At Cunningham Creek Elementary, music therapy makes difference for special-needs students

Amanda Hunter, 11, is a typical middle-schooler, sporting a Jonas Brothers backpack and gushing over the group. But for Amanda, music holds more meaning than a simple boy-band crush. “Music helps me with multiplication,” the wheelchair-bound Amanda said with a proud smile. “Music is awesome. I learn a lot from it.”

Amanda is one of 250 special-needs students at Cunningham Creek Elementary School in Northwest St. Johns County. She is also part of the music therapy program at Cunningham Creek, the only school in the county that offers it, said Principal Betsy Wierda. Music therapist Minda Gordon said this is the fourth year since she began the program at the school and she has seen drastic changes in students such as Amanda. “There were students who we didn’t even think could talk. Now they dance and sing,” Gordon said. “We found that if you raise the bar for these students, they’ll jump it.”