Review What You Heard

[Julie Palmieri]

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

[Sarah Braverman]

There was a child I was working with today who demonstrate responsibility in music through the use of rhythm, duration, and structure. His mom and grandpa came to watch the session I had with him today. The client was able to play multiple instruments with me by imitating simple rhythmic patterns while maintaining a steady beat to familiar songs we used throughout the session. We played colored xylophones during the session and I had him play a colors song with me on the instrument together. The client and I increased the lengths of sounds produced in order to understand the concept of colors and distinguishing which color was which. His mom then encouraged the client to show me how he played “This Old Man”. The client increased the length of the sounds produced in the moment and played the song with no errors. He also demonstrated great listening skills as we took turns playing the ocean drum when we sang “The Goldfish Song” in our session. When the fish got tired it was my turn to play the ocean drum, and he recognized that it would be his turn when he had to wake up the fish by playing the drum. He also made an interesting comment during the session, which was “Music is alive!”

[Erika (TeamRH)]

I enjoyed reading your response. Thank you for sharing with us 🙂

[Talia Morales]

Specific to the awareness developmental level, I had the immense honor to be present as a doula during the labor and delivery of a baby this week, and had a chance to witness responses to music in the first moments of his life. I had worked previously with mom and dad on co-writing a personalized lullaby which they’ve been singing to him while in utero. On that first day, first moments of his life, he had his eyes closed during the golden hour of skin on skin time with mama. Afterwards the nurses swaddled him and when his lullaby was sung to him, he opened his eyes so distinctly, mom and dad were touched! On day 2 I came back for a visit and baby was fussy, squirming and crying and again, we sang his lullaby and he immediately stopped crying.

[Erika (TeamRH)]

What a beautiful experience. Thank you for sharing it with us. 🙂

[Brooke Langley]

When my cousin was an infant, I would sing Frère Jacques to her. When she was about 5 years old and I was trying to get her to go to sleep, I sang it and she immediately fell asleep. I was in high school at that time and I thought it was so cool that she remembered it. I didn’t really understand the power that music has on us back then. Now that I’m adult and have gone through music therapy training and studied music, it all made sense! So when we had our son, I now sing You Are My Sunshine every night to help “condition” him to that sleepy time. And I’ll use it during the day when I need him to just lay down and rest for a little bit.

[Julie Palmieri]

My youngest daughter, Alice, was in a music class with me when she was at the Awareness level. Her teacher started playing two tone bars together at the same time, and I observed Alice just stop what she was doing, staring closely at the teacher – then she quickly looked over her shoulder at me, as if to ask, “Mom, did you hear THAT?!”

[Brooke Langley]

That’s such a sweet and fun moment when you see that “Ah HA!” look come across their face!

[Brooke Langley]

One little boy in my music class is showing the first signs of Independence during his developmental level. But because of his diagnosis of Autism, his mom kept trying to bring him back to the group and make him sit still and listen. During the next session, I included a time where the children in the class could have that time to play instruments and discover sounds on their own. During this time, I talked with the mom about letting her son explore and that music is a safe place for him to express his independence, even with his disability.

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