How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?

[Meredith Pizzi]

How have you used these four music experiences in your practice? Have you made any changes in these areas since beginning this course? Post your remarks to the board.

[Victoria Fansler]

The area that stands out the most to me here is movement. I have been able to apply information from this course to facilitate adult-child interactions that use movement for bonding experiences. Movement activities seem obvious for pre-school age children who clearly mirror actions like marching and jumping, but it was great to recognize the way that even young toddlers move rhythmically along with music and how movement sometimes starts and stops along with the music.

This area is also interesting to me because my wife is a dance teacher and has many classes of young children. Often dance studios market ballet classes with itemized curriculae to children as young as two, and it just does not seem developmentally appropriate to me. My wife’s approach has been to focus on “creative movement” and adult-child partnering experiences (eg. lifting the child up above the adult’s head for a special pose) rather than teaching a progression of explicit movement sequences. This developmental information supports what she has noticed in these classes and indicates a more appropriate time to start teaching movement sequences.

[Debrah Evans]

In my practice in the past, I focus a lot on movement because of the age of the children, and the ability for the older adults that I work with to follow along with adaptive movements to model for the kids which goes hand in hand with what was said about having everyone join in to engage the children. Looking forward in my groups, I am definitely planning on prepping my older adults more to encourage them to engage in the activity so that they can model for the movements for the children to even more further their development.

I have only ventured on instruments a few times in the groups because of how much structure is needed to make that experience successful for the children and still beneficial for the the older adults. Because most of the children I work with are between control and responsibility stages of development (preschool age), I now understand that I need to give them time to process start and stop. With this understanding of developmental levels, I now want to try those experiences again with a new understanding of they function developmentally.

As I continue in practice, I’m looking forward to reframing the way I think about the music experiences that I provide, so they are helping children grow developmentally, rather than only academically and cognitively. I can’t wait to incorporate these new ideas into my groups and share them with the “grandfriends.”

[Debrah Evans]

Sorry that I forgot to include these, and I can no longer edit my post above!

As for singing and listening, I find that they go hand in hand with the movement experiences that I have been doing as well. I normally incorporate movement into every experience – especially singing – to engage the children more. Often times, I rely on the older adults to help with singing, and don’t expect much from the children because I only see them two times a month. I have found that the most successful singing experiences that I have led involve call and response, and I have found myself heavily relying on the interval of a minor second. </p>
<p>Currently, I don’t have a lot of listening experiences built into my practice with children, unless they are instructions for movement found in a song. I don’t often involve instruments in my activities because I haven’t figured out how to work them into my academic theme, but moving forward, I’m looking forward to incorporating more music for music’s sake (rather than for academics as I mentioned above) into my groups

[Tori Clark]

I use each of these four experiences in my practice, but I have not emphasized listening as often as I could have. I have always been encouraged to create “active” music experiences as opposed to “passive” ones, and listening feels like it fits into the “passive” category. That’s why I appreciate you emphasizing listening as being just as important as movement, singing, and playing instruments. It is so easy to forgot that the brain is always busy, even when a child is still and “passive.” Thank you for sharing the research about mirror neurons. I had not heard that before, but I want to investigate it more fully and definitely share that info with parents.

I also appreciate the discussion about the importance of stop/start as it relates to music. That particular skill can be practiced while moving, singing, and playing instruments. Thank you for addressing how that would look in each stage of development; that in the earlier stages (trust/independence), starting/stopping “on time” is not necessary, though it could be a reasonable expectation in the control/responsibility stages. It is helpful to remind parents and what is or isn’t reasonable to expect of children at given stages.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your submissions. Some have shared about one to two specific experiences in music. If you can share more with us about each of the four areas, as well, singing, movement, playing instruments, and listening. Thank you.

[Courtney Kjaldgaard]

I work with a wide variety of clientele at this point because I am still building my practice and can’t afford to specialize with one particular population, so when and how I use the four different types of music experiences will vary greatly depending on who I am working with.

For my baby/toddler and parent music classes that I currently offer, I find that I use a lot more playing and movement experiences, as well as some singing experiences. I often combine two of these experiences into the same song-based activity (for example: playing and movement, where there is encouragement to play an instrument AND move your instrument in certain ways, or singing and movement, where there is encouragement to vocalize and move in response to action words and dynamics in the music).

