Share Your Strategies

[Meredith Pizzi]

Share some strategies you have used to assure every child in your groups is successful.

[Carolyn Keenan]

I make my expectations clear and communicate with support staff. I use modeling along with simple language/directions. I usually use verbal prompting before physical prompting (unless the situation requires otherwise)! I keep abilities and developmental levels in mind when planning and executing a song.

[Alison Barrington]

Carolyn – I completely agree with all you’ve written – thank you! So, in a way, I don’t have much more to add. I do particularly feel that modeling is a great way to work but prompting is also needed at times.
I tend to provide very positive comments to encourage – and I’ve liked this aspect when hearing both Beth and Meredith.

[Elana Dietz-Weinstein]

I use similar strategies to Carolyn and Alison, and also build on the strengths of each child to further engage them in the group process. I also use a lot of verbal acknowledgement/redirection and provide choices whenever possible.

[Kimberly Rodgers-Melnick]

I had a new child join my Monday morning Music Together class this semester who presented a challenge for me! He was a kinesthetic learner, moved around A LOT, and had very limited spatial awareness. I approached my center director about it and her advice was very similar to the advice given by Meredith and Beth and I implemented it immediately. She gave me a few pieces of advice on the levels Meredith and Beth talked about. 1. If the child is moving, but engaged and safe, just point it out, put the parents at ease by letting them know that you see the behavior, and you are OK with it, and even encourage it! 2. If the child is moving and unengaged, try to re-engage them with the music, try scooping them up, get up and follow them around the room (not chasing them, but just shadowing them)– I wasn’t sure if this would work, but it did! and finally if the child reaches a point where they are moving and dangerous, verbally and/or physically redirecting depending on the need. I also sent an email to the caregiver after our first session to talk about strategies for helping their child be successful. He has been getting used to the structure of the group and through these strategies he has had a successful music experience! 🙂

[Carolyn Keenan]

Sounds like we all have similar strategies! Kimberly, thank you for sharing your story — it is great to hear about your successful experience!

[Laura Pruett]

I appreciate your input, everyone! Carolyn, your first comment reminded me that I used to start my Kindergarten sessions by explaining the rules to the kids. (I don’t know how well this would go over in groups with kids ages 18 months to 3 years. Saying things like, “No hitting” might give them the idea to hit.) Over time, I didn’t need to do that anymore, since they learned the rules. If anyone needed reminding during the session, I would bring it up.

One thing I learned from a social worker, who co-led groups with me, was to reinforce the positive bx of everyone else. For example, if a child stayed sitting down when I asked everyone to stand up, I would give high fives to everyone who stood up. Usually by the time everyone else has gotten a high-five, the child who was sitting down would then stand up for their high-five and would stay standing to engage.

I also use a lot of positive reinforcements, verbal praise, stern looks when needed, and giving choices.

I love all the reminders and tips for behavior management from Beth and Meredith, especially the reminder to use sign language. I don’t use ASL nearly enough with the little ones I see.

[Anonymous]

Hi Laura, another consideration might be to focus on what you do want to see. As you stated, when we tell a child “no hitting” it’s inviting the child to explore what will happen if they do hit. You may want to focus, when you see an inappropriate behavior, “remember to have gentle hands,” “It’s so difficult to wait out turn. I can see you are so excited to have one. I know you can do it and if it’s really tough, maybe Mom (Dad, Grandma, etc) can give you a hug to help you.” It’s important to remember to validate children’s feelings. It’s very common, especially in the US, that we focus on “good and bad” and my favorite “you get what you get and you don’t get upset.” But, we do get upset, jealous, angry, etc. These are normal feelings for everyone and they are really “big and scary” for young children. So it is important to validate and ask what the child may need to help them with their big feelings and then to talk about and model how we handle those feelings effectively. This is also great things to share with parents, because I can say from my own experience it’s tough to be a parent and deal with all these “big feelings” that happen ALOT!! So, seeing a professional validate and support is a really valued!

[Laura Pruett]

Erika, I don’t have any kids, and I live across the country, but can I come be in your groups? You sound so welcoming, accepting, and validating, it’s beautiful. As a clinician, I know everything that you are saying, and I know how important it is to validate and model how to appropriately handle feelings. But doggone it, sometimes it goes out the window when you are managing a room full of preschoolers. I really appreciate you helping me to refocus on the positive, and also gently providing tools and tips for the caregivers.

[Jen Hinton]

To assure that every child is successful:

I will try to remember and communicate that if children are moving but engaged/safe, reassure parents and point out how they are engaged (eye contact, moving). If a child is moving and un-engaged, I will try to remember to refocus them with the music- maybe pulling out a really engaging/motivating instrument!

Erika, I love “remember to have gentle hands.” “It’s so difficult to wait out turn. Maybe Mom (Dad, Grandma, etc) can give you a hug to help you wait.” I will try to remember that: It’s important to remember to validate children’s feelings.

I am guilty of using “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” as I’m handing out instruments to a big group. I need to find a way that can quickly? validate? I would love to brainstorm some ways to handle that. I’m afraid that for the groups I’m envisioning one strategy would be less participants per class. 🙂

Most of all, I will try to remember to meet each person where he/she is and to use music to help me create a welcoming, fun, safe community.

[Anonymous]

Laura you are always welcome in my groups 🙂

A room full of preschoolers can be quite a handful, to say the least, and I completely empathize with the challenges that come with it! Especially if you do not have adults in the room who are fully supporting you, following you and modeling for the children. I wanted to share that prior to training with Sprouting Melodies, entering into supervision with a humanistic MT and having a child, I had worked in a large urban school district where part of my time was providing whole class music therapy services to general and special education pre-school classrooms. I had many sessions filled with challenges due to the high needs in the class and minimal support from teachers and aides. And, Jen I also used the phrase “you get what you get,” because this is what I was taught.

