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]

[Lauren Roberts]

This question actually fits perfectly with what I like to call my first music therapy “ah ha” moment…that first practicum experience where I saw that what I was learning to do is something special and can make a huge difference in people’s lives. I believe it is a pretty good example of the developmental stage of Trust.

I was in the special needs classroom of an early learning center. Children were 3 and 4 years old with significant developmental delays, and some having already received an official autism diagnosis. It just so happened that on one particular day when I showed up for music therapy that there was only one student, so he got to have a one-on-one session! During one activity my goal was for him to imitate rhythm patterns that I played on a drum. No luck. He was deep in his own world and didn’t even seem very interested in the drum at all. Then he began to play his own rhythms, but nowhere close to imitating mine, and he didn’t even seem to realize I was there. A thought occurred to me, and I began to imitate HIM. Immediately after I repeated his rhythm he looked up and locked eyes with me, and smiled this huge smile. He looked back down to the drum and began playing other patterns, even waiting after for me to repeat. He would stop suddenly, thinking he was tricking me, and then quickly begin again. His teacher was amazed to see the interaction; it was as if we were having a real conversation…something he had never done. When he had had enough he just stuck his arms out toward me with the drum and mallet as if to say “Okay, I’m done now.” And then another of those smiles that I like to think was him saying “Thank you for coming into MY world for a little bit, instead of trying to pull me out into yours.” It was such a simple game, but I know I had earned his trust because from then on, every time I arrived at the classroom he would greet me at the door, take me by the hand, and lead me over to the rug where we would have our sessions.

[Kristina Rio]

What a wonderful and special story. Thanks for sharing Lauren!

[Lauren Caso]

I would say I see many children in the “Control” stage, at one of my present Music Therapy preschool sites. Most children are able to choose an instrument without prompting from an adult, and are able to “echo” simple call and response of simple melodies. During movement activities, many of the children at this site are able to rhythmically move their body up/down or back and forth to the beat, regardless of whether or not they can imitate the movement precisely. When I start playing the guitar, many children spontaneously start swaying or rocking their body to the beat. Gross motor skills seem most prominent here, and often both arms mirror movement with a rhythmic pulse. Some children still use both hands to play a drum or shaker instrument, while others are beginning to be able to hold a lollipop drum and stick in separate hands, moving toward independence.
Specifically, I have one student who is nonverbal and has down syndrome, who starts rocking in her special chair to the beat whenever I start playing a song. She uses both hands to wave “hello” during Hello Song, and sways on her feet when standing up during movement activities. She initiates to help “clean up” nonverbally on her own recently, upon completetion of an activity using props/instruments.

[Kristen Crouch]

So my 4 month old has obviously been in the awareness stage. He clearly knows and prefers my voice over others. But I have always found it interesting that he responds very well to my mother’s voice because our timbres are so close. Also, he has a preference for a specific lullaby that if I hum to him soothes him to sleep. Not sure why he chose that one but its familiar to him and always seems to work. Its also been neat to see him explore his voice (awareness to trust) from little soft coos to loud screeches. We’ve actually nicknamed it the velociraptor. He is also in the stage where he mouths everything so a maraca at this point is still something to explore with his mouth as opposed to an instrument.

I found it very interesting to learn about the musical development as it compares to other types of development in kids and how this is important in my clinical work with children with ASD. For instance when working with 3-5 year old children with ASD we stress so much the importance of staying seated in the group, holding the instrument properly, not mouthing it, shaking it or hitting appropriately, making sure they clap and not tap or do something other than the appropriate words. Learning the stages of music development makes me think that perhaps we have should been approaching the mt groups differently. I am SO glad I am learning this info – it will make me a much better MT.

[Kristina Rio]

Kristen, just for the sake of further discussion and reflection, how would you approach your group differently given this new information?! It’s great that you are applying what you have learned to your clinical work.

[Lauren Roberts]

That’s a great point, Kristen! I think sometimes it’s easy to want or expect kids with ASD to behave their chronological age, not their developmental age. The whole point of the diagnosis though, of course, is that they’re delayed so if you really think about it why WOULD we expect that? Something to think about for sure!

