Most Valuable Take Away

[Julie Palmieri]

What was your most valuable takeaway from this week’s content?

[Camryn Gallagher]

Breaking down every aspect of early development piece by piece made me realize that a lot of the development process from the very beginning is about the child discovering their own personhood. I loved the comments made throughout the videos reminding us to think, from the baby’s perspective, how much your world opens up the more you are able to do with your physical body, and the more your brain is able to process the information it takes in. I feel fortunate to be able to watch so many small humans gradually becoming participants in their world – being able to turn their head to watch the family dog run around, taking their first steps, learning to feed themselves, vocalizing back-and-forth and imitating others. I don’t have children myself yet, which has always made me feel a bit insecure about working with parents and worrying that it impacts their ability to trust me as a provider – but it is a privilege to be able to observe this process happening, and I am able to connect with families when we share the excitement and joy that this process brings.

[Amy Calderon]

Cammy! I completely understand how you feel! I definitely experienced this at the start of my career, but the knowledge we have is so important. Remind yourself that you are studying child development. Parents may not have even looked at development and have no idea what their child should and shouldn’t be doing. Even parents with multiple kids sometimes completely misrememebr what their first child was doing at what stage and are then expecting their second child to do things faster, becasue they are misrememebering. We work with so many children on a daily basis and have seen all the different rates of development and parents recognize this. Don’t sell yourself short. Just speak confidently and realize you know what you are talking about!

[Daniel DeLucia]

To be honest, there is more than one take away. Regarding chapter’s 2 and 3, one significant idea that came to mind is that development as a whole is more or less subjective (i mean in terms of how the theorist measures it). Each theorist sets the beginning and ends of each stage at different chronological ages and, in the case of Piaget, there’s stages within stages. Furthermore, regardless of the theory, it’s also important to understand the fact that these theories of development which were presented in the text and are most familiar to us, are within a specific cultural context (in this case Western culture) and thus may or may not be generalizable to humans across different environments and cultures. The very idea of what even is a human is different depending on where that individual was raised. However, despite these differences, there does seems to be some broad understanding of development moving from simple to more complex; moving from understanding of self to understanding of others and self within their environment. </p>
<p>As music therapists working with children from broad communities, we need to honor each child’s unique experience that they have when it comes to their development as well as how they experience music.

[Mark Dunford]

Great points here Dan! Although there’s some broad generalizations development can also be so fluid child to child depending on so many factors. Meeting kids exactly where they are and providing fun and engaging opportunities to facilitate growth and development is the name of the game.

[Courtney McDonald]

For me, this week’s information really brought home my personal journey with this material. I learned this material originally in undergrad (as we all did), revisited it in graduate work with a small amount of experience, experienced the stages from the parental perspective, and now reviewing it all with many more years of experience and the emotional connection from clients and my child. I can better appreciate the complexity of each stage and the awe inspiring changes that occur. It is a reminder of my own growth as well.

The musical connection to each stage become more clear with each review and breakdown of skills. Skills that are not overtly musical but are tied to musicality start to stand out in greater relief. Every aspect of development can contribute to the overall musical being of each human regardless of where they are on their developmental journey. As someone who works with children who have more severe disabilities, I experience the earliest stages of development over a much longer time frame. A deeper dive into the later stages (48-60) months was a great refresher because I do not experience that in my practice on a daily basis.

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Wonderful take aways! I am so glad to hear what is resonating with each of you.

[Lydia Westle]

I apologize that I wrote a really long post on the other comment / didn’t realize the questions were in two separate posts. While I elaborated upon some of this in my other post, i think the most valuable take-a-way was the ways in which these concrete developmental milestones of different age groupings can serve as a base to inform the music experience. In particular, I found it helpful to see the ages / milestones so separate, as it is not uncommon in my work environment to facilitate groups with children of very varied age ranges. While I have always found this to be a challenge, I felt validated when I reviewed just how different and specific, as well as special, the different age groupings are. I think I can use this as evidence / as a basic foundational knowledge when advocating for how to enhance groups / the ages invited to them.

[MacKenzie Lyons]

My most valuable takeaway from this week’s material was the reminder that development is always happening in the early stages of life even if you don’t see it right away. It’s easy to feel like nothing you are trying is working because you are not seeing the impacts right away. However, everything that young children take in contributes to their development and it is likely that you will not see the impacts until a few weeks or months down the line. This is also something that is important to reiterate to parents because they may also be feeling the same way about their child. Everyone develops along their own path and it may take some time for them to see it.

[Elmira Abasova]

The biggest takeaway this week is reminding myself how rapidly children grow and acquire new skills. That is common knowledge, but I did not realize how fast it can happen. For example, I was impressed observing children’s development in the eight-week Sprouting Melodies class. Some kids came from sitting to standing position, while others made their first steps.

Also, I put in my notes what was said about development and music – that development is musical, and that musical interaction reflects the child’s developmental level. By observing young kids at group sessions, we can assess their social skills by how they interact with caregivers/peers, cognitive skills by how they use musical instruments, etc. Development happens through music, and kids love music))

[Olivia Todd]

My most valuable take away from this week was the breakdown of ages and milestones. Children are constantly growing, developing, and learning. A four year old preschool student has different skills than a three year old and it is important and helpful to keep that in mind when planning and in sessions themselves. It is also beneficial to understand the breakdown to help educate parents about the development of their child. Some times children have big feelings and they might not know how to process or name it yet! Assuring parents that it is normal for children to have a defiant stage and they aren’t purposely “misbehaving” can help parents feel more confident in their parenthood and interacting with their child. Something that I had never thought about was that babies imitate what they see, which is why they wave backwards sometimes!

