What are the needs of the families you work with?

[Meredith Pizzi]

What are the needs of the families you work with? What are the needs of your community? Share with the board how your families and communities might be unique.

[Victoria Fansler]

The Tulalip community is certainly unique as a sovereign nation with its own distinct culture. Generational trauma and systemic oppression are also relevant to this community. I think these factors shape the way it is appropriate (or not) to go about educating parents. In Tulalip culture, folks learn by doing, and cultural systems of education place each person as both learner and teacher. Thus, and expert-driven model is often inappropriate; at worst, it can mirror old imperialist systems. However, I have found that caregivers are open to new information, knowledge, and ideas if we offer them with humility and within a collaborative framework. Additionally, often caregivers approach me with specific issues along the lines of “My child doesn’t listen” and show they are excited to have a new point of view to support their child and take some stress off at home.

One major need in this community — highlighted to me because of how my client population is chosen — centers on building secure attachments between children and caregivers. Children may rotate between living with dad, auntie, grandpa, etc. and these caregivers need tools to form strong attachments when daily consistency is not an option. Similarly, some of my clients have parents who re-enter their lives after being separated due to illness or addiction. These parents need systems to help strengthen their relationships with their children when they return.

[Anonymous]

Victoria these are great insights about your community. It sounds like you have really taken the time to understand their needs and to work from a cultural perspective. I really like how you have worked as a “partner” with the families. I have also found in my work and Sprouting Melodies classes that a family centered approach where the parents are a partner is highly effective.

[Tori Clark]

I just began working part-time again this summer, so I’m still getting to know the “culture” of the center where I work. But what I am finding is that families who have children with special needs want their children to have as many of the opportunities their same-age typically-developing peers have. Our center began a club format in the evening (lego club, music club, etc.) where kids can gather around a common interest and develop those interests while also cultivating social skills and friendships. We hope that these kids and families will make connections which are deep enough to outlast the hour they spend together each week. I think the same could be said of a Sprouting Melodies group. The mother featured in the parent interview indicated that she and her daughter made lasting friendships as a result of their music classes. Likewise, we hope that families will feel a sense of community within the group and outside the group as well.

I also appreciate what Meredith mentioned in the “Successful Strategies” segment–that MTs should address parents’ anxiety by saying when a behavior is okay. I know from personal experience that all of us parents have anxiety about whether or not our kids are “doing it right” or whether or not WE are “doing it right”. This is also a major need of families today. It is anxiety-provoking to be a parent in a group and see that your child is not responding ideally. It is so helpful when the facilitator affirms something about what your child is doing, even if the behavior is not within your set of expectations. I do think music therapists have a unique ability to speak ease into a parent’s anxiety, and I think children pick up on that dynamic as well.

[Joanne Van Eycke]

Three years ago, when I got married, I joined the community of military families. My husband is a marine and it has been quite a journey learning this culture. We were stationed in Jacksonville, NC and I had a private practice there for 2 years before moving. It is a very transient community and a major need is support system for families. Most often the family is away from any extended family and friends. You need to make bonds quickly and then as quick as they are made they are gone. It can also be very lonely as the military spouse if their significant other is deployed or on training operations. Sprouting melodies would be something wonderful that the families could participate in as they would find support and camaraderie. Also, the fact that there are no prerequisites and that songs can not only be taken home, but to the next duty station would be great for families.

[Anonymous]

Joanne we have had quite a few military spouses and MT’s in military base areas take this training. Beth has experience as her husband was in the military. I believe they have been talking about working together in some way to support MT’s working with the military community. You can reach out to Beth to get more information about this.

[Joanne Van Eycke]

Wonderful! Thanks, Erika!