[Sarah Gagnon]

Hey,
I’m working with a little girl with Joubert’s Syndrome in EI. Meredith mentioned during the Awareness Level, the ‘audible breath’ and I can’t stop thinking about this great kid. The awareness or arousal levels can vary depending on the diseases or conditions our clients may have. I’ve attached a link to Genetics Reference page for the syndrome.

During each session, I try and leave space for her to respond/sing/breathe in the music. Her parent is persistently pushing for the “right response”. It can be a juggle to promote an open space where she has time, her time, to respond.

Many times she is doing that audible breath. Now I can continue encourage more response time and educate the family not only about the breath but about encouraging simplicity and repetition when they are singing with her.

I encourage the family to sit, sing and/or watch youtube with her during the week in a relaxed way without a right or wrong way to do it. She loves it when her parent and grandparent sing to her in sessions. Encouraging them to engage with her and to promote these experiences for bonding and trust. We use roughly all the same pieces of music: simple nursery rhymes and Dad sings Piano Man by Billy Joel in a lullaby-like voice. I used the movie example of Three Men and a Baby when Tom Selleck is reading about a prize fight in a sing-song voice to lull the baby to sleep and says to someone, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”.

Another final piece to I’ve observed is that when this kid is overwhelmed, she arches back forcefully. I believe it is the syndrome and a key piece for all of her music experiences. She appears to do it when there is too many timbres and/or complex rhythms or percussive sounds ex: Dad and MUTX singing with guitar=bad-(arching)…where Dad and guitar=good (appears relaxed and engaged). I tried playing a cedar flute as well to try a different timbre. Short melodies were great offering orienting responses and listening; an extended melody (1-3min) caused her to arch suddenly and be overwhelming.

If anyone has resources or experience with this syndrome- please contact me!! Thanks!

[Lauren Roberts]

Sounds interesting, Sarah, but I can’t seem to find the link you mentioned? Would love to learn more about this, as I have never heard of Joubert’s Syndrome. Thanks!

[Sarah Gagnon]

I tried to use the ^—link button…..

Helping Families All Around The World

Does that work?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for sharing Sarah! Sounds like you are a doing great work!

[Bernadette Skodack]

Just a couple of days ago, a family member posted a video of her 16 month old daughter using a coffee can as a drum. She was playing it upside down and using the spatula from a Foreman grill. She then used a crayon…then tried a different crayon. She then turned the coffee can so she was playing on the plastic top. After a few beats, she turned it back over and played on the bottom. While she was playing the coffee can, she was singing! Her pitch actually stayed the same, but the singing did match each time she would start back up (she stopped singing when she would stop playing the coffee can and then would sing when she started playing). The video was over a minute long. It was so cool to see her experiment with beaters and with the can itself! In a way, she had control over what she was doing, how she was playing, what she was playing with, and how she was singing.

[Barb Blackburn]

The timing of this module with my practice was perfect! Before this week I really wouldn’t have had much to add since most of our clients are at a school age or older level. We just had an assessment meeting on Monday with a new client, and had her first exploration session on Wednesday. She is currently functioning at a one year old level. She seems to be between the awareness and trust levels. She was looking and reaching toward us while we were singing, and exploring instruments with her mouth and hands. She can, at times, hum along to parts of songs, and was trying so hard to sing “e-i-e-i-o” as well as making animal sounds. She LOVED playing bells and hearing us sing “Jingle Bells”, that may be her favorite song! Before doing some sensory or attention interventions, we would say “ready, set, go!” and she as imitating the rhythm of the words with a grunting/humming sound each time we said it. It was very cool to see. At one point her mother played a recording of her own voice making some silly noises and rhythmic chants and the clients reaction was very different toward her mother’s timbre, than to us at the therapists. All of outcomes that you talked about for those two levels are things that we are looking for from her, it’s so cool to see a client and then hear all of this, it lines up so perfectly. My supervisor and I were chatting about the developmental levels as we were working with her. I’m looking forward to using some Sprouting Melodies songs with her next week.

[Kristina Rio]

Barb, that sounds wonderful! So glad this material could apply for you at such a time of need.

