How are you planning on sharing this information with colleagues, administrators and families?

[Meredith Pizzi]

[Kelsy Gati]

Connecticut music therapy services, the company I work for, is working to implement sprouting melodies groups beginning the end of April! We are looking forward to teaching by example and providing these services and the information connected with it to our community!

[Belinda Adams]

I have taken this course through staff and program development funds at BOCES, where I work. Because of this, administration will ask me to share what I’ve learned. Usually this is just protocol but I’m very excited to share the information I’ve learned with them and to use it with my students. Although I don’t teach preschoolers every day I do have a large population of students who are functioning on these developmental levels. Learning about the early childhood development and then applying that knowledge to my students has been really helpful in selecting music activities that will be successful.

In addition, I’d like to share this information with the facility where I lead a preschool music class as well as with other preschools in the area. I think this is such great information and I really want to get the purpose and possibilities of music therapy to be known!

[Ann Marie Raddell]

I have already shared some of the information provided with the families in my early childhood music classes. I have been more intentional about educating the parents/caregivers in the group. Just the other day, a mom was attempting to encourage her little boy to do the actions of a movement song when he was clearly content to observe. I was able to quickly explain that her son’s brain was firing at the same rate as the other children just by watching the movements of the other kids. At that point, she relaxed more even though her son was participating in a different way. I also shared the name of the Sprouting Melodies training course with my two music therapy coworkers as well as some relevant information and some considerations with the Director of Education at my agency.

[Tiffany Lee]

I have already been sharing this information with music therapy students that I supervise. As adjunct faculty in the music therapy department, I plan on bringing this information to my university and colleagues. By leading a short term mommy and me music class this summer, I am hoping to raise more education, awareness, and create a “buzz” so to speak on the topic of music and early childhood development. There are so many possibilities in my area that I am very excited to see where this goes in the future! I am also very interested in creating a specialized group for foster families and considering a research study in the future regarding this population.

[Kristen McSorley]

I will echo Kelsy! It is great to work for a company that takes care of all of the outreach part on its own. In the future when/if I am self-employed, I will reach out to libraries and other community centers about providing services. Networking at rotaries/kiwanis clubs is something I have experience with and will also be helpful in getting things started!

[Sarah Szymanowski]

After taking this course, I think I can speak with more confidence about music and this age range. This will definitely come across as I interact with families. I will also share about this course with my small work group. As mentioned in one of the closing presentations, it is so nice not to have to go “outside the profession” to have this kind of training.

[Kristina Rio]

I enjoyed reading how you are already sharing this information as well as your ideas of how to share. Not only will you be advocating and growing your professional identity, but you will also be making a positive impact in each of your respective communities!

[Stephanie Harris]

The owners/supervisors at my facility are aware of me taking the course and we will move forward with discussions on the advantages of becoming a SM provider versus creating our own group programs now that it is complete. Our goal as a company is to increase music therapy availability for our current ABA clients and outreaching to the early intervention program who desperately seeks services from us. The families are unable to afford private weekly individual sessions, so setting a group program up with multi-week sessions should be extremely successful.

One colleague is doing the course this cycle, and others will complete it as we move forward. We will outreach to current families and contacts at our other local agencies with specific information once we make decisions about how to proceed.

[Laetitia Brundage]

Working for Roman Music Therapy Services definitely gives me the great advantage of having a pretty well-established Sprouting Melodies program in and around my community. I hope to figure out a way to get funding and reach out beyond the families who are able to pay for a class and maybe set something up in family homeless shelters/programs in the area. I feel this program would be incredibly beneficial to those families, not only for the developmental benefits, but for the bonding, leisure and love that can come from this time together.

Additionally, many urban communities have family days, especially in the Spring and Summer. Perhaps setting up tables at those events and having demos would be a great way to spread the word.

[Noelle Larson]

It’s so great to read about how all of you have already started sharing information and knowledge from this training as well as how you look forward to doing so in the near future. What good ideas! For me, since I’m taking a professional hiatus for a few months, my major exposure to children right now is at my church and through my social circles rather than in a professional context. Since having my own baby, I will be shifting my volunteering from the music ministry to the children’s ministry, which will be a great way to put into practice many of the developmental concepts we have learned about in this course as well as share them with the children’s parent’s and siblings. In a more professional sense, I have maintained a good relationship at Berklee and plan to visit them in the spring. I will definitely be “talking up” this training with the professors while I’m there! I have a few ideas for ways that Raising Harmony might be able to reach out to university music therapy programs and I’ll put them in an e-mail sometime soon. As Meredith and Beth said, this information and music base is way to valuable (and wonderful!) not to share.

[Jennifer Whitlow]

I plan to use this with my company Dynamic Music Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana. I had thought about starting my own early childhood curriculum, however after hearing about Sprouting Melodies I was intrigued. I am so glad I took this training. I learned way more than I anticipated. I already have a few marketing ideas and local organizations I want to reach out to. As my company grows, I will have all staff who want to work in early childhood take the training as well. I am really looking forward to joining my fellow colleagues in the Sprouting Melodies community!

[Kristina Rowles]

Like both Kristen and Kelsy it is great to work for a company that will be taking care of most of the sharing of information in the community and setting up groups. I plan on sharing this information especially with families that desperately need and want the education. I am hoping many communities in Connecticut will be open to the Sprouting Melodies programs.

[Tracy Wanamaker]

As a university professor, I am already sharing some of these ideas with my students that plan to continue their education to become music therapists. While I’m not planning to start working with preschool groups in the immediate future, I do plan to share this information with the Arts Council where I already provide classes for adults and teens as we develop ideas for expanding our program into working with younger children. Once I am ready to start these classes, I will begin sharing this information with parents/families in my community.

[Ashley Carroll]

I have contacts through moms groups in the community, who are excited for classes to start, so I just have to find a space! I just had coffee with another music therapist in my area who is considering taking the next training. Going forward I will also be contacting the head of programming for the military housing in the area to offer Sprouting Melodies groups through base housing.

[Anonymous]

Ashley Meredith, Beth, and the provider network can help you as you begin looking for a space. Many of us, myself included, have gone through this process and can be of great assistance.

[Katy Hutchings]

I’ve already started sharing what I have learned with colleagues at my job and other music therapy friends. I know at least one other music therapist who is now interested in doing the training as well! Music therapists are always looking for more ways to learn and grow and I felt that this training was a great way to review information and think about development in new ways. For my non-music therapy colleagues at work, I will continue to try to include explanations for what I am doing as I am leading groups to get the adults engaged and understand their important role in groups.

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