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.

[Elizabeth Bentz]

When my son was about 6 months old, the only thing that I could do to get him to stop crying was play Bach’s Prelude in C Major from the Well Tempered Klavier book 1. Listening to this week’s videos, I believe that is because he could recognize the triads in the piece. The piece also has a lot of consonance and is predictable in structure. This would put him in the Awareness level of musical development.

[Diandra Doble]

Yes! I am sure he definitely heard the triads. Children in this developmental level prefer that consonance!

[Meghan Hanley]

I have seen a lot of children in the independence level at my school setting. When singing a song about a train arriving at the station, I used a crescendo to match the lyrics about the train moving closer and closer. The children in the room responded by increasing eye contact with me, matching the intensity of the song by moving arms with increased speed, and imitating the dynamics of the song with vocalizing.

[Holly Jurca]

I have seen a number of children with developmental delays. Something that seems pertinent is that repetition element and establishing trust. I like how Meredith made mention of the principle of repeating it 3 more times once one starts to get bored. I am prone to forgetting about this element, though with larger groups of children, I’ve often seen the level of engagement stay the same or even escalate when I repeat parts of the intervention. With more repetition comes more familiarity and more familiarity brings that “friendly” aspect to a song and eventual competence.

[Elizabeth Bentz]

Hi Holly. I also work with developmental disabilities, and I am guilty of not repeating enough. In fact, some times I wonder if I’m being “lazy” because I’m repeating the same thing over and over…I need to remind myself that at certain developmental levels, repetition is incredibly important.

[Erika Svolos]

Thank you for your insights Holly and Liz!

Something that Elizabeth S. has shared with repetition, that I found so helpful in my work, is that each time we repeat a verse or song, it’s done slightly different. For example, changing the tempo, dynamics, articulation, and/or improvising with new lyrics.

[Diandra Doble]

I notice that the children in some of the groups respond well to glissandos. During the hello song that I use, I hold out my vocalization of “hellooooooooo” and initiate a glissando with my voice getting higher and higher in pitch. The children respond by shaking their heads and vocalizing “ahhhhhhh” or “ohhhhhhh” along with me as they start to giggle. I match the vocalizations with my body movement as well by wiggling back and forth as I hold out that note.

[Author]

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