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.

[Lydia Westle]

I have been working with an infant awaiting a heart transplant who has had an extended hospital stay. It’s interesting to think about how she initially appeared to be functioning at the level of “awareness” when I first met her in a group several months ago, during which she participated receptively through listening, gazed at me when I sang / played guitar and focused her attention towards the music experience. In recent months in both group and 1:1 sessions, she has become much more interactive / playful and currently seems to be functioning primarily in the developmental stage of “trust”, with elements that seem to be progressing towards fitting in “independence”, though not all of them. In our work together, she reaches to strike the guitar with her hand, brings a shaker towards her mouth to explore orally (rather than shaking) and is incredibly vocal, – primarily through high-pitched “squealing” vocalizations that have a descending melodic contour. I’ve recently started vocally improvising in a call-and-response manner / mirroring her vocalizations, during which she smiles, laughs and continues to present as incredibly animated.

[Lydia Westle]

I had also meant to include that another behavior I’ve noticed that seems to fall under “independence” is that she recently just started clapping – not totally spontaneously, more in response to having it modeled to her. However, her parents were both really excited to see this new milestone, as it was a big one! We’ve now been incorporating clapping into songs, and at the end some songs as well.

[Camryn Gallagher]

I have been working with a child who will be 3 in December and I have been visiting 2x a month for almost a year now. In this post I’ll call him “J.” In reviewing this week’s material, I thought of J, because I think I actually watched him move from independence to control. During one session, his parents shared that they were feeling overwhelmed by his new, strong desire to make choices and be in control. He began to use words to tell me what he wanted or did not want. We found he would often say “no” when asked if he wanted to sing or dance. I could tell at first that his parents were a bit discouraged by this – “we have a MUSIC therapist who comes all this way, and J doesn’t want to make music with her!” But I tried to reassure them that I wanted J to feel the power of his “no.” If he’s choosing to put the instruments away now, then we will! Being in the “control” phase means we spent a lot of time learning to take turns with his siblings and handling the big feelings that would result. We also found that he responded really well to a “loud vs soft” game while he was strumming my guitar. We took turns being the “leader” who decides when we sing/play softly and when we sing/play loudly. This activity was the longest that J sat and engaged in something with me, and it provided his parents with a simple, easily repeatable activity that he enjoyed and that they could continue practicing with him after I left.

[Maura Nicholson]

I have a very distinct memory of singing and playing “White Christmas” on the guitar to my daughter when she was 2.3 months old. This moment can be categorized within the awareness and trust levels of development. She was lying on her back, and I was sitting on the floor next to her. This was really the first time that I felt like her vocalizations were purposeful and she made attempts to match my pitch throughout the song. When I stopped singing between phrases, she’d look in my direction and then continue to coo once I started singing again. She moved her limbs all around in response to the music for the duration. At the end of the song, I stopped playing and she smiled and gave the sweetest little giggle, seeming so proud of herself. Her whole body then settled once the music ended.

[Amy Calderon]

Maura, what a beautiful memory! How old is your daughter now? I hope you sing together now!

[Kate Jihye Choi]

I have been working with a child with ASD since last January, and I had the last visit with him today. Since I took this course, I have had a chance to discuss with his mom how he has musically developed. In the beginning, he was in the stage of awareness. He showed awareness of music and sounds but could not turn away from music when it was too much for him. He sat before the guitar for 30 minutes unless I redirected him to other activities. Firsthand, I thought he loved music, and he stayed there because he was so fascinated by music. However, looking back at those moments and thinking about the afterword of music, he always became exhausted and sought his mom’s breastfeeding. Now I can tell he was not ready for music for that long. As he develops physically and cognitively, moving to the stage of trust, he can turn away from music whenever he gets tired of sound and other stimuli. He can walk away and return when he is ready to move on. He can choose how to explore drums, shakers, and guitar, whether by hands, sticks, or sometimes just throwing. It may seem like he hasn’t made much progress in his development. However, I was glad I could share his improvement in musical development with his mom.

[MacKenzie Lyons]

There have been several moments when I have observed a child in one of these developmental levels. In one of the younger sprouting melodies classes that I am working with I often see children put the handle of a maraca in their mouth. Most recently I have also observed children discover the underside of a frame drum. They often make this discovery because they are exploring the drum with their hand and realize that the opposite side is different. This is an example of a child being in the trust development stage, during this stage, children begin to explore instruments with their hands and mouth.

[Olivia Todd]

While observing and facilitating sessions in preschools, I saw many students in and between the control and responsibility levels of development. In the classes with mostly three year old students, I noticed students singing along to the songs and following the contour of the melodies, however the lacked the tonal center and often sang longer or shorter rhythms. They appeared to really enjoy pounding on the frame drum or ocean drum. The slightly older students sing along to the familiar songs with more pitch and rhythm accuracy. I also noticed how differently each student danced. When it was time to dance, some students began randomly jumping around, flailing their arms, and twisting their bodies. This relates to the control level with spontaneous dancing. However, some students had much more coordinated/complex dance moves and moved along to the beat, which relates to the responsibility level. I also noticed the awareness level in a baby I observed in the NICU. The MT started singing and he immediately turned his gaze toward the sound.

[Elmira Abasova]

Today, I had a session with an 11-month-old boy. He showed most of the responses at awareness and trust levels. At first, he seemed to be shy but interested in me playing the guitar. He carefully observed his mom and me playing drums. When introduced to the maracas, the client started to through them on the floor to make sounds (after the session, he tried to do the same with my metal water bottle). I brought a tongue drum with me, and it was metal. It was funny to see how the kid approached and touched the cold drum for a moment. He made a surprised face and approximated to say “Oh” and then touched it again.

