How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?

[Meredith Pizzi]

How have you used these four music experiences in your practice? Have you made any changes in these areas since beginning this course? Post your remarks to the board.

[Nicole Drozd]

I have used each of these four music experiences in my session but lately I have been focused on movement and listening with one of my clients. He is a 6 y.o. boy with autism and I have noticed that as we have been building rapport over the weeks he has been asking for more movement oriented songs as well as modeling the movements that he receives sensory input from. Lately he has been standing on the tips of his toes, so in the music I directed him to dance on his tip toes and he actually did not need a verbal cue for this (where as clapping and stomping he did). In regards to listening, I have been placing even more silence into the session, in particular in songs he is familiar with so he can sing the word in the musical phrase. Doing this, he has gone from 1 word responses to almost 5 words phrases.

[Julia Park]

I have used these four music experiences in my practice but I am not currently working with this age group. I believe music is very intrinsic and instinctual for everyone. as I remember my daughter during the awareness stage. My new born baby opened her eyes and smiled when her father played a lullaby on a guitar or when we played her disney lullaby CD and she would instantly stop crying and listen to the music. My daughter is 8 month old now and she is in the trust stage (birth to 18 months). She cannot sing yet but she does use hard consonants such as K, P, M, N, and B most of the times when vocalizing. At this stage, vocalization is very limited except for a lot of cooing and random melodic intonation when she wishes to express her needs like feeding and even her emotional state (sad, happy, frustration, and excitement). In terms of playing instruments, my daughter learned how to hold the mallet and hit the drum when she was 6 months old. The duration was very short though and she would put the mallet inside her mouth the remaining of the time. She also uses her pincer grasp to grasp shakers and shake the instrument for a short periods of time. She can now reach out and grab instruments of her choice. My daughter began to sit up on her own without much support at 6 months. She began hitting the table or her knee when she hears a familiar tune and soon began to clap. She can stand for a few minute with someone else’s support. She has a much better listening skills where she will look towards the person who is singing or playing the instrument. She also responds by turning her head when someone calls her name. It is very interesting to see her musical developmental growth as I observe her in first hand.

[Julia Park]

Nicole, it is so wonderful to hear about the amazing work you do with your client. Your client should be in the responsibility stage according to the normal developmental stage but it is impressive to hear that you are tailoring your session based on his needs and circumstances. I especially love using silence in the songs. How impressive it is for him to go from 1 word to 5 word phrases! Great work.

[Marcie Hernandez, MT-BC]

I have used these four music experiences in a variety of ways with a variety of clients. Some examples I can think of include using movement to music to reinforce sequencing skills. I have several clients who follow a visual schedule throughout the day, and so with them I’ve used different movements to create a 3 or 4 step choreography to a preferred song, so they can practice those sequencing skills. Within the responsibility stage, I’ve also used listening as a tool to build social connections, having children take turns playing a solo during a turn-taking song.

[Kate Potrykus]

I like to try to include a little bit of each of these four music experiences each time I work with a client. I use movement to work on following directions, social skills, and self expression. I use singing to work on the development of speech and prosody – inflection, articulation, and audibility. For my non verbal clients, we play within our singing as we vocalize on different pitches and explore the voice. Playing instruments is another great experience for learning social tasks such as turn-taking. Playing instruments in a group setting also contributes to a sense of belonging. I probably use listening the least, but often it is use to redirect off task behavior, to calm and relax, or even to work on identifying emotions.

[Rebecca Woodruff]

The semester that I did my practicum in a musical development group we definitely used movement frequently with the children. Having structured movement helped the children to get the time they needed to move without making the parents worry about their children not sitting in place. We also let the children experiment with playing many different instruments and introducing new instruments to listen to. I was able to bring in my lap harp one session and lead a relaxation. This was a unique listening experience for many of the children and caregivers.

There are some changes I will make when I start by own developmental music group after learning content from this course. I won’t be as stressed about keeping children in their seat – as that is not developmentally appropriate at certain stages. I will also be sure to explain this to the parents. I will also be sure to communicate the research done on motor neurons and the importance of “everyone stays, everyone plays”. Working in a school system, it was frustrating trying to get all of the aids to participate during music. I wish I would have known this last year to communicate to them – it might have been the thing to finally get them to participate.

[Susan Gannon]

I agree with Rebecca that I will not be as stressed trying to keep children seated. I previously felt that I needed to encourage children to remain seated even if they were not ready to stay seated. I thought that was how they eventually learned to remain seated. Where I work there is a great emphasis on school readiness and this is one area that they concentrate on, being able to remain seated. I now also know that I need to educate others more about how important being developmentally ready is.

