Takeaways from the Course

[Anonymous]

What are your key takeaways from this course? How has this learning changed your perspective on development, your approach to the work, or the way you use music in your sessions? How will you share this information with colleagues, administrators and families?

[Rachel Sedmak]

I have have two main takeaways from this course. One is to value myself as a music therapist and the expertise I can provide to families to set myself apart from other music classes. My other biggest takeaway is the awareness of the music developmental levels. I think that knowing how the child is developing musically combined with the knowledge of non-musical child development will really help me to understand where a child is as they grow and what music and experiences will be best to support that growth. Even if families are familiar with child development, they will most likely not be familiar with musical development. I will be happy to share with them how their child’s music responses reflect his/her development.

[Amy Berggren]

One of my biggest takeaways is how a child’s relationship with and reaction to music changes based on their developmental level. Being conscious of that information can not only make the experience more meaningful for the child, but you are able to help the parents understand how their child should be interacting with the music based on their age and level of development. As an example, there is a parent at one of my groups who always gets mad when her child puts the instruments in her mouth; I am looking forward to starting to talk with the parents about how their child is interacting with the music and why that is appropriate for their age/developmental level.

[Erika Svolos]

It is wonderful to hear all that you have gained from this training. It has been a pleasure being on this journey with you and wish you all the best!

[Favor Chujor]

This course has really helped to change my perception of young children and music. I grew up as a child performer (I started taking piano lessons in the 1st grade) and until this course and my experiences in Sprouting Melodies classes, I didn’t realize just how anxious I was about using music in early development. Sprouting Melodies has supported me in my journey to break the “performative” nature I have when it comes to being around children and music. This mindset change has helped to ground me as I begin to fully lead Sprouting Melodies classes in my internship.
My next step is to learn how to integrate the parent/caregiver education piece into my style of Sprouting Melodies classes. It can feel difficult to break that 4th wall of music-making/education, but I’m ready for that challenge.

[Mikelia Wallace]

In this course, I have really learned that we have the ability to be an excellent resource for these families and that we should value ourselves as music therapists with this expertise. We have learned so much about young children’s musical behaviors and how they align with development, and now we can share it. This course has changed my perspective by giving so much information on what development looks like and how we can use music to encourage that development. I recently took a new job, and I have been dubbed “The Early Childhood Music Therapist” and “The Developmental Music Therapist,” as the company I work for tends to serve older adults with IDD or in assisted living. I think it’s cool that I get to bring a different perspective and skill-set to a long-standing agency, and help to expand their services for the kiddos in the community, as well as being a resource for my colleagues.

[Sophia Paravalos]

I think my biggest takeaways from this course are the understanding of a strong structural purposeful flow, developmental milestones specifically in a musical context, and many many many amazing songs and the detailed musical elements that make them so powerful and supportive. This learning has definitely given me a new perspective of how to see developmental milestones reflected in how kiddos interact in the music and made me feel much more informed about many of the topics I only kind of knew. I feel much more confident talking to parents now and feeling like I have a stronger grasp on the development and music concepts – hoping to continue to grow/learn more and more! I love all the songs that were so graciously shared in this training and would love to continue to pass these on to colleagues and families. It was such a crazy, wonderful experience to actually come full circle with a lot of these songs and realize I have learned many passed-down versions of these in my training. It’s so amazing to see how each music therapist has adapted them and used them for differing ages but a lot of the same musical elements that bring the power behind the songs still remain.

[Erik Hylan]

The most valuable thing that I have learned from this course is to trust in my knowledge and skill set as a music therapist. This training has really helped me dive deeper into developmental focus of music therapy and some great resources to add to my toolkit. It has really opened my eyes to music related behaviors in each developmental level and how to really create a conducive space for children and their parents or caregivers. I think taking this out into my own practice is going to be really exciting. As for sharing this information, I think the biggest thing is putting it to practice and giving resources or things to try to families and staff that I work with. Helping the music continue outside of the session and spreading it further into the community.

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