[Kate Jihye Choi]

My most valuable takeaway from this week was that we should focus more on their developmental age than chronological age, especially when I have premature children or children with developmental delays. Most of the breakdown of ages and milestones were familiar to me as I see them daily in the assessment. But it was interesting that you broke down their ages/milestones by how they explore the world differently. In terms of exploring the world, as children grow physically, psychologically, and spiritually, they will expand their boundaries by interacting with the world within their capability. The breakdown helped me understand the process of children’s growth.

[Maura Nicholson]

I found this developmental review so incredibly helpful. I have been out of the field for a couple years and I have a new perspective with a one-year-old at home. I think my biggest takeaway would have to be the concept of developmental phases. There have been so many instances for me personally where I feel like a particularly difficult phase with my daughter will never end–when will she sleep for longer periods? Why can’t she transition from prone to sitting? Even with the developmental knowledge I have, it can be difficult in the moment to truly comprehend that this too shall pass! And the next day and next week are completely different. Having a front row seat to her exploring and discovering the world is truly spectacular. I definitely appreciate Courtney’s perspective and relating the material to her personal journey as well!

[Amy Calderon]

My most valuable take away is remembering that every child’s development looks different. They are all going through their own journey and that we are there to guide them. I think that it is important to remind parents what is part of normal development when they seem frustrated with their child and especialy if they are not sure how to help their child. I think recognizing that children may not understand bad or good is also important, because it changes how we explain things to them. Knowing the developmental stages and understanding them are so important, so that we are not making unralistic expectations of children, or hold them back when they need to be moving forward.

[Mark Dunford]

Some of my biggest take aways is how musically intelligent at such a young age babies are. From being able to decipher between various vocal tones and inflections to understanding musical cues before they have language is pretty remarkable. Also, the various common behaviors laid out in each stage. For example 6 -9 mouth olds and/or developmentally 6-9 month olds mouth things and that’s OK as long as they’re not biting or mouthing anything they can choke on. It’s a great reminder to sometimes simply just let them act out these common behaviors in a safe way as well as remembering that it’s just them exploring and learning what their surroundings are which is a major aspect of their development.

[Jessica Solimini]

I agree and found it fascinating to think about how quickly even the smallest child picks up on tone and inflection. I also paid attention to the idea of kids looking for stimulating noises/sounds, and I got to see that in action observing Emily yesterday. She would change the volume or speed of her guitar playing and get such a reaction from one client – lots of wide eyes and happy surprise on their face each time.

[Billie Junget]

Mark it’s so cool how musical we all are at such a young age! Vocalizations are musical as well as the tones of voice, it’s incredible that the babies can recognize that.

[Jessica Solimini]

I loved the videos and chapters from this week – like I said in my personal reflection post, the baby years seem very far away to me sometimes even though my daughter is only 8. Going through all the stages of typical development was a nice refresher and walk down memory lane as I remembered the the times when I had no idea what was “normal” or expected. I wrote in big letters that music therapy can be an “opportunity to share another way of being” and that “many parents don’t know what typical behavior looks like.” Another big takeaway for me this week was about how mouthing is a natural way for babies to explore their environment and that it’s a behavior that needs to be allowed to happen. I was definitely guilty of the “don’t put that in your mouth” refrain. Remembering that behaviors that are not harmful are just the baby’s way of learning about the world was a key point for me this week.

[Billie Junget]

I think knowing the milestones and what’s “typical” for each developmental stage has been huge after this week’s content. In the SM classes, I observe so much growth from the kids in just the week since I saw them last. It’s okay for the kids to want to be independent and learn on their own. Sometimes I think we want to show the “right way” when it’s also important for them at this time to explore on their own, while we provide opportunities to do it safely. The language piece was impactful too, as I work with many people who may not have developed language at all, developed limited language/communication, and also with those who developed language very “typically” as it was described in this lesson.

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Wonderful observation! Children are generally the most “controlled” group of marginalized populations. It is so important we make space for autonomy and independence so that growth can occur in that individual’s timeline.

This is, of course, not to say that we don’t provide boundaries and expectations for safety…it is a delicate balance of finding where we can create a space for independence and autonomy while maintaining boundaries and safety.

[Reagan Rademacher]

This week’s content dug deeper into everything I’ve already learned about development. It’s so important to have reminders of the milestones and developmental stages! I’m thinking about clients I’ve worked with who have developed slower than “typical” and how I could have better helped them push along their development through music.

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Something that is also helpful is to know that “typical” development is a general space of understanding for those that fall on the average line of development. Those that are neurodivergent and disabled will not fall within the scales in a typical way and it is our job to support their individual time lines as opposed to “pushing them along.”

For example, many multiply neurodivergent individuals will have splintered locations on development scales; i.e. one area may be exceptionally high, another area may be lower, while others are in line with the typical path.

It should also be noted that even typical children will show “regression” in some areas when another area is making great strides. It’s a neurological process that focuses energy on one area of development while pausing or removing focus on other areas for that development to occur.

As Elizabeth, so wonderfully states, these developmental scales are a guide and information as opposed to prescription or exact account of each person’s development.

[Lincoln Bowen]

The thing that absolutely blows my mind is that even with these general milestones, even with them broken down into smaller categories and ages, each and every child is on a completely different developmental journey. In each domain. No two children are developing exactly the same. And what’s important is not whether someone is meeting a certain goal, but whether they are given the space to explore doing so. I love that music is an equalizer- that everyone can experience it in some aspect. No matter where a child is in their development, there is a part of music that can reach them. It’s super helpful to know these milestones, not from an age sense, but possibly from a timeline sense, where we can see a child’s current developmental progress and know the next skill that typically builds on that.

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