What are the needs of the families and communities that you work with?

[Anonymous]

What are the needs of the families that you work with?  What are the needs of your community?  How can music meet the unique needs of your families and community?  Share on the forum.

Be sure to come back and respond to others as well.

[Anne Reed]

At The Music Settlement we serve a very diverse population. We have two campuses whose demographic is very different culturally, and economically. We still see hesitation in some of the cultures in engaging in anything regarded as “therapy.” Also, the “music” culture is as diverse as the people and are very different at our east side campus verses the west. We find that lower income families have less time and resources to engage in “extracurricular” activities. Securing daycare or schooling for their children so they can work so they can afford transportation to work and feed the family takes precedence in priority. The challenge is bringing services to the community that are not an added burden, overcoming skepticism and distrust, and making it affordable.

[Amy Brownell]

Very true – finances play a large role in the services families can receive! I have also run into to schools/programs who were unsure of music therapy services at first (I had a teacher come out and tell me at the end of the year that she was not too sure about it but went along because the school set up the program, but then loved it by the end!).

[Amy Brownell]

As a traveling music therapist in a private practice, I work with families throughout the state. At the moment, my work is mainly with individual families and some school/daycare programs, and I do not have many community-based opportunities. However, across my sessions, I find that parents want to be able to understand and relate to their children. I have had many parents tell me they are unsure of how to engage with their children, especially those who are not communicating verbally. Music provides the nonverbal bridge between parent and child so that they can interact in what many on the outside might consider to be ‘unconventional.’ I have also found that finances can impact the services that families are able to provide. As insurance has not covered music therapy in our state at this point, our families pay out of pocket, and many children have fewer services than what they require based on what families can afford. We offer a financial assistance program through our practice, however there are just so many families in need. Building community-based music groups can help to reduce the cost of services for each family while bringing parents and children together to learn more about each other in meaningful ways.

[Aliza Llovet]

One of the benefits of early intervention in MA is that once a child/family is deemed eligible for the program it is covered entirely by insurance and/or the state. The families that I work with in the metro Boston area have had many challenges throughout COVID. Food insecurity, lack of hours at work, remote school and lack of devices/wifi band with, and then a young child that has a delay, medical condition, etc. Early Intervention providers triage what sort of supports that the family may need and provide coaching on how to support the child within their routine. Music can fit in seamlessly from movement songs while trying to get energy out in the middle of winter. Music can help support children through transitions in their day and so much more.

I have been hearing consistently from families that they want group opportunities for their child. Many of the families I work with are unable to pay for daycare and so their child has had little to no chance to play with other children. Music Therapy community groups would be a way for these families to have this opportunity in a safe, fun, and developmentally appropriate way.

[Jessica Gelineau]

Hi Aliza, I also work in EI and completely agree that there are not enough opportunities for social engagement for young children, especially children who are not preschool age. Music therapy groups are certainly a way to help support the families in our community.

[Emily Fabian]

I am currently working as an elementary and middle school general music educator. With the age range of 3-14, the needs of my school community vary. We do have a small population of students on the spectrum and some with specified and unspecified learning disabilities. In my classroom, the way I cater to those needs include offering sensory breaks, allowing more time on class work, modifying assignments as needed, and offering quiet spaces to work when overstimulation occurs. My school is very small, with only 200 students. My wish was that we had more resources for helping those students. We have a counselor that comes twice a week, we have a speech therapist, and a designated learning coach and center for students who require more one on one attention or who have fallen behind due to COVID or other circumstances. I do what I can, but know I could do more if I had the resources and especially the time to implement strategies. Like others have said in this forum, funding plays a huge factor in our ability to be effective.

[Aliza Llovet]

Funding and zip code variabilities can be so challenging when we see these needs being unmet.

[Jessica Gelineau]

I work in early intervention. The families that I work with have various needs, but not limited to: money for food, extra clothing, diapers, resources for child care, resources for groups/ peer interaction and transportation needs. If families are not able to provide adequate resources for their children, it is really hard to focus on meeting their developmental needs, and being able to work on different strategies or songs given to them. Helping families and being able to connect them with adequate resources is such an important and valuable part of the job that I have. Another need that is very prevalent and growing among the families I work with is the need for ASD diagnostic clinics/ ASD services. it is very hard to get a diagnosis for ASD; the waiting lists are sometimes 12-18 months long within certain areas. Once getting a diagnosis, children within more rural areas sometimes spend months waiting for ABA or additional services. It is much harder to support families through this challenge, because there is not a lot that we can do within early intervention besides advocate for the child.

[Erika Svolos]

There is a lot gate keeping with autism diagnosis and in my area the wait times are also exceedingly long. Emerging research and advocacy from the autistic community is calling for a change in the “gold standard” treatment services. Though the greater medical community and medical model have not adopted this understand, there is a push for other services is starting to happen. I’ve come to learn that services like music therapy, occupational therapy, speech language therapy, and play therapy that come from a developmental, attachment, regulatory, and neuroaffirming approach are now being identified as the most helpful services for autism. The hope is that funding for these services can become available so more families can utilize them.

[Erika Svolos]

Thank you all for sharing, with us, about the communities you work in. This is an excellent question to help you identify the unique value and service you have and ways you can meet the needs you are seeing.

[Hannah Floyd]

I work at The Music Settlement along with Anne, and she pointed out many good points. For me, I see a diverse group. But at this moment I have noticed that many of the children that I see there is a need for emotional regulation and healthy coping skills after the past two years of covid. Along with this, many of the children are behaviorally acting younger than they are, due to that lack of secure of not being physically in schools or having those social interaction. This can lead to extreme stress, not only for the child, but also for the adults around them.

.

[Maggie Murphy]

Based on one of the early childhood classes I facilitate (this group is recurring- as opposed to the library group I run, where I haven’t gotten to know many of the families as closely yet), the group consists of several young mothers who attend with their first-born child. I would imagine that these mothers signed up to introduce their child to music and support their child’s development; however, I have also seen the mothers connect with one another and even share their phone numbers with one another over the course of their 8-week class. In addition, I have heard these mothers emphasize the importance of being able to get their “pandemic babies” out of the house and interact with others.

I know that there are more families in my community that have different needs than the mothers that I previously described (e.g. mothers looking to introduce their child to music/support their child’s development, connect with other new moms, and provide social opportunities for their children) and I am looking forward to meeting and working with them as well… perhaps from demographic groups that I have not yet reached. Based on the posts from the other members in this group, I can:
-make sure that the services I provide are marketed to families with a variety of
demographic characteristics, including families with special needs
-be careful with the word “therapy,” as this might deter some families from receiving
services
-work to offer a financial assistance program
-make sure to cater programs to children with special needs, providing opportunities for
emotional regulation and development of healthy coping skills
-connect families with adequate resources

[Erika Svolos]

Great insights!

[Author]

Posts