I facilitate a number of group sessions for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. These groups are often high-energy and our sessions are mostly comprised of instrument playing and singing experiences (based on the goal areas that we work on). I find it is difficult to incorporate movement experiences that work for everyone in these groups because the abilities and needs of each individual vary from one person to the next (there are some individuals who are ambulatory, some who are not, some who can move their arms and wrists independently, some who need hand-over-hand assistance, etc.).

I think the type of music experiences that I use the least are listening experiences. Listening experiences are not often helpful in achieving the type of treatment goals I generally have established with my kid and adult clients. Sometimes I am able to use listening experiences with the older adults that I work with in personal care homes and retirement residences. I find that the goals that we are working on allow for more listening experiences, particularly if it is accompanied with some form of discussion and analysis afterwards (listening to a song and discussing how it is relevant to their life, discussing memories associated with the song, etc.)

I think that I will start to incorporate more listening and singing experiences into my baby and parent classes. Because of time constraints (30-minute classes), I feel like there is pressure sometimes to do as much as you can with these types of groups. I have been trying to simplify things more within the classes and I would like to provide more opportunities for each child to have a chance to really notice the sounds that are occurring around them and make an effort to point out any responses they might have to these sounds to the parents more, especially if it’s subtle responses that may go unnoticed when multiple experiences are happening at once (such as playing an instrument and moving at the same time). I would also like to incorporate more singing experiences – I think when I first started these groups I tried to incorporate more singing but because the babies didn’t always vocalize or respond during the time frame that these experiences were given, I started doing it less and less. I would like to change this now that I know more about the concept of “mirror neurons” – even though they are not responding right away, they are still listening and taking in your singing and what they hear will help them respond and vocalize later on in life.

[Janet Buchanan]

Movement: With children, movement has been a really great application to redirect off-task behavior. It has really helped engage kids who aren’t very interested in singing a song or listening to anything, and brings their focus back to the group. Some of the residents that I work with are at a very young stage developmentally, and learning more about the sequence of movements has helped me adapt my approach to movement with them. We also focus a lot on encouraging our older residents entrain with the music we provide. As we see their dementia progressing, they still have the ability to move rhythmically along to music, still having the capability from their earliest years.

Singing: Often I find myself using singing activities to accomplish something else rather than singing for its own sake. Academic things like colors and ABCs and whatnot certainly stick a lot better when we sing them. However, I have seen with preschoolers that they are still learning to incorporate pulse and rhythm into their singing—sometimes they get a little ahead, as if they just can’t wait to get to the next part of the song, or I see them singing to themselves and doing the same sort of freestyle rhythm-ing.

Listening: I am so glad that listening has been included in this! In addition to the musical listening aspects, this discussion reminds me of the preschool social skills we have to teach. Learning how to listen to others, hearing that they’re making music too can really work into their play as kids learn to play interactively with their peers. Even the stopping and actively listening to a short song or story can be such an important skill to learn for them to be successful when they get into school.

Instruments: I too have been cautious about instrument playing activities, given the amount of structure they require. Of course, the most difficult aspect is the whole starting and stopping process. I’ve seen kids be a lot more successful with starts and stops when they get a little bit of a cue beforehand like “here it comes! Get ready to stop!” Learning that it takes a little time to process that is extremely helpful to know.

[Joanne Van Eycke]

Movement: I used to co-lead music and movement groups with physical therapists. At this time, I used the music to facilitate the goals set forth by the therapists by writing and facilitating songs that addressed movements such as walking, stretching and stomping. Most of the children had a diagnosis of cerebral palsy and had very limited mobility. Through the musical experiences the children were able to work towards their physical goals. What I found most interesting was the emergence of spontaneous movement and how many of the children not only reached their goals and objectives, but put their own creativity and abilities into the movement. With this training I can now see how these movements match different levels of development.

Singing: As a vocalist, singing has been an integral part of my work and my daily life. The most challenging and rewarding group I have used singing with was students with auditory impairments. These children primarily used sign language to communicate and were for the most part intimidated and some even embarrassed to speak. Providing a safe environment to experiment with their voice evolved into gaining confidence and one student even joined the school choir. The focus was not the quality of the singing rather the participation and experience of it. Just like this training encourages parents and caregivers to participate as it is the experience of the singing and not the quality of the singing that is most important.

