Reviewing what you heard today, describe a moment in your practice when you saw a child in one of the developmental stages. Post your story to the board.

[Meredith Pizzi]

[Elizabeth Carras]

I love having children of varying musical developmental stages in my early childhood music classes, because it presents a great opportunity for scaffolding. If one child is helping Mom play a drum in a mostly steady beat (trust level), and another is not showing much interest in the instrument but is attentively watching their peer play (awareness level), I love being able to tell parents, That’s alright – your child is learning through observing the other child, and interacting with music, and the world, in a way that is comfortable for him/her right now.

[Kate Potrykus]

I currently work with a young girl who I observe to be somewhere in limbo between the Trust and Independence Levels. I find her fascinating to work with because she is, developmentally speaking, delayed in much of her functioning. When I first met her, she was presenting more in the trust level of music development – part of this probably had to do with the fact that I was a stranger. Now I’m seeing her develop into the independence level of music development and it is so fun to watch! I find I have to explain to mom and dad how big it is that she is developing musically, even if they can’t always pick up on the subtleties of it. For instance, last week, she began approximating speech by forming the shape of the vowel in the songs. She also responds heavily to the silence between verses and between songs. She let’s the silence settle, and then attempts to communicate (though due to disability, her communication is very limited).

Although my example is of that with a child who is developmentally delayed (and was actually referred to me due to developmental regression), it is still fascinating to see how she fits into these developmental levels. Now let’s hope that these musical developments will generalize to other facets of functioning!

[Rebecca Woodruff]

While I am not currently working with children. I was able to run a mini session with a few of my nieces and a nephew. I believe the youngest niece is emerging into the Responsibility Level. As we began our session, I had each of them choose an instrument and play only when I sang about them. While I was singing about one child, the others were to quietly listen to that child’s playing. My niece was able to listen successfully with only one incident of playing the drum when she was not supposed to. Therefor, she was able to demonstrate listening to peers, following directions, choosing an instrument and playing with purpose. When asked if she would like to choose a favorite song she chose “Let it Go”. While we sang the song. she chose not to sing and play several instruments instead. She was able to share or “trade” as I called it several instruments (the frame drum, maraca, and tambourine) with me and her peers. She showed great enjoyment of start and stop music games – often found within the Control level. When I played a simple rhythmic pattern she was able to play it back mostly successfully. Throughout our entire time together she chose not to sing which was completely valid.

[Susan Gannon]

Many of the children I work with are quite impaired in some way. I see one little 4 year old who I believe isn’t much past the awareness stage. When I first began to see him, he said nothing, vocalized little, would not sit in a chair for more than 2 seconds, and his way of interacting with you was to feel your face and try to scratch you. I have been seeing him for a few months now, and I am beginning to realize that although it may not seem like much, he is actually coming into the trust stage. He can sit in a chair for a few minutes, is trying more vocalizations, laughs when tickled, has a sign for wanting to swing and another for eat, and can even follow a few simple directions such as “touch head”, “clap hands” and “wave”. I like the developmental stages outlined by Raising Harmonies because it focuses on emotional stages that lead to learning and development, rather than how a typical birth to 6 months or 1 year old develops.

[Shelly Peterson]

I see different levels in my infant class I teach and learning about these has opened my eyes to so many more things with the infants I work with. There is one infant who is in the awareness stage and demonstrates this by choosing to look or not, choosing to reach toward the music of my guitar or not and chooses to turn her attention away or not. What I find the most difficult is helping the parents understand she is making a choice and it is ok whatever she chooses. The parents just want their baby to do a good job and what is expected, but they don’t realize my expectation is to allow the child that freedom to choose. I work more each week on educating the parents to allow the child to make their choice.

[Julia Park]

My client is my 8 month daughter right now. She is currently in the infancy stage which is from birth to 18 months. This is when children develop a sense of trust when caregivers provide reliability, care, and affection. A lack of this can lead to mistrust. For her development stage, I find that bonding songs and music for transition work really well. In addition to that, my client was able to focus outwardly to music in response to “play”- style by hitting the drum with drum sticks in both hands just a few weeks ago. It was such an exciting moment to watch her experience music outwardly. I now know that this is part of the musical characteristics for “Trust” stage. Like Shelly has mentioned, most parents are in the performance mindset instead of growth mindset which means their focus in more on the result instead of the process. Music therapists play such a crucial role in not only teaching developmentally appropriate songs to the families but also psychoeducate the families the normal developmental stages and realistic expectations for their children that is appropriate for their developmental stages.

