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.

[Mikhala Majeau]

I have used singing quite often in my day to day life. Since I am not currently practicing, I use singing as a personal care attendant. I sing to E to prompt her to vocalize. I sing about her, I sing about her world. I sing many songs with her, and recently I started using the Come Sit With Me song to calm her down, then play with her! I also sing to calm the children I nanny for down. A loves the song Twinkle Twinkle, and we use it often to easy transitions.

Recently I began bringing ocean drums to E’s house, and using them during sensory time. She and I will hold the drum together and experience the sounds. During my internship we used instruments for many different goals, and would have a wide variety for the clients to choose from.

Moving is a huge part of my day to day life with the children I nanny and E. We will mimic each other’s movements, use movement songs, and dance to popular music.

I think the area that I may be lacking in the most is listening. I won’t often build in moments of musical silence or opportunities to build attending skills. I am ready and excited to learn more about how to use this experience more in my practice.

I have made some changes since beginning the course. I now use more spontaneous melodies when singing/creating a song instead of piggy-backing on a familiar song. I also have been more aware about the different stages and appropriateness of the interventions and activities that I do with the children I work with.

[Jessica Bogacik]

I am not yet using music therapy in early childhood (will be soon!!), but I am excited to use what I learned this week to 1) recognize where my clients are developmentally and 2)develop interventions that really will meet them where they are and help them grow to the next level!
Right after I watched these videos, my sister in law sent a video of my 8 month old nephew shaking a bottle of toothpicks. I told her that he was exploring rhythm and pulse and that she would have fun matching his pulse with an instrument and giving him other noise-makers to explore!

[Kristina Rio]

What wonderful awareness and application of your learning already Mikhala and Jessica!

[Melissa Hentges]

In planning my lessons, I always include singing, instrument, and movement activities. One way I include listening activities is by bringing in stories to sing to the students. I have found that by adding a melody to a story, the children will attend to it for a longer period of time. I will often have a repeated phrase that the children will sing with me throughout the story which also helps to keep them engaged in listening.

One thing I have changed since beginning this course is my awareness of the different levels of participation in my classes and how that can be matched to a level of development. I have been able to share with teachers, who may be encouraging a student to participate, that the student is participating by choosing to listen or watch instead of sing/play/move. It is easy to assume that these students aren’t getting much out of class when they aren’t actively playing their instrument – but now I have been able to share why the opposite is true. The students are still actively engaged, but in a different (and still valid) way.

[Leigh Ann Walberg]

Singing and Instrument play is included in my pre-school sessions every week, and movement is included at least 75% of the time. Though I have used listening with my older clients through the years, this is one area I had not considered using with the pre-school children. Changes I have noticed already is just the awareness of why kids do what they do, when they do it! Though I don’t work with parents right now, I have already shared some of the information I’m learning with the staff working with the students, and explain why I am allowing certain things and how that pertains to their development. So far everyone seems to enjoy the new info. I do want to add more of the stop and start type songs, since most of my students are in that control stage, following the 3 second rule.

[Anonymous]

It is great to see that each of you are finding ways to incorporate the course material into what you are currently doing. Isn’t it great to see how listening is still an active part of music making. Leigh Ann it is so great that you are able to share and teach the staff that you work with. Music therapists have a wonderful opportunity to educate parents and staff and I find that it helps them to engage in the music with the children on a deeper level.

[Michelle Nettle]

I was “enlightened” by learning the musical responses of each stage and since I haven’t yet begun working with early childhood in my music therapy practice, I was able to apply it to the current population that I do work with, which is children with developmental disabilities such as autism ,down syndrome, and intellectual disability. I always incorporate the 4 musical elements of singing, moving, playing instruments, and listening to music in my sessions. But what I realized, was that some of my expectations for several of my clients were not “developmentally” appropriate musically because what my clients are currently able to do is say more in the “Trust” stage, and I may have been presenting music interventions that were in the “Control” stage.

This weeks assignment really made me think about each of my current clients and think where they “fall” developmentally in each of the musical areas of singing, moving, listening, and playing instruments.

[Natalie Condon]

I haven’t begun working in early childhood development, but I have found myself paying close attention to infants and toddlers I come into contact with and observing their reactions to the world around them and where they might be in these developmental stages. I know that all four musical experiences: Singing, Playing, Moving, and Listening are all important to a child’s development. I was fortunate enough to observe a Sprouting Melodies class and all four of these experiences were prevalent. It was also helpful to be able to identify where the children were in relation to the stages of development and what that looked like in a Sprouting Melodies class. Putting actual faces and actions into context with what I am learning really put the concepts into perspective and helped me deepen my knowledge of the material.

[Steven Clarke]

This week’s materials offered me new perspective on how important singing, playing, movement and listening are in regards to the developmental stages of young children. I feel I am gaining a better understanding of how to identify the developmental stages within music experiences so that I can share them with parents when they happen. Becoming more aware of how these music experiences can be applied to many populations is something I am also considering. Recognizing when they are appropriate to meet the needs and goals of each group/individual client is also important.

The groups I lead or have led in the past involve singing, playing, movement and listening experiences. They are a great means through which social interaction between peers in a group can be encouraged/facilitated in a fun, stimulating and memorable way. They also contribute to the flow of the session, so that the beginning, middle and end all work together to meet each participant where they are at in the moment. I now better understand the importance of parent modeling and participation as it plays into a child’s learning and potential development during groups.