[Lauren Roberts]

Yes, Sarah, the link is there now. Thank you!

[Caitlin Kauffman]

I have been racking my brain (did I use that word correctly? ha!) for an example here. As my recent work (past 3 years) has been in hospice, and the work with children starts at approximately age 6 through grief camp, my professional experience is perhaps not the place to look. The youngest kids at camp are definitely in the responsibility phase. During our groups, they are able to match rhythms and feelings, listen to their peers, and play within a group. Their ability to play expressively seems to be developing and they are able to cooperate with their peers (with some encouragement). It really is quite remarkable to watch, as I have noticed that sometimes the 6-7 year olds are more insightful than some of the older groups.

A close friend of mine just had a baby (7 weeks old). In spending time with them, I definitely see the “awareness” phase, and enjoy watching him respond to his environment. He definitely seems to recognize his mom’s voice, and he kind of always looks like the child in the powerpoint slide – wide-eyed and a bit terrified. Man, is it adorable! These are the best examples I have right now.

[Katherine Sestrick]

I’m going to refer again to the the set of two year old twins that I work with. These kiddos are clearly in the “Independence” stage. I see these kids at their house and they immediately say “guitar” when I arrive. The boy twin will stand right next to me with his hands on the strings while the girl twin sits calmly on my other side, waiting for her turn. They use words to express their preferred instrument, with the boy twin preferring the drums and the girl twin preferring the sticks. They both use single words to make these request. They like to play along with the music and love start/stop games. The boy twin laughs and gets a huge smile on his face during these games. He also really loves sudden changes in dynamics/tempo and both kids can respond to these changes within a few beats. Since I am working on expressive language, we do a lot of leaving words off of endings of songs and phrases for them to fill in. Both kids are able to sing these words approximately on pitch, but are not yet singing full songs. Both kids also love songs that practice movement and following directions. Typically, both will imitate a movement when it is first sung/demonstrated, then move in to their own preferred movement (spinning or dancing).

[Amy Dunlap]

This training also comes at a good time for me; I haven’t really worked with children for a long time (early undergrad), but in the last week have started co-treating with some SLPs in outpatient care at a local children’s hospital AND experienced my first Sprouting Melodies class yesterday! My colleague Elyse took the January training and led her first group yesterday (she had 37 kiddos!) and we were there to support. During that group, I observed a girl in the Independence stage. Elyse did a start-and-stop instrument song and this particular girl was very respondent to the silence following the play section. She stood next to her mom most of the time, moving her whole body more or less to the beat while she shook her maraca. After each “and stop!” the girl would take a few seconds to stop and when the silence set in, she would let out a joyful giggle while waiting for Elyse to begin again and she would then continue to play, only to shriek with delight each time the silence set in.

[Ann Dardis]

An example that I can think of for Trust is a child in my class that likes to explore different instruments during our free instrument play time. She makes her way over to the heap of instruments, chooses one & then scurries back to mom to play with it. After a little while, she ventures out again to get a different instrument & then returns to mom. This continues throughout the play time. While playing she displays movement that is rhythmic, but not synchronized to the music.

[Kasey Sollenberger]

I currently am working with two sets of twin boys in a group that are strangely similar. Within each pair, one of the twins is typically developing and the other is slightly delayed. It makes for a very interesting group session! One set of the twins are 2 years old and the others just turned 3. Both typical boys are in the control stage. They love to play along to the stop & go songs, imitate movements and melodies, and play instruments in various tempos. The developmentally delayed twins are just entering the independence stage. They are starting to explore and play instruments functionally, move their bodies to a beat, and imitate or repeat sounds. It is fascinating to me to be able to examine their development in comparison to one another!

[Brandy Jenkins]

**Late Entry as I am Catching Up on Posting**

Referring to the pre school setting I recently began servicing, I see many in the “Control” stage. Several children enjoy having control and having their peers imitate their movements. They also choose instruments independently whether it be from many in the circle or choice of two. Several children request the instrument they want as well! One child in particular has fantastic control over his motor movements when music is added. He pats his hands on his knees and hits the drum to a basic beat and often times can imitate a complex pattern.

[Author]

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