Share some of your experiences with children of this age and level.

Don’t forget to come back, read, and respond to your fellow participants. This a great question to get ideas from others.

I have observed SM1 led by a colleague of mine at Roman Music Therapy Services. Some of the things I have seen is that children are keen to PLAY. They explore at their own pace, so making space for that is important. I saw my colleague affirm and validate a baby’s actions and exploration to parents. I have also seen encouragement of behavior to parents, which allows for bonding and connection to happen. I have seen peer-to-peer interaction, which is not necessarily a given when there are not siblings involved. I have also observed a sibling in the SM1 course, who was there as the competent and helpful one for their brother.

An experience I had recently I was leading a group of approximately 12-18 month olds. I am still a fairly new presence to them, so they present in the state of uncertainty like “who is this person?” “Why are they here?” I have been working on making sure the staff in the room understand that I want the children to be able to take their time, to get used to my presence and feel comfortable enough to eventually engage independently in the music when they feel ready. The staff tend to resort to hand over hand to make them engage “the right way.” I make sure to verbalize as I go throughout the group what I do, why I do it and what I loom for as I observe the children and their responses. Once I spoke this out, the staff heard me, understood me and let the children respond however they will. For about 10 minutes, about 75% of them were just staring at me and the other 25% began to explore the movements that I was facilitating. As the session went on and I focused more that week on repetition, the other children began to engage and try out these movements with smiles on their faces. I made sure to point this out and praise the children that engaged when they felt ready to. At this stage, children need more time to process what is happening before they actually can try it themselves. It was overall such a great session because I advocated, educated and I got great responses from the children once I did this!

I haven’t yet worked with children of this age and level, however I have a 22 month old child of my own. I would say when he was about 6 months old he was exploring everything in every way. We had to put him in the front carrier facing out and take tours of our house, because he wanted to see and touch every possible surface. He also would attempt to sing along with songs and recognized preferred songs. Around a year, he became bashful and more cautious. It takes him a few weeks of group activities to get confidence to join independently. That is where the consistent, predictable schedule of the session is very important. Once he learns what is coming and when, his confidence skyrockets and he’s able to separate from me more and join in.

Thank you all for your wonderful insights!

When working with parents and 6-9 -month year olds, I worked a lot on encouraging new parents to speak and sing to their babies. At first, the children just stared around them. But as they grew to trust the environment, they responded by smiling, looking and moving towards their parents.

I currently have a 22 month old son (soon to be 2!). When he was in the Sprouting Melodies 1 age, there was a wide variety of his interest. For the first 3 months he couldn’t hold his head upright or see very far, so everything had to be within 12-20″ and we had to support his neck. At about 4 months, though, he started becoming very curious about the world around him. We had to carry him facing outward because he wanted to see everything. He also was not shy around anyone and would babble all the time. That lasted until about 10 months when the stranger anxiety phase started. I would also say he was always a cautious baby – he had to try something a few times before he really engaged. He’s still that way as a toddler. His first swim lesson, he cried. His second swim lesson he cried. His third swim lesson, he loved it.