[Marcie Hernandez, MT-BC]

I have also seen different levels of musical development in a music class for little ones I lead once a week. Within the class, I have one young boy, about 18 months, who is in the Trust level. He will grasp mallets and use them purposefully to hit a drum. He will play rhythmically, but not always in-tempo to the music. I can see him also moving into the Independence level, when he moves away from his parents at different times in the class, pulls himself up to a standing position and will begin to bounce and move to the music on his own. It’s wonderful to see the joy and instinctive response he has to the music.

[Kristina Rio]

I enjoyed reading all of your experiences with children you are working with or, Rebecca in your case, your nieces and nephew! It’s amazing what you start to notice and apply once you understand more about the levels of development!

[Christina Bass]

I am still in the assessment phase for many of my young clients and I found this information very insightful. Most I would say fall somewhere within the awareness, trust, and independence stages. One of my kiddos was most likely in the control stage when I began working with him and seems to be moving more into the responsibility stage. He has been really tuning into changes to the structure, dynamics, and tempo of the music and engaging more in following directions and imitating rhythm patterns. In our last session he listened to a chord progression I was playing and spontaneously began to sing a melody that fit with it.

[Nicole Drozd]

Right now I work with a boy with autism who is in between the developmental stage of control and responsibility. In regards to instrument playing he can play simple and complex rhythms that fit within the musical structure of the song. Lately however, I have noticed that he has been leading the musical improvisation or the tempo/dynamic of the song on the drum and this has been a great opportunity to trade leadership. Not only does he follow the tempo and dynamic of what I do, but when he is ready he will take the reigns and change the song to fit what he wishes to do. This has prompted more eye contact, giggling, and screams of joy from him. It has been pretty neat to see the changes he has been going through the last few weeks.

[Alexis Ramagnano]

I have not had the opportunity to work with children professionally yet, but this weeks lesson helped me identify which musical developmental levels my children are currently in and it also helped me recall some very fond music making memories from the past. For example…
When my son was an infant (Trust level) he loved when I sang a song I made up with lyrics “bouncy, bouncy, bouncy boy” whenever he was bouncing in his lounge seat. I would sing it and help him bounce, he would frown a few seconds after I stopped, kick his legs, and then I would begin to sing again. Soon he was able to connect, when he kicked and bounced his chair, Mom would sing! He also LOVED the song “When You’re Smiling”. Eventually he began mimicking my facial expressions. He would smile and laugh along and would even open his eyes wide, raise his eyebrows, and pout during the “when your crying, you bring on the rain” section. It is one of my favorite memories and I am so appreciative to be able to connect these experiences to the musical developmental levels. I realize how helpful this knowledge will be when offering support and reassurance to the families and children I hope to work with.

[Daniel Henry]

I don’t yet work with any children in this age group, but I loved learning of the different levels of musical development and how to really use musical interventions to assist development and growth for children as well as to recognize how they interact with music. I really enjoyed hearing the different ways Meredith and Beth help parents understand these levels, and how their child is engaging appropriately for their developmental age.

[Johanna Horn]

I work at a preschool and I am always seeing a variety of developmental stages. When my music classes have extra time before transitioning to the next class, we always sing familiar tunes (ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, etc). I always begin playing the melody/chords on guitar and I have witnessed a few children demonstrating the Trust stage and those children are able to distinguish familiar melodies.

On a personal experience, on of my three year old daughters has been demonstrating the Responsibility stage. She is able to sing her sing familiar melodies and piggyback lyrics for what she is doing. For example, during bath time she may be singing to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, “I am washing my feet. They are stinky and need soap”.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for sharing. It is wonderful to hear how you are each finding this information helpful in your work and with your own children.

[Charniqua Snell]

In one of the groups that I see, I have children in the awareness stage although their physical age is higher than infancy. I had to learn to appreciate silences like you talked about in the video. Even though it felt awkward to me at first, they needed that time to refocus and prepare for the next musical intervention. Also, the children can become over-stimulated easily with sounds that are too loud or with too many sounds at once just as a smaller child would. It also took time for them to tolerate the new sounds and therapist they were not used to hearing. Now after a month of seeing them, the sessions run smoother mostly because I am able to read their body language and cues, and also structure the session so they are most successful.

[Flora Whitmore]

I have watched my step daughter, who is six now (she had her birthday) come into the resonsibility stage, shaking shakers when she hears the word “shake!” in the lyrics, or choosing a motion, a color or a body part to complete verses of her favorite song. She also invents sung verses like “daddy has a kangaroo on his head” adapted from songs she has heard me sing. She will melodically match when I hum and copy short phrases I plunk out on the piano. She’s my favorite plant for library group because she’s a great model for other kids.

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