However, the SM training, supervision and reading “mounds of resources” on parenting and the brain, I gained a new perspective on behavior which freed me up from feeling “responsible” for my student’s behavior, making sure everyone was “behaving” and helped me to educate the adults in the room about the same thing. I shifted my focus to understanding the children will have moments of not listening, following directions, having melt-downs, testing boundaries and even dangerous behaviors. This is a part of child development and it will consistently challenge me.

I am going to share from my experience and what I have found to be successful, however I am sure everyone here has some wonderful and helpful ideas on working with the challenging behaviors that come with early childhood work.

Below is what I use, in no particular order and keep in mind some of it takes time to develop so I have to be really patient when things don’t “work” and remember it is a process

* I train, teach and educate all the adults in the room everything I list below. Many times, I do this as I am running the group.

* I set “expectations” from the beginning and remind the group each week as we begin about them. When I give directions, I keep the focus on what is expected working my best to avoid language that focuses on behaviors I do not want to see. Over time I ask the students to tell me what we do with our hands, who we treat each other, where to listen and etc.
E.g. We need to be kind to each other. We need to be gentle with our hands. We need to listen to the speaker. Are your listening ears turned on? We need use our voice when we are upset.

* Validation by acknowledging and labeling the emotion for the child “It seems this is very frustrating. Wow, I can see you are very angry. etc.” This also helps the child to develop the ability to recognize and identify their feelings.

* Offering support and suggestions “I know this is hard and you can take a break if you need. Maybe you need to sit with me while you are feeling upset.”

* Making sure I always have at least two choices for every student so they never feel left out or that they have lost a choice while everyone else got one.

* If a group struggles with flexibility in having choices, but not getting an option they wanted. I may limit the instrument choices or everyone gets the same thing. So, this may be everyone gets one chiquita maraca, everyone gets a drum, we all play the gathering drum together or we take turns with an “in-group and out-group.” Out group may sit and watch, play the same instrument, have scarves etc. In-group plays an instrument of their choice so everyone gets something they want.

* When making a choice takes so long the children become restless, “we tap our legs and count to 10” and each student is encouraged to make a choice and sit down by the time we count to 10. If they don’t make a choice they will sit and wait and have a turn again when they are ready.

*If a group really is not ready to handle choices and I do not have enough of one instrument for everyone, I would use body percussion and work towards helping them to develop the ability to deal with disappointment. Body percussion and movement in and of itself helps to regulate the brain integrating both the left and right hemisphere. It regulates the limbic system and keeps the amygdala calm. Research has also shown that doing these kinds of movements changing tempo and increasing and decreasing stimulation enhances the parts of the brain that handle executive functioning (the pre-fontal regions of the frontal lobe). One consideration is to make sure that as you come to an end with these types of experiences you want to move to a slow tempo and stimulation level so the children regulated and calm. If you end too stimulating then the system is set to high and the children may be “all over the place.”

* Giving children the option to take a break away from the group or telling a child to take a break. (Honestly this works best when you have at least one adult to help with the break taking.) If a child gets so upset and they truly are unable to regulate themselves, calm down and wait their turn/cope with disappointment/etc. I give them a choice, “you can take a break and come back when you are ready” or I give them 3 warnings letting them know that if they are unable to calm down I will ask them to take a break to “re-set” and come back when they are ready. And, again I have another adult who I have trained how to handle the big feelings to help with taking a break. This technique takes some time and effort to be effective so the first few weeks you may see meltdowns, but meltdowns are just the child’s level of development in self-regulation. Also, a break is not outside of the room or looking away from the group. A break is a distance behind the group where they can watch and calm down. It’s important it’s not a punishment, but rather a tool to calm down, take care of the self and return when ready to be “with” the group.

*I do a lot of education within my groups on teaching the children and adults coping skills. Deep breathing, feeling identification, counting to 10, soothing movement and sensory integration techniques so that when a child becomes upset, dysregulated, overwhelmed and etc. I or the adult recommend the children use these to help them self-soothe. The ability to self-soothe does not fully develop until closer to Kindergarten/1st grade depending on the child, how they were taught to cope with their feelings and if they have a disability. So, many times when we are in transition from one experience to the next or just ending an experience I teach these tools.
E.g. At the end of the hello song, “Everyone take a quick deep breath in, bring up your hands and let’s pretend to take blow a big bubble. How big can you make it? Blow really slowly so you don’t pop it too quick. Okay get ready, get said, Pop your bubble.” And then we clap our hands pretending to pop the bubble.

I would love to hear if any of the above is helpful and for anyone else in the group to also offer ideas they have found to be successful.

[Jen Hinton]

Erika,

this is awesome! I will be printing it out and applying/integrating it (probably at home as well as professionally!) Thank you for your input and sharing your wisdom.

Jen 🙂

[Claudia Eliaza]

I use positive reinforcement in my classes. When kids successfully follow directions and show me that they are listening with their bodies and with their minds. I might give high fives to all! If the class overall is doing a great job, I may even reward the children with a dance break at the end of the class. They LOVE this. Many of them like being called out to the center to bust a move. We also practice a number of meditation exercises and yoga poses when their bodies need a little redirecting and grounding.

[Mabel Ortiz]

The limited time I have worked with children, I made sure to use prompting and modeling, as well as, give clear, simple instructions. I also made sure to be adaptable to the child’s ability and level. Also, when planning session, I made sure to have a variety of activities that I could use during the session to maintain children engage. Having extra activities in my “tool kit” to pick in a “emergency” was also useful especially when a planned activity did not go as expected.

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