Mary Lynn Crow loves to sing and dance and perform concerts for her family.
With her friends, the 8-year-old girl with a bright smile and brown pony tail is boisterous and exuberant, a natural leader.
But like many children with Down syndrome, Mary Lynn has apraxia, a speech disorder that makes her difficult to understand.
"A lot of times when people have trouble understanding you, you don't want to express yourself," says her mother, Veronica Crow. "You stop trying to express yourself."
"And she has a lot to say," she adds.
Each week, with a few of her best friends, Mary Lynn sings, dances and plays new instruments at amplifi, a class at Baton Rouge Music Studios designed for people with intellectual disabilities or those who have suffered some type of trauma. After two months, they will put on a show featuring a song written with their help, with each student performing a solo.
The class helps them find their voices. And it helps them develop the confidence to speak.
Amplifi, says Doug Gay, Baton Rouge Music Studio's owner and director, "gives every individual a chance to shine."
When class starts on a Thursday evening, the four students dig into a pile of instruments and begin playing. There are glockenspiels, xylophones, drums and slide whistles.
Through the cacophony, teacher Sarah Burke instructs Wiley Mittendorff, 14, to play the concertina by making "robot hands" and sliding them into the straps. Once he compresses the instrument and the accordion-like sound begins, she smiles.
"Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm in Italy," Burke says.
Ebullient and expressive, Burke has a natural touch with the four children, all of whom have been diagnosed with Down syndrome. Cheerful and smiling, she dances and sings with the children and redirects the lesson often to keep their attention from drifting.
Her experience and education are in music education for elementary and preschool-aged children, but amplifi works like therapy, using music to build confidence.
"It's therapeutic in nature," she says, "but we're still music educators. It just so happens that music is awesome and does all these great things for people."
After warming up their voices, the youngsters settle in for the main lesson. During their first class, the students described the memorable trips they had taken with their families. Then Gay and Burke wrote a song using their input.
They listen to a recording of the song over the sound system.
"I like trips. Trips are fun," Burke sings in the chorus over an acoustic guitar. "I like traveling in the sun."
Now the students will work to learn their verses. Burke and her co-teacher lead the students through their parts. Wiley's is about going to Lego Land in California and building a tower with friends. Mary Lynn's verse is about Washington, D.C.
Learning the verses will take weeks. Some students may not be able to sing them for the final show. Instead, they might use sign language to perform or play an instrument.
"The goal is to make them feel proud," Gay says, "and make them feel like they belong in a group and to give them a moment to shine."
Gay became interested in the amplifi program last year when he visited the Real School of Music in Burlington, Massachusetts. He and Burke trained under their teachers for 40 hours to learn the amplifi program.
Designed around the teaching principle called Universal Design for Learning, amplifi uses multiple ways of teaching to reach each individual student. They'll memorize songs, experiment with new instruments, dance and learn musical notes.
"After every class I want my participants going home feeling positive about themselves and feeling encouraged through music," Burke says, "and maybe wanting to explore on their own time and actually listen to music."
The class is designed for all ages. In Massachusetts, amplifi has been used to help victims of trauma and war veterans. Instead of singing about trips, an amplifi class for adults may focus on teachable lessons.
"It could be 'what is something you learned in your life that you would like to share with everyone?'" Burke says. "That's what they need and they need that platform to express themselves."
The parents of the four students say they chose the class to broaden their children's experiences.
"I wanted another teacher in his life besides me," says Vickie Willson, who teaches her son Josiah, 18, at home. "It is very difficult to find things to do that are multi-level. I think it's wonderful."
All of the students enjoy music in some way, and their parents say they're hoping to tap into that love to teach them important lessons.
"She's pretty confident," Veronica Crow says of her daughter, Mary Lynn, "but we wanted to encourage confidence in her speech."
