What value do music therapists bring to families of young children?

[Meredith Pizzi]

What value do music therapists bring to families of young children? Post your thoughts and comments to the board. Reply to the contributions of the group.

[Victoria Fansler]

I hope to offer value to young children and their families in the following ways:
1) Providing radically inclusive and welcoming spaces where young children (and their caregivers) can feel safe and accepted
2) Providing a positive environment for developmentally appropriate exploration and learning, free of shame or punishment.
3) Providing meaningful bonding activities for children and the people who love them.
4) Being aware of music as a regulatory factor for children who wrestle with how to handle big emotions
5) Creating new communities and reinforcing cultures of support between parents, so that no caregiver feels alone
6) Bringing specific expertise as well as openness to learn from each client’s expertise in their own lives.

[Anonymous]

These are great thoughts Victoria. Can you tell us more about how music therapists are unique in offering these things in their work?

[Tori Clark]

I think the biggest value music therapists bring to families is the ability to differentiate instruction for a variety of children in the same group. We can facilitate sessions in such a way that every child and family feels uniquely supported. We are comfortable improvising if something is not “working” because our skill set is broad. Also, our work is evidence-based, and we can make connections between behaviors (what we see) and cognition (what is going on behind the scenes).

[Victoria Fansler]

Sure. Our specific training and background gives us a different relationship to music than that of any other professional. Music therapists understand music not primarily as entertainment or background, but as a specific tool and communication modality. Most people recognize some degree of power that music has to express, reflect, or connect; however, we bring more direct knowledge of how specific musical elements and experiences can be used to facilitate these types of experiences.

For example, other music providers certainly strive to provide inclusive spaces and may experience some success along the lines of “music is a universal language” or “music levels the playing field.” However, we know that the general presence of music does not itself create inclusivity or equity. Rather, we as music therapists are able to harness particular musical traits and experiences in order to make a social setting more accessible for the diverse sets of clients we see.

[Joanne Van Eycke]

Our training makes us very uniquely qualified to provide great value to our families of young children. One main reason I would like to discuss is our ability and responsibility to intervene. I found this to be a critically important piece of information that Meredith mentioned in the video. It is our training as music therapists that help us to assess the group, the dynamics and the current moment and to act accordingly. Setting boundaries, encouraging behaviors, redirecting behaviors and acknowledging parents and children are very important for the success of the group. In addition to reducing anxiety for parents, we can also provide good modeling and information.

My son and I currently attend a mixed age community music group with my cousin and her son who is 2 and has some developmental delays. The group is fun and we enjoy the song choices and activities but little direction or boundaries are given to the parents. Therefore, I do my best to guide my son but my cousin struggles to provide boundaries or expectations for her son. She constantly asks “what am I supposed to do” or “should I let him wander in the circle.” Her constant concern builds anxiety and prevents her from really bonding and enjoying the music time as much as they could. As I witness this, I try to be helpful but it also makes me a bit anxious. There have been several times where I wished there was a music therapist facilitating the group because I know these concerns would be addressed. Other facilitators can choose fun and engaging music, but the music therapist is attentive to the whole group both in and out of the music.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. This question is really a great way for you to see how unique you are as a music therapist and the value you bring to your communities. Joanne thank you for really highlighting this with your experience in the community mommy and me music class.

[Megan Neil]

Music therapists are trained in a variety of ways focusing on numerous things including but not limited to- music, music history, music theory, domains of functioning, development, psychology, and counseling.

I feel that our training and education in a variety of areas makes us unique and our profession unique! We are not trained only in music but also in a range of clientele including kids and human development. This means that we are able to create experiences and foster an environment for learning and growth in a way that may not always be the case for other childhood programs or other music programs. The thing that I come back to time and time again is that what we do has a purpose. Whether we are planning a singing, instrument playing, listening, or movement experience with our kids we are doing so looking at where they are on the developmental spectrum and planning to address that level and help them move forward in their own time. We are also able to adapt and tailor experiences to meet and address a variety of levels. We take into consideration not only the needs of our clients but also the strengths to plan effective and important experiences. I also feel that the whole family is getting things out of our environment. I am really interested in family centered therapy and looking at each individual in the family and each dyad in the family and addressing a multitude of needs. It was really evident in the parent interview that all of the family members in their family unit were getting things out of the music group. Sometimes parents of little kids have a hard time knowing how to play, interact, or what to do with their children. Especially when they are very young and don’t give much of a response yet! In music we can respond and interact with our children and the whole family can get involved! The parents also get to learn new skills, knowledge, and songs they can apply to everyday life. We are giving them a tool set.

[Janet Buchanan]

I’ve seen a lot of things I agree with mentioned above–taking different approaches for different children, providing boundaries and expectations, showing the parents how to interact meaningfully with their children. When the video got to the part about the parents singing the songs, I was really struck by how important that is. As music therapists, we also have some training with adults and can use that knowledge to make sure that our songs are something they can sing, remember, and take home with them.

The most important thing, I believe, is being able to facilitate the group. To some extent you have the parents to work individually with their children, but as a music therapist, you can provide reinforcement, continually assess the group, and respond to the children’s needs in the moment. That’s not something you’re going to find in just any early childhood music group.

[Debrah Evans]

I think music therapist bring a lot of unique skills that engage families of young children. The skill that I kept coming back to as I wrote this out was our ability to adapt. As music therapists, we are trained to create an accepting safe place for individuals to come and grow in whatever way that they need. Often times that requires that we adapt our experiences and songs to match the child/family at any point in their development. We are trained to match families and children where they are and use music to connect them and promote that growth. If we find that someone is struggling, we can adapt our meter, tempo, or pitch to reflect the emotional or physical state of an individual. Additionally, we get to use such an engaging (and fun) medium to promote this development both developmentally and within the relationship.

Additionally, as a music therapist we are used to working within diverse groups of people with different strengths and weaknesses and bringing them together through music. This can help create bonds not only within families, but between families to create its own SM community which in turn could give parents a feeling of community for those times when they just need another parent to talk to (as I imagine raising a child is no easy task).

[Courtney Kjaldgaard]

I definitely agree with the majority of what has already been discussed for this topic.

For me, I feel that as a music therapist my observational skills are valuable for the early childhood groups that I run. Specifically, I feel that as a music therapist I have a heightened awareness of how each parent and child are adapting to the class and how each parent-child pairing affect the overall dynamic of the group. This awareness allows me to determine which direction to take the class in. This leads to my second point – I also believe that as a music therapist my ability to adapt and have flexibility within a group/session is extremely value for families of young children because young children, especially babies, will not always want to go along with what has been planned for that day and need to be provided with an environment where they can be comfortable and feel free to express themselves in an authentic way, while at the same time building on different skills within a musical setting.

[Peggy Grace]

I think that Music therapists bring a level of expertise that is unmatched in other disciplines. Not only do we have to have musical knowledge and skills, but we also require knowledge with the specific populations that we work with. Being able to combine the music with the knowledge of that population gives us a unique opportunity to take therapy to a whole new level. When you add this along with the fact that music is fun and a tremendous bonding experience, music therapists can have a deep impact on the families in ways that they may not even be aware.

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