Share your thoughts.

[Meredith Pizzi]

Share your thoughts with the board on how much stimulation is enough? How much stimulation is too much?

[Laura Myers]

Well, what stimulation is enough or too much is different for each child. I’m sure this can be difficult to manage at times during groups. However, if the atmosphere is managed by the group leader then it may be easier to add stimulation without causing extra chaos in the room. You have to take signs from the kids, are they acting out a little bit more, are they getting easily frustrated, is there to much extra movement in the room, etc… then there might be to much stimulation.

[Ian Crawford]

This is a question I’ve been asking myself lately! It’s difficult to know because it’s different with every child in every situation. To answer the question simply, I suppose it’s enough stimulation when everyone is engaged and in good spirits, and it’s too much when someone in the class is crying or withdrawing in some way. Our role as the group leader can be especially challenging when we have to balance the needs of each child when they have differing needs regarding stimulation. How do we support the children who are clearly ready for ‘more more more!’ while also supporting one or two children who are overstimulated?

[Ericha Rupp]

Getting the opportunity to work with children primarily diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder “too much stimulus” and “not enough stimulus” can appear differently for each child. My general rule of thumb is less is always more. Once I have figured out the baseline of stimulation I can always add more or take away. General signs of when a kiddo is under-stimulated and overstimulated can appear the same. Sometime the child can be under-stimulated and he/she may appear bored or remove themselves from the activity to do something else. On the flip side an individual who is over stimulated may become overwhelmed and remove themselves from an activity to regulate or avoid the activity all together. At times it can be difficult to gage a child’s appropriate level of stimulation.

[Kristina Rio]

Ian, your question is a really good one.

How do we support the children who are clearly ready for ‘more more more!’ while also supporting one or two children who are overstimulated?

You will find especially in the Family Sprouts groups with ages from 0-5 there is a large gap in how much stimulation the little ones can handle and how much the older ones need. What I have found to be successful is to give the older children a job or some sort of responsibility such as passing out the instruments or modeling for the younger children. Sometimes just asking the children who need more stimulation a question or giving them a choice can help re-engage them by giving them some control over the music. A big part of making sure everyone gets as much stimulation as they need is to keep the music at a baseline level for the young children, but direct the parents with older children on how to make the movements even more exciting and stimulation for that particular child. The parent/caregiver can be given direction on how to best meet their child’s needs in the moment as well. If you have a 4 month old baby in the room and a 3 year old, the lap ride is going to look different for the younger child than it is for the 3 year old. Directing the parent to hold the younger child facing them so it decreases the amount of visual stimuli from the other children bouncing and swaying and brings the caregiver and child to a better environment for close bonding time. The older children are going to want to bounce as high as they can go and be able to see everything in the room by facing out towards the group.

Let me know if you have any other questions or scenarios you want to explore!

[Shonda Malik]

My observations about how much stimulation is enough relate to my clinical work with children who have autism. Currently I have a sensitive client whom I have to watch closely for his reactions to the music. If I don’t adjust quickly enough his behavior can quickly escalate to an agitated state or he can become so shut-down that any chance at further music engagement is impossible. So, I pay very close attention and if he grimaces I know to adjust my volume of playing or singing down. I also have to find creative ways to offer music making experiences because if I present it as a question he will usually sign ‘no’. So instead I will often play a little on an instrument and then gesture if he would like to try. With this same teenage client I have learned that when I teach him new songs that I want him to sing he does best when I sing a simple and repetitive lyric and sing it for him a few times. Then, he almost always joins in when I ask and then he enjoys a few more verses of singing. I do believe the emphasis sprouting melodies gives to repetition helped me to be more comfortable singing so many verses of a song with this particular client. His developmental level is appropriate for this but it is easy to be thrown off by a clients age and size and be worried they might get bored with repetition.

[Lysa Wright]

It is interesting to find a happy medium with a mixture of ages and stages! I think too much or not enough stimulation is a different thing for every child, depending on personality and developmental level. I think that there needs to be a balance of doing an activity or a song that is engaging enough for the older ones but still isn’t too difficult that a younger one. I too have done things to make the older ones the “helpers”, whether to help collect the instruments/clean up or even as simple as having them select songs we could use during instrument play.

[Anonymous]

You may also think about including the older children in some of the improvisation, for example “what body part should we tap next” or “how should we sing the words this time?” This not only helps to engage and provide stimulation, but also gives the older children a chance to make the music theirs. Similar to what Kristina mentioned, engaging the parent/caregiver in answering those same questions about their babies. This may help them to tune in and see what stimulation their babies may need or if they may need less at that time. I have found in my only SM groups that many parents recognize when their babies need the song to go “softly or slowly” and I see that the older children want to be “helpers” for the babies and will help to sing the song this way.

[BJ Waelz]

In observing my class with children at this stage I have noticed the vast differences in how the children observe, relate to and interact with the world around them. There is a fine line between enough stimulation to get good interaction and over stimulation which can lead to negative behavior or the child shutting down. I try to keep the class moving at a good pace, a welcome song, a lap song, a movement or dance song, then bring them back to something slightly quieter and group focused etc. My kids seem to love the surprises you talked about, however, with the multi trust levels going on it is easy to over do surprises for some. They do look forward to those surprises they know are coming and it is neat to see their pride when they can predict a surprise others did not.
The music in SM2 again is engaging, fun, interactive, interesting and age appropriate. It was easy to see this music was for an older crowd of children with growing independence. It allows opportunities for surprise, response, interaction and musical growth. I liked the originality of the music, yet melodies were simple enough for families to learn and reproduce at home.

[Adrienne Salmon]

I think that how much stimulation is too much or too little varies so greatly from person to person, regardless of age and diagnoses. I have some older kids for whom the level of stimulation I use with younger kids would be too much, and vice versa. When I am in these situations, I try to adjust what I am doing in the moment, so as to not lose the kids for whom the session is too stimulating, and then bring it back to where the other kids needs are.. almost utilizing the ISO principle in these situations. It is definitely a delicate balancing act. One technique that I utilize often is to give certain tasks to certain kids so that everybody can be as equally involved as possible. In my experience, however, this is most easily done when there are multiple staff/adults hands for helping.. it gets rather difficult otherwise because we are, after all, only one person.

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