Review What You Heard

[Anonymous]

Reviewing what you heard today, describe a moment in your practice when you saw a child in one of the developmental levels.  Post your story on the forum.

[Samantha Springer]

In the past, I have served several children who were gaining greater awareness of themselves and of their surrounding environment (developmental level of awareness). We focused mainly on using music to provide a sensory experience (I worked closely with OT’s as well) to provide vibrational and tactile stimulation through the use of instruments that produced strong and low physical vibrations and sounds. I played a variety of instruments on different parts of their body such as on their legs or arms to provide them with the opportunity to feel the vibrations and gain greater awareness to these areas. I also noticed when they would turn their head or localize towards the sound of different instruments to gain greater awareness of their environment.

[Mikelia Wallace]

I currently work with a child who fits into the development level of awareness. She can locate the source of sound, she will repeat a “giggle” sound consistently throughout the session, she can briefly grasp instruments and she tolerates being rocked and moved to music for short periods of time. I’ve found with her that when she looks away and I stop the music, she will look back to me and I will begin making music again, when we do this she is much more engaged. What amazes me about these developmental levels is how they are so highly individualized. I work with Children with DD, and this client is an adolescent.

[Maria Ramey]

I consider one particular child who was in the level of awareness despite being older chronologically. I would play music on a variety of instruments from different angles and she would turn her gaze to the sound. If she looked elsewhere I would often stop the music and see that she would look back towards me. I also utilized a lot of sensory music at this stage with hand-over and hand-under hand assistance to help her strum a ukulele, feel a texturized shaker, or stroke a smooth tambourine. The different tactile sensations would catch her attention and re-engage her.

[Debbie Merideth-Zantout]

I have had the pleasure of working with many clients in the developmental level of trust. I had one client in particular that I served for many years. When she was upset, I would sing her favorite lullabies and she would alter the tone of her crying and over time calm and join me playing by reaching out to touch preferred vibrotactile objects such as a drum or rain stick. She would demonstrated pleasure of hearing a familiar song by smiling and closing her eyes to better enjoy the experience. She bounced on an exercise ball to the beat of familiar preferred songs especially when they sung verbally. We were able to utilize her joy in preferred music to work on eye contact and initiate vocal responses at the end of phrases during silence.

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