Educators from the University ’s RISE program and the UA School of Music visted the Prospectiva Center in St. Petersburg, Russia last week to work with children with disabilities.

The group also worked with the Russian National Orchestra to create a bilingual musical.

RISE works with children with disabilities from birth to six years of age by combining practices of both early childhood education and development. Their most celebrated technique is music therapy.

“Music touches everybody’s lives no matter how high your functions or how low your functions, no matter what language you speak,” Martha Cook, the director of RISE, said.  

Dawn Sandel, who has been a music therapist at RISE for seven years, said music therapy techniques help hone fine and gross motor skills, speech skills, cognitive development, social development and creative expression.

“[The kids] have been under the cloak of secrecy for so long,” Cook said. “Just reaching out for help is a huge move.”

Children with disabilities in Russia are segregated from society, being placed into orphanages or institutions at a very young age, Sandel said.

“It was hard for them to believe that our program is 50 percent children with disabilities and 50 percent without,” Cook said. “You have to learn that everyone is different and how to be tolerant and appreciative of everybody.”

There is no government mandate for education for children with disabilities in Russia, Sandel said. The kids of the Prospectiva Center in St. Petersburg had no association with general education and only received custodial attention.

“It was very emotional to see their culture and their attitudes toward kids with disabilities,” Cook said.

Sandel and Cook worked through music therapy with the children in the Prospectiva Center, hoping to change the Russian attitude toward the disabled.

“Being able to share what I do with them, even if it was just a short time, was a great experience,” Sandel said. “I’m glad I got to advocate music therapy and advocate kids with disabilities.”

Despite the language barrier, Sandel and Cook were able to showcase a little of what they do at RISE to the Prospectiva administration.

“Talking to them about what we do here intimidated them a little bit,” Sandel said. “They were looking at us like we were aliens.”

Diane Schultz, associate professor of flute, traveled with Cook and Sandel to collaborate on the musical based on Mary Ann Allin’s book “Anna and the Hermitage Cats.”

The musical will feature some of the music therapy concepts. Members of the Russian National Orchestra will manipulate their instruments to replicate cat-like noises and in turn, children – both disabled and otherwise – can chime in and repeat the sounds.

The interactive and bilingual musical will be performed at the Moody Music Building in March.

Cook and Sandel were able to bring their practices at RISE to an international level, something they never deemed possible.

“Our goal was not to change the children but to change the attitude of the people there,” Sandel said. “It was about changing the whole perception of people with disabilities there.”

Cook and Sandel plan on returning to Russia in the spring and hope one day to make RISE an international program.