Services

We are passionate about extending our services to everyone who needs them. We work with organisations to build interactive environments that perfectly suit both clients and staff.

Our input ranges from assessments and recommendations for bespoke facilities to installing a ready-made Music Gym. This includes help with everything from financial management to maintaining an inspirational level of care.

Social Enterprise Support

Founded as a social enterprise in 2003, we feel well placed to pass on our learning to other would-be social entrepreneurs. Susan Heath, one of our directors, is experienced in running both workshops and individual mentoring sessions. She is currently working towards her ILM Diploma in Social Enterprise Support and can offer ongoing assistance to organisations wanting to set up a Music Gym.

Soundbeam Training

Soundbeam is an amazing technology that’s been used for over ten years, enabling people with complex needs to produce and perform music.

Decoda have used it almost daily for the last five years. We know from experience that people who initially brought Soundbeam into an organisation may move on, leaving you without a person who feels able to use the equipment. Our training courses can help you get the most out of your equipment. In addition to training staff, we can also train the trainers within your organisation, so that they can then feel confident to pass on the information.

Music Gym Training

The Music Gym is like a toolbox filled with engagement tools. Our training courses show how integrating methodology, technology, interaction and fun can deliver measurable benefits.

Workshops

We can take elements of the Music Gym into schools and community groups for either a half or whole day. The workshops are particularly successful with young children. They are guaranteed to encourage those with special needs to play together and open up to new experiences. It can also be an opportunity during school breaks for parents to work and play with their children in an exciting and different atmosphere.

Conferences & Exhibitions

Decoda are regularly invited to present seminars and workshops at social care conferences and exhibitions. Organisations recognise that we’re passionate about our work and excited about the new possibilities that technology can open up.

The equipment we use at the Music Gym transfers very well to an exhibition or conference. It provides a different kind of interaction for the delegates who are often weary from walking round stands or listening to speakers.

In the past few months we’ve been at the MacIntyre conference in Birmingham, at the Learning Disability Today exhibitions in London and Manchester, and we've run an “inspirational igloo” at Voice 09, the social enterprise conference at Birmingham’s ICC.

Intensive Interaction Training

If someone with severe learning disabilities and/or autism is still at an early stage of communication, this is a valuable approach to passing on the fundamentals of pre-speech interaction. It’s what we see happening all the time with many very good support staff who bring members to the Music Gym – yet they may not recognise the term for what they’re doing.

These fundamentals include:

  • learning to give attention to another person
  • developing shared attention into activities
  • taking turns
  • having fun and playing together
  • using and understanding facial expressions
  • using and understanding eye contact
  • using and understanding non-verbal communication, such as body language

Increasingly, we’ve come to realise that the growing relationship between carer and member is the most important aspect of the Music Gym. With this in mind, Angela Lane (the East Sussex Intensive Interaction Project Worker) makes regular visits to the Music Gym to talk to support staff.

Together we can offer training in Intensive Interaction, using Music Gym equipment to show just how much is possible.

Music Gym at In Control exhibition

Come and visit us at the International Big Event on March 16th.

Lucky winners receive their prize

Tuesday saw the hand over of the Unlocking Music software to St Margarets school in Tadworth, the lucky winners from Learning Disability Today last November...

Software winners

St. Margarets School in Tadworth won the Unlocking Music software, camera and training, at the recent Learning Disabilities Today exhibition.

subscribe to our newsletter