[Megan Neil]

Although I am still learning about my families and being added to cases I can speak about the families I have begun working with and what I know at this point. Being in early intervention the kids qualify if they have a diagnosis, have a delay of functioning in at least one area of functioning, or qualify for a certain number of risk factors. A big area of need for these families is understanding what early intervention is and what they would like from it. Our families decide whether or not they want to participate in early intervention. They also give input in what kinds of services they would like for their child (OT, PT, SLP, MT, DS, groups, etc.). For many of these families early intervention is a new entity and so they need education on what is offered and what they can utilize through our program. All of the parents want what’s best for their children. Most times they need education and help understanding childhood development and what to look for or what to work on to help the children progress. However the parents and family are always experts of their children. The big push behind early intervention is the team concept. Both parents and practitioners work together as a team to achieve established outcomes for the child. These are the family’s needs and the community as a whole. However case by case may be different. The wide spectrum of families in the Boston area is HUGE. Some families I have been to live in upper class communities in very expensive parts of Boston with door men and sign in procedures. Others live in homeless shelters without any toys or belongings. The spectrum is VERY diverse and so some of each families needs differ depending on their situation. Another area of difference is cultural differences, religions, family make-ups (same sex couples, child living with grandparents, foster care, adoption, blended families, etc.), race, ability levels, mental health needs of parents, etc. Working with families in a city means that you can’t walk into a home expecting anything. You need to have a blank slate and learn what their individual needs are as a family unit because every single family is different. I believe this is what makes my current community so unique.

[Debrah Evans]

Currently, I am not working with families per say, but the needs of the groups that I am working with are similar. The children have developmental needs, and the older adults I work with need the support of the resulting relationship that forms from having the group.

In the future, I could really see this working in my surrounding community at a community center such as a library or YMCA. I do not know of any early childhood music groups in my area so I think that a music group like SM would help fill a need for more music. Also, the areas in which I would be looking to practice is not as affluent as some other communities, and consequently parents may not have access to the resources and materials other may have. SM is an opportunity for anyone to learn even if they do have those resources and I could see a SM really being useful in connecting the communities and being a helpful resource to parents to promote healthy relationships and development between families and within families.

[Courtney Kjaldgaard]

I work with families that have children on the autism spectrum and I work with parents and babies/toddlers in the early childhood music classes that I offer within my community of Brandon, MB, Canada.

The families of children on the autism spectrum that I work with often request music therapy services because they want their child to be able to express themselves and to improve their language and social skills. They are looking for a therapy service that their child will enjoy and a space that allows their child to have fun and participate in a therapy service that doesn’t feel like “work” to them.

For the families that participate in my early childhood music classes, they want their children to improve their social skills so they can get used to being around other children their age before they go to daycare/pre-school or school. I also find that the families who join my baby classes use the time before and after each class as an opportunity to socialize with each other about parenting. They like to discuss topics such as motor development (if each of their babies are crawling, walking, etc.), what kind of equipment and clothing they use for their babies, breastfeeding, and daycare options. In my community, there isn’t a lot of opportunities for parents to get together and talk in person about the issues and struggles of raising a baby, aside from groups found on social media sites. Even though their discussions don’t have as much to do with the actual class, I feel that it is beneficial overall for the family and it is important to provide these groups as a social opportunity for both parents and children.

[Janet Buchanan]

The families of the preschoolers I worked with had some interesting needs. Since I worked with typically developing preschoolers, the families sent them to school for mainly social skills. These parents tended to be educated, and were really very concerned about their child learning letters, numbers and whatnot. Some of the preschool programs I’ve observed have been very academic and curriculum focused rather than play based. I think what the families really need are experiences that are developmentally appropriate for their children, led by someone who has a knowledge of developmentally appropriate responses. Parents have been so reassured to see their child on the same level as their peers and being successful in a class environment.

As far as the community’s needs go, I would say that building community is important. We had a lot of households where both parents were working or chauffeuring kids to activities much of their time, without the chance to create relationships with each other or seeing the friendships that their kids developed. I loved hearing in the parent interview how everyone got to know all of the children and take those relationships outside of music once a week.

[Peggy Grace]

As I mentioned in a previous post, I work with many special needs patients, in addition to a large migrant farming community. Most of the families, not all, are low income, so making financial needs met is always a challenge. The children usual have several specialist involved in their care, so having access to their healthcare needs can be challenging in terms of distance. Most have to drive either to West Palm Beach or even as far as Miami to receive care. In addition, the parents still have to work and care for other children in the family. Their needs are financial, sometimes transportation and obviously health. The program that I work under called Hope Kids Care brings their needs to them including, social work, nursing, art and music therapy, and helps collaborates with other agencies so that some of these needs can be met, or at least assist with finding access to community resources.

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