[Courtney McDonald]

During a group session, J. (6 yr old male), was very upset it was music time and the teacher had taken away his ipad. The ipad is used for entertainment and not communication. He was yelling and crying during the beginning of our greeting song. As the song progressed he gradually calmed down. When the song was finished and we had sung to each member of the group (approximately 5 minutes later), J looked at me and vocalized an approximation of “do”. This was very exciting and I pointed it out to the teacher and other staff in the room. This was the first time he had been in the circle and for the entire greeting song.

He is new to my group and I do not know him well. Up to this point he showed responses in awareness but they were fleeting as he is generally walking the room with his ipad or has been removed from the room due to screaming, or aggressive responses towards staff and students.

[Daniel DeLucia]

Many of the integrated pre-school groups I work with currently are learning about sharing, following directions, learning more about social skills and their place within the group. Therefore, I would say many of them fall within the developmental levels of “Control” and “Responsibility”. Many of them have awareness, trust, and independence. I remember there have been several instances in which many of the group members would frequently interject verbally as well as musically and thus required support from teachers and aide’s present. The group members at one school I see on Tuesdays last week, required some visual cues to help promote passing the drum around to their friend as well as musical cues to help promote listening and processing information being presented to them.

[Amy Calderon]

I currently have an 8 month old neice and I have been teaching a group music class that she is in. I have been able to see he in the Trust stage, where she is rhythmically moving her entire body in response to music. My sings the same song for her to sleep when she takes care of her and we know that she is ready to sleep when she repeats back a string interval patterns and then she falls asleep shortly after.

[Mark Dunford]

While facilitating sessions with a client who is an 8 year old boy with Developmental Disabilities, and Hydrocephalus I repeatedly see features of the Control developmental level. He spontaneously dances after making a song choice and will verbally fill in a lyric in a quiet speaking tone without any melodic contour.

I also work with a 4 year old boy with ASD. He often shoes features of the Independence developmental level. He often sings glissandos on an EE vowel sound, taps on drums when prompted, and babbles with some melodic intonation.

[Erika (TeamRH)]

Good morning:

I hope you are all enjoying the training so far! It is a pleasure to be here with you and to read your submissions each week.

I wanted to share some information about neurodivergence, disability, and language around these areas.

I am going to preference my submission but letting you all know I am AuDHD (Autistic/ADHD) and multiply ND/disabled (I have a host of other co-existing conditions related to my overarching neurodivergences that are directed related).

Each ND and disabled person is unique, in their needs and how they identify. However, it is important to be aware of how ableism has directed the narrative and the education of our communities and how we are talked about and viewed. Thankfully the Neurodiversity movement is having a great affect on these narratives. Below are helpful links that I believe will assist you in this training when you think about ND and disabled children within the material.

Please feel free to contact me here or privately with any questions. I specialize in Neurodivergence and Disability as it was the main area of focus within graduate school, my graduate school culminating project, and my lived experience. I have a living museum I created and continue to curate on this topic that I am also happy to share.

NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS

https://www.massadvocates.org/news/ask-a-self-advocate-the-pros-and-cons-of-person-first-and-identity-first-language

Identity-First Language

https://medium.com/@livedexperienceeducator/neurodiversity-affirming-practice-core-principles-f2c6d70661af#:~:text=Neurodiversity%20Affirming%20Practice%20prioritises%20lived,to%20define%20their%20own%20experiences.

[Jessica Solimini]

Throughout my pregnancy with my daughter I was aware that she could hear me and get to know my voice in utero. I decided “You are my Sunshine” would be our song and I would sing it to her often. Once she was born and in the awareness stage, I continued our routine of singing this to her and it always both calmed her and got her attention. She would routinely turn her face to me when I would sing to her. This continued until about age 2-3 where she would tell me “No sing now!” but that’s probably the Control phase haha.

[Reagan Rademacher]

During my internship at a children’s hospital, I worked with an infant in the NICU who did not tolerate much sensory input. MT was consulted to attempt to organize the auditory input and increase tolerance of stimulation. My supervisor and I started by humming softly. At the beginning, the infant only tolerated sound for ~1 minute or less, but slowly increased tolerance. Once tolerance was established for ~3 minutes, we began singing the infant’s name to them softly. The second session we did this, the infant looked toward my face as their name was sung! This infant was an excellent example of awareness.

[Billie Junget]

I work with a child in Sprouting Melodies who was 6 months old when he joined class. He started by primarily taking everything in in the Awareness stage. He often was on his back looking up at Mom or he was very inward, not looking up at the guitar or reach out to play a drum. After several weeks, He just started to look up at me when I take my guitar our and he vocalized for the first time during class! Slowly he’s been reaching out to open his hand on the drum, and now he taps it with his open hand. It’s very cool to see babies grow and develop physically and musically.

[Lincoln Bowen]

Many of the preschoolers I work with constantly display traits of the control phase. They move and work very quickly, always requesting to do songs faster. Kiddos who sing/vocalize are typically are close to the pitch and they will vocally match a musical cue of loud/soft. Something I find amusing and interesting is that many try to find new ways to play a drum, usually one that is louder (banging) or with a different body part. I think part of that control is the reaction they can elicit from me when they surprise me.

[Author]

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