Share some of your experiences with children of this age and level.

[Anonymous]

Share some of your experiences with children of this age and level.

[Samantha M Lawrence]

I unfortunately haven’t had the opportunity to work with any infants in music therapy. I look forward to the opportunity. I love the new beginnings and curious exploration phase for kiddos! Although, I agree with Meredith saying in the video that it goes so fast!

[Celia Grove]

I haven’t worked with this earliest age range yet either, but I have worked with a few infants that were close skill set wise in early intervention. Most of my music selections were based on sensory experiences, and this was right after my internship in the schools, so it took me a while to adjust mindsets!

[Grace Baer]

I have also not worked with infants yet in music therapy. The youngest group I have had experience with so far is a group of 2-year-olds. Working with this group required a shift in thinking from working with my typical groups of children in Pre-K. In my Pre-K groups, I focus a lot of social/emotional skills, some academic skills, and gross and fine motor skills. Although I’ve been able to adapt a few of my interventions to fit the needs of my Two’s group, I really had to change my mindset to more of an enrichment focus. I’ve heard music therapy described as a “sneaky” therapy, and I think that’s especially true for this age group. They don’t know that I want them to practice following directions or impulse control, they just know they’re having fun! I’m hoping to combine my experience with these young groups with my new knowledge in this course when I do start work with infant-aged groups.

[Hally Batterman]

Most of my early childhood work was within a pre-school for children with disabilities. Most of my experiences were with children who were about 3-5 years old. However, I did run some music groups within that pre-school in the day care center of the school. Some of those children fell in the younger age range. I wish I had the knowledge from this training then when I was working in those day care classes because I feel I would’ve been more equipped to work with the kiddos while more organized in my thoughts. My heart has always been with the youngest ones and I’ve always had a dream of trying to work in the NICU. I didn’t realize that Sprouting Melodies actually had a designated group for infants post-NICU. I think that is such an incredible idea and I would love to try to start up a program like that in my current place of employment along with some of the other Sprouting Melodies groups.

[Leeann Mcmorrow]

I am so interested in the post-NICU group as well!

[Caitlyn Pawelek]

I unfortunately have not been able to work with infants yet in music therapy. My youngest client was just turning 2, and the most fit primarily into the 3 to 8 age range. I have been able to adapt the songs and the skills here with some of my older children in sessions and they all get a lot out of what we do! It has aided in building rapport with newer clients to help with therapeutic goals in sessions in the long run!

[Brenna Sheaffer]

I completed my internship at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and was fortunate enough to facilitate experiences with this age group in the NICU, the Hem/Onc unit, the PIMCU (intermediate care), and the general care units. Much of my work on these floors included developmental work because many of them were experiencing developmental delays due to hospitalization and diagnoses. It was so much fun to work with some of the trach-vent infants and observe them reaching developmental milestones such as vocalizing when they were learning how to use their valves on their trachs that allow them to communicate. Other milestones included grasp, reach, gaze/eye sight, and of course lots of bonding with their caregivers. Focusing on the bonding and psychosocial aspect of music therapy was very important with these infants to show them that they could still connect with their caregivers and not every interaction was going to be a ‘work’ interaction or a poking/prodding interaction which can often occur in the hospital setting.

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