[Kristina Rio]

Natalie, I agree it’s much easier to apply this knowledge when having context and a baseline example. I’m glad you had the opportunity to observe a class. I found that taking the training a second time after I became certified as a music therapist, and had been running Sprouting Melodies groups of my ow,n that I was able to absorb the information on a different level.

[Amanda Goff]

Like so many of us, I am not currently working with this particular age group in Music Therapy. I hope to be using what I am learning in the near future. This past week really opened my eyes to how children develop and grow in these four areas. I am more confident in what I will need to look for when working within early childhood in Music Therapy.

[Linda Madler]

I teach early childhood music (PK-grade 2) at an elementary school and in my studio. I incorporate each area into my program, especially movement. We start with a greeting song, a song or rhyme with stationary movement, a gross motor activity, instrument play, focused listening to short sounds that we imitate vocally, etc. I always do a movement activity prior to listening. I find that I enjoy my smaller studio classes because I have more freedom to go with the flow. This week I was more intentional in my use of silence. I tried to match the children’s intensity in movement, particularly jumping and stomping. In terms of singing, I would like to incorporate more opportunities for individual response so that I have a better indication of where the child is developmentally. Listening is so very important. I don’t think we as a society spend much time just listening without other stimulation. For example, I when I placed my iTouch in the sound dock, a child commented that I was using my phone. I said that the iTouch was just for music. Comments from the class: “It doesn’t have any games?” “What else can it do?” I had my challenging class (17 PK4 students) just listen to music lying on the floor or in a comfortable position with the lights dimmed. It gave them a chance to focus better, and their participation for the remaining time was more on target. I think that this week I will try the rule of 3000.

[Jamie Sacca]

What stood out for me this week was thinking about these four different areas as separate entities. I often pair them together, I.e. Singing and listening, instrument play as informed by listening skills. I think this will help me to separate out these different facets of music making and use them independently in interventions I look to do. I also found that I should also focus more on listening, as described in this week’s video. I think this is sometimes hard to focus on independetly because it can sometimes be too abstract for the client’s I work with, but I am hoping to use some of these ideas to incorporate listening to music into my sessions more frequently.

[Kayla Hamilton]

I currently have a 5 year old client with Autism, ADHD, ADD, and SPD. In every session we have interventions that involve all four areas, either together or separately. My client has low verbal output so we encourage singing during all interventions to stimulate speech. After seeing her picture schedule, she recognizes the activity and sings the corresponding song. We use movement throughout the session to refocus, be aware of our bodies, and for attention interventions. We use instrument play for turn taking, attention, and sharing. Listening is difficult at times in session due to stimulation, attention, and hyperactivity. We do use music to assist in listening skills. I have personally found that these areas are most successful when paired together. It provides more opportunity for the client to have a better understanding and it helps to better organize the brain.

[Robyn Rutland-Coleman]

In the area of singing, I have used changes in pulse and meter as a means of maintaining attention and bringing awareness to the task/song at hand, as a sort of re-grounding in that moment and what we are doing. It is also lots of fun! I have also found changes in timbre to be a useful way (when used with care) of increasing awareness in clients who are low-functioning, and that the matching of the pitches/contours of their vocalizations can engender connection with them. Voice is my main instrument and I find it to be the most direct way for me to relate to clients in the beginning of our work together. I have used the movement experiences of the Independence stage, isolating body parts in rhythmic movement, and expanding upon this into the imitation of learned movements. I also like to imitate their movements, calling attention to what they are naturally doing and making them the initiator of our movement choice. I have changed the intensity and quality of my singing and playing in order to facilitate the child’s adjustment of his or her movements to the music in their environment. For me, the reminder that any response is a valid response to the music is an important one to remember! Lastly, I have found that matching my beat to the client’s, as well as maintaining mine to see if he or she can adjust to mine, to both be very useful in my work. It was great to learn about the need to give at least 3 seconds for a response during the Control stage, and I believe this is even more important in our work with clients who have disabilities, as it could take even longer to process what they have heard, and then how to respond. Giving that time can help to foster a sense of accomplishment and of being “heard” by the MT.

[Lauren Servos]

I use these 4 areas of musical growth every day in my hospital work. I often use vocal and instrumental improvisation with movement to encourage children in the control or responsibility stages to express themselves and their feelings. I use listening mostly when working on pain management or relaxation, or to provide emotional support and a safe space for children who want to share a favorite song and listen to it together.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

Hi, colleagues and friends. In case you do not know, I post new songs each month on the Sprouting Melodies web site. (www.sproutingmelodies.com/blog).
I just put a fun song up that you might really, really like. Check it out!

[Kathy Odenkirk]

It was good to see and review the skills broken down into categories and to also see how those skill flow from 1 developmental area to the next. I currently work with preschool children and use singing, playing instruments, and moving everyday. I try to incorporate listening activities, but this can be difficult given some of the issues that my clients deal with. I plan on exploring more ways to incorporate listening skills into my sessions.

[Amanda Barnett]

I do my best to involve all areas in each of my sessions. Some of my lower kiddos function in the realms of independence up to responsibility. Seeing them try to mimic sounds or tones while singing, playing a keyboard while functionally bending fingers, clapping while I clap or taking turns singing and listening for me in call & response songs is a great feeling each and every day that I work with them. I believe that the break down of each of these areas of focus will help me to better understand what to expect to work toward next. It is amazing how the tiniest of steps can be so huge in this field of practice. I love it!

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