Listening: During my group work with children I often incorporate listening into singing, movement and instrumental activities. I typically do this by inviting one child to take a solo and others are encouraged to watch and listen to the soloist. This fosters turn-taking and social skills. It provides an opportunity to listen and focus on others rather than just self. This training has inspired me to find additional ways to incorporate more listening into my sessions.

Instruments: Instruments have always been an integral part of my practice. Over the years I have incorporated everything from small maracas and egg shakers to full rock band setups and performances. The instruments and how they are played can be so versatile depending on the population and the goals – this training helped remind me of that. I have been so used to school aged children who play on the beat and/or for the whole song that with my own son I really needed to shift my expectation. I found myself wanting him to be at the responsibility stage and was missing out on all the experiences of other stages. We are both enjoying our mommy and me music group much more now = )

[Megan Neil]

Singing: Many of my kiddos in my current early intervention work have delays in the communication domain and for many parents this is the BIG focus- we want them to talk! I find that music is an awesome way to work on speech goals. My current SLP supervisor even agrees that music is a huge asset when working on speech goals. Long before kids are talking they are singing and making pitches- as outlined in this course. For my kids I have been looking for these levels when using songs with them. Are they using pitch in vocalizations? Are they matching any of my pitches? Are they babbling? Do they follow the melodic contour of songs? Etc. I use familiar and unfamiliar songs with kids and watch for where they are at with their development of singing. A big thing that the music therapists do where I am at is leave the ends of phrases out and pause. Many of my kids are not able to fill the words in but they generally seem to notice that the pause is there. The goal is that they will begin to fill this in with something- a vocalization, a movement, making eye contact, etc. And then when words do come they can fill in “Town” during wheels on the bus.

Playing Instruments: During groups and individual sessions I use a lot of instruments. I generally will put out a few different ones- egg shakers, maracas, and bells- into the center of the circle for an experience during group and let the children pick what they want. It also gives them the opportunity to switch instruments if they choose. I also encourage the parents to pick instruments and explore and play as well. I have noticed that when I instruct the parents to chose an instrument they get excited! While singing can be scary for parents, instrument playing is less intimidating and generally gets parents to loosen up a bit- which is great and great modeling for their kids.

Moving: As described in our program movement is so important with kids, especially the 0-3 age group I am working in currently. These kids first interactions with music are generally through movement! I have done a number of movement songs, many of which outline specific things to do. I think it’s very important for me to do more educating with my parents and let them know that I am not expecting all the kids to clap or play fast or play slow, etc. I am only expecting what their abilities are in terms of their developmental level.

Listening: Generally for the sedative songs listening is my objective. I am not expecting the kids to play, move, or sing but more for them to engage with the music in a very different way. I am hoping to see them recognize changes in the music, recognize familiar soothing melodies, and to stop their activities to listen and inwardly engage. Songs I use to focus on this are- You are my sunshine, twinkle twinkle, ABC, etc.

[Peggy Grace]

Sing-Being a vocalist, singing in my practice is kind of the foundation of the music experiences. I have used music to promote relaxation through a soft voice and volume, to encourage communication and for overall creative expression. I have also found that singing can really lift the mood. I love the fact that most children love to sing because they have not been told that they cannot sing, except in some poor family dynamics. Since taking this class, I have been incorporating more expression in my face and the surprises that you have taught about. I have found that those facial expressions encourage them even more to sing and engage.

Play-I use all types of small instruments and drums with the children I work with for gross/fine motor movement, to improve gripping and hand strength and also for assessing a child’s strengths. Of course, instrument play is a type of movement, so playing a small instrument may be the only form of music they can engage in.

Move-Many of the patients I work with, whether they are adults are children, have limited mobility and may not be able to ambulate. If they are ambulatory, then I like to use songs that I may make up that fit the situation. I have been able to incorporate the movement songs in this class and adapt them with some my patients. I used “I Can Move Around” with a child with Downs Syndrome and he attempted to follow my movement. I had to adapt the song to him since he is not ambulatory yet, but I think It will set a foundation to build on.

Listen-This is another area where I like to use music for communication, verbal or non-verbal. The best example I can give is when I do a drum circle with the young children at our annual bereavement camp. I assign a beat keeper who plays a gathering drum, and the group has to first listen and then mimic their beat. They all get to take turns being what I call “The Beat Keeper.” I will sometimes have them play an emotion on a drum and we play what I call a ‘feelings game’, where they have to guess what emotion is being played on the drum.

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