Share your thoughts.

[Meredith Pizzi]

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

[Julia Park]

Babies are much more active at this stage than Sprouting I. The words that come to my mind are: exploration, free movement, energy, and playful. The best way to tell if the stimulation is too much is by watching the baby. If the baby is fussy, distracted (hyperactive or withdrawn), withdrawn or even hit then it is mostly likely that the baby is overstimulated.

[Nicole Drozd]

I think Meredith said it best, if the child is younger the dynamic and gesture should be anticipated and not huge and if the child is older you can increase dynamic and gesture. Of course there are always gray areas to this- MT-BCs need to watch to see if the child becomes withdrawn, fussy, or their affect changes.

[Rebecca Woodruff]

I believe that stimulation or energy flow is very important to a session. There needs to be an ebb and flow to the amount of energy – variation is key. If there is too much stimulation the children will be overwhelmed but if there is not enough the children will be outside of the group too much. By varying high energy interventions with low energy interventions children have the balance of enough stimulation and will stay engaged longer.

[Daniel Henry]

I think that the therapist really does need to be in control of how much stimulation is going on within a session. Overstimulation can happen for a number of reasons, be it overly excited or energetic participants or playing instruments, like drums, that can easily generate a lot of volume and sound. I think that the therapist should always be be easily heard to give instruction and prompts, and I think that stimulation should not be at a point that a participant begins to fell anxious or uncomfortable. This can vary from group to group and it’s the therapist job to really be aware of the group and it’s dynamic as we as each individual in the group, making sure that the environment being created is an inclusive one where all participants can be comfortable and free to join in the music making.

[Alexis Ramagnano]

Stimulation with SM2 is essential to keeping the children engaged. I feel that our MT training and intuition will play an important role in assessing how much each child will be able to tolerate. It is hard to say how much is enough or too much because each child is different. Although I am not currently working with this population, I feel that the parents will be able to offer some insight too, whether it is verbally or through their own body language, if they feel overstimulated. I feel children are a reflection of their parents and trust their parents at this age, so they most likely will respond like their parents.

[Anonymous]

Wonderful insights!

[Susan Gannon]

I have a couple of thoughts on this. One thought is that we do need to listen to parents more. I liked that Alexis referenced this. One of the reasons that I have been late on responding to the last two weeks is that I am leaving my position as sole music therapist at a clinic I have worked for for years. I am spending a lot of time transitioning another music therapist and getting caught up on my paperwork. I think that the OTs, PT, SLPs, and BCBAs have a different value system than I have. Most everything about each child is considered “behavior” and by that I mean bad behavior. So if a child is overstimulated they tend to think the child is acting out, even if the parent points out to them that something is overstimulating them. Many of the children cling to me because they can trust that I will understand and I think this annoys many of the other therapists. I am also the oldest person in the clinic, and I feel there may be some ageism going on.
My other thought on overstimulation is that some things we think may not be overstimulating are actually just that. For a while, I was using the music from an OT program that focused on self-regulation. The song “How Does Your Engine Run?” has lyrics that address getting your internal “engine” just right. So the song gets us all revved up, but the too low part of the song and the just right part of the song never does bring the children down, and they would leave my sessions so revved up that parents were actually questioning what we were doing. I really like that song, so I’m going to re-write that song using some elements of it, but making it my own.

[Shelly Peterson]

Share your thoughts with the board on how much stimulation is enough? How much stimulation is too much? It’s all about assessing the group in the moment. You have to be careful and watch how the children are responding to the activities in the group. When they exhibit behaviors like out of control high energy that is reckless and could hurt someone, the energy needs to change. If the children are seeking more stimulation by way of banging on the wall, the energy needs to be brought up.
Susan, I too have experiences with other professionals thinking the child being appropriate in their development is acting out as well as being so quick to correct behaviors, even at SM2 age. It is really hard when they are the teachers helping out in my groups to get them to just be in the group. I often say, “I’m so glad you got to bring the kids to music today! Your job is to play with the children and be child-like. Enjoy just being with the children and if I need help with a situation, I will ask you. I invite the children to explore during class to encourage their development.” I realize this may be a different situation, but it is so hard for them to break out of the mold of teaching the children to be little adults that it can be frustrating when we are encouraging them to just be!

[Kristina Rio]

Wonderful reflections everyone, Susan, I love how you are already seeing how you can adapt something in your work to meet your clients needs more effectively.

[Charniqua Snell]

When it comes to stimulation, you really have to read the room. You can have the same group each week and the level of stimulation will change each week. Look for crying and fussiness when they are over-stimulated. When under-stimulated they will seek out stimulation with themselves or other things in the room. For this age, do not use a lot of alarming sounds. However, new sounds are important to keep them engaged.

[Marcie Hernandez, MT-BC]

I agree that when it comes to stimulation, you need to be in tune with your group and the varying dynamics being played out. Each group will be different, however, having a planned structure will help you in times when you need to bring the energy up or turn it down. I definitely think that there should be an ebb and flow of energy within sessions. This being said, within high energy songs or activities, it should never feel like you’re losing control of the room. The therapist should be able to be heard above instruments. I also agree that each child’s tolerance for stimulation may be different, and so looking for those non-verbal cues within each child is very important also.

[Kate Potrykus]

I agree with those who said that the amount of stimulation utilized should be dependent on the situation. Many children respond very well to a lot of stimulation, but it does depend on the age as you don’t want to startle the child. A lack of stimulation does not promote a sense of anticipation and exploration. But too much stimulation can cause agitation, so you really have to find a balance. Familiarity and repetition will help prevent startling, as the child will know what to expect. Spontaneity in music does not have to mean a huge change in volume, there are other ways to keep it exciting. Too much volume can lead to startling, so the therapist should come up with other ways to be spontaneous within the music.

[Elizabeth Carras]

I think that there is no good answer to this question; I guess my answer is that it varies from child to child and from group to group — and even from day to day. In general, though, I like to think of a parabola when I do early childhood music classes. The energy/stimulation starts out low, to gently introduce the music, and then builds as the children become more comfortable and confident during the group, and then decreases again as we cool down and get ready to transition into going home.

[Christina Bass]

I believe that this will vary from person to person and as a provider, it is important to be aware of the amount of stimulation being provided and how each individual child is responding. Like many have said stimulation is needed at this level to keep the children engaged, as long as it is anticipated, when it is not natural or predictable it can be too much.

[Johanna Horn]

I agree with what has been said in the previous posts. Over-stimulation varies from child to child and group to group. I try to design early childhood music plans to start off a little less ‘stimulated’ and gradually get more active, and then bring it down before goodbye. This helps the children transition to and from music class smoothly. However, there are some classes where there is very little “warming up” needed because the energy is already up for whatever reason. You need to meet them where they are at times.

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