I use all four music experiences in my therapy sessions, but probably listening is more incorporated into other experiences. Singing helps develop breath control, prosody, articulation, and self-expression. In fact, I see some children who can articulate better while singing than speaking. Moving encourages self-regulation, both gross and fine motor skills, and again self-expression. Playing instruments can be an individual or group experience. Turn-taking, sharing, playing in rhythm, and learning to initiate and stop are just a few of the many goals these experiences can address. Listening for directions, for changes in dynamics, when to accommodate fill-in-the-blank songs, relaxation, arousal, and calming seem to fit in naturally with the other experiences, although I do occasionally use listening for listening sake.

[Nicole Drozd]

You all are giving me things to think about and consider when I can actually work with a group of kids- which I don’t do currently. I only get to work 1:1. But stuff like not feeling stressed up the kiddos not staying seated-Even though I hear Meredith and Elizabeth mention that it was developmentally appropriate for kids to go and explore, it is just hitting me now that that would be the type of thing to stress me out haha. Also, for all of you with little ones-you are so lucky to get to observe their development 24/7! Such a resource! I think I am going to ask a few of my church friends if I can borrow their toddlers to get comfortable working with them 🙂

[Daniel Henry]

One example that comes to mind is using movement. I use a song called “My head, my hands, my knees, my feet” with a group of children who are all at different levels of development. Here I have them follow along to the music touching and identifying various parts of their body and changing up the tempo to keep them engaged and having fun. With this activity I can get a good sense of where the each child might be in terms of their development and not only see examples of movement, but also listening and singing. This section of the course will be a big help in further meeting these clients needs.

[Johanna Horn]

I try to make sure to include the four experiences; singing, listening, moving and playing, into each music class. I use singing right after our “Hello Song” as a warm up. I also use singing during the “Goodbye Song”. Depending on how energetic the kiddos are, I may combine moving and playing together, like during a marching band activity. If the class appears engaged and focus, I will have a separate activity for each. Some days, movement is the prominent activity (again, if the kiddos are super energetic and I need to meet them where they are). However, there have been times that I will use the djembe or other percussion instruments, and I will “lead” the group in a movement activity and the children can take turns drumming while they move.

[Shelly Peterson]

Regarding my early childhood classes, every session I do contains all 4 of these musical experiences. Singing is encouraged as a form of expression as well as other vocalizations. Movement can be structured dances or more creative in nature. Instrument play and listening often go hand in hand as we practice stop and go, loud and quiet, etc. Instrument play can also be used as a time of exploration of sounds.

[Anonymous]

What great responses from each of you. It is wonderful to hear all the great work you area all doing and also seeing how you are already using a lot of these experiences.

[Kristina Rio]

Great reflections everyone! It is great to hear how this course is bringing new awareness to the work you are currently doing!

[Elizabeth Carras]

I have used each of these 4 categorizations of musical experiences. I have worked providing music enrichment programs to area preschools in the past, and the school specifically asked that each music class include gross motor movement, instrument playing, and fingerplay as three separate experiences.
I try to structure music experiences to cross or combine the four mentioned in this training – for instance, I play and sing a song using high pitches for the first verse and low for the second, and ask those that are in later developmental stages to move their scarves high in the air or low by their feet or on the group, depending on what I am playing. This involves listening and for those in the Responsibility level of listening to music, they can organize and structure their musical responses to reflect what they are hearing. Children in the Independence level can observe their peers moving to the music in these different ways and explore those movements for themselves, regardless of whether the movements match the current pitches. And those in trust can experience moving their whole body to the music and practice manipulating this new object of the scarf.

[Alexis Ramagnano]

I used singing, moving, and listening music experiences when I offered a music group to my 5 year old daughters pre-school class. It is now clear that they were all in the Responsibility stage. They listened intently when I offered a song they were not familiar with. They even expressed their thoughts on hearing the new song. They all were able to learn and imitate the movements to the action songs I sang. Most of them sang along with confidence. I was not able to use instruments with them because it wasn’t an option at the time.
I have not made any changes to these areas because I am not actively using these trainings yet.

[Christina Bass]

I use all four in most of my sessions, especially with my younger clients. I typically have used listening, instrument playing, and movement when working on other areas such as attention and executive functioning and singing with speech. This training has made me look closer at where my clients are developmentally in each of these areas and adapt interventions that will better support their needs.

[Charniqua Snell]

I have been able to use these 4 experiences before in my sessions. Movement is probably my favorite to do because young children have a hard time sitting still. In the schools, I go to they practice sitting still and not moving around the room, so it is important for the children (and my sanity) if I give them a chance to stand up, stretch and move their bodies. Of course, we also work on following directions and imitation but I have noticed after the movement activity the children are more engaged!

[Flora Whitmore]

I use all four of these areas in my sessions- my inherent session structure with lots of my kiddos involves elements of movement, listening, music making and singing. Often in my groups, different clients of the same age have been in different stages. I co-treated with a physical therapist, and one of our clients was in the control stage with movement and then another (who has autism) moved between the awareness stage (turning her head to a familiar melody) and responsibility stages ( full lyrics of a high preference song) in singing, depending on the song.

[Author]

Posts