's nothing wrong with having so many channels to change between
I need to stay on the same channel as those all around me
It helps me learn, make friends, and get along with others
I can only change the channel when it is my turn

When I'm in math and I think about recess
I need to change my channel to the teacher
My attention's like I'm watching TV
And the channel's changed on me
When my friend talks and I think about my dog
I need to listen to be a good friend
I need to get my remote and change the channel back to where it needs to be

Sometime I feel distracted
My attention's on a different thing
I try so hard to stay on task but it is hard for me