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?

[Erika Svolos]

This question is really helpful in giving us direction in how we support our communities. I think it is also something we can periodically re-visit to see how communities and needs change.

[Celia Grove]

For my caseload right now, my early childhood families are looking for ways to engage with their children while also having them meet developmental milestones and goals, such as sustained attention, more communication (whether through sign, verbal or pointing).
I think especially at this time, as we somewhat emerge from the pandemic, families in my community are looking for ways to connect and looking for ways for their children to connect and engage with the greater world around them, and a wider social circle. Our groups that my company offer are becoming more popular and more asked for (not just for early childhood either- some of our older clients are looking for social engagement through music too!) I think also right now understanding that some of the reactions we might see in our community based groups from kiddos might look a little different too as they adjust to going from the central family unit to a larger group atmosphere!
Music has a lot of components to it to provide some of those needs for my families and community- music is another way to be social and communicative, as well as it can be soothing and can be good material for transitions for kids who are learning to be social for the first time in this post-pandemic atmosphere.

[Erika Svolos]

Hi Celia,

Wonderful insights! Sounds like you have a great view of the needs in your community and how you can best meet those needs. Thank you for sharing.

[Samantha M Lawrence]

I can absolutely see how a group music therapy session would be a great learning tool for kiddos who have been isolated for so long!

[Caitlyn Pawelek]

I agree! I have seen a lot of similar need areas when I used to do home-visits, especially with the older cliets! So many families have shared that after school has ended for these clients, especially when covid shut everything down, there was nowhere for their out-of-school kids to interact with others their age! Music groups for older clients were always requested.

[Leeann Mcmorrow]

The pandemic had such a big influence on early childhood development. I think it just makes the work we do as music therapists with this population so meaningful!

[Samantha M Lawrence]

My caseload for children is fully virtual. Some of my families are those who are isolated due to their children being medically fragile. These families are often looking for any therapeutic service they can to help their kiddos from regressing during this time. I agree with Celia, as a whole there is a lot of adjusting for the kiddos who are re-emerging after lockdown. For my community, lockdown is certainly less strict, but it’s not over. They need resources to help keep their children stimulated, maintaining social skills as best they can, and to provide engagement.

As for meeting the needs of my clients and community, I do my best to make the most of virtual. When I did in-person home visits, I often was just with the child. However, when I’m virtual I find that I really get to know everyone in the home. I am able to structure my sessions to involve adult participation and make it into an experience for everyone present and not just the kiddo.

[Hally Batterman]

I completely agree with your comments regarding virtual sessions. It can be so difficult to connect when working virtually, but I love how you use the platform as a way to bring everyone together including the families. I too do this and think it is extremely important especially during this pandemic. We need to feel connected in order to feel safe and secure in our lives.

[Celia Grove]

I always think it’s so interesting when the whole family is inovlved in virtual therapy! Good for you for being able to meet your families’ needs completely virtually!

[Brenna Sheaffer]

Yes, I saw a lot of this as well especially through the heart of the pandemic is that isolation piece and how we as the therapist can do our best to create those social/emotional environments to help prepare them for when they are ready to go back out in the community (if that is possible for them).

[Hally Batterman]

Part of why I’m taking this course again as a refresher before starting early childhood music classes at my facility is because the demand is high and we simply don’t have the services in our area at the moment. Families are constantly searching for those “mommy and me” kinds of classes and for some reason, our area of Long Island (NY) is greatly lacking in those types of music experiences. Some children have the opportunity to receive those types of music experiences through their individual school programs, however, there isn’t much nearby at the moment for the FAMILIES. I get the sense the parents/families also want to participate in music as a way to bond and connect with their little ones. We are still in an unprecedented time with this pandemic that has created a huge disconnect in many families and their children. I feel it is our duty as music therapists who happen to have a passion for this particular work to step up and create the programs that these families are craving and in desperate need of during this scary time.

One of my little ones that I treat individually on a weekly basis tends to arrive with his mother and little brother. I always invite them to come in for part of the session to provide his mother with the opportunity to engage musically with her son. She has expressed to me that she never gets to connect with him on this level outside of music and I’m extremely glad I was able to provide her with the space to do just that. Music is such a universal language especially between families and their children who may have communication needs/might be nonverbal. Music connects us on a deeper level that words cannot always capture.

[Erika Svolos]

Each of you really have a great view of the needs in the communities where you work. Thank you for sharing your perspective and experience.

[Grace Baer]

In the community, I’m definitely seeing a need for development in social and emotional skills in Pre-Kindergarten students. One would assume that this increased need stems from those early, formative years happening during Covid and not being as exposed to peers. I do not have direct contact with the students’ parents, but there’s only so much parents can do develop a child’s social skills when you’re not out socializing in a group. I would presume that parents are eager to see an exciting, engaging service like music therapy be used to assist their children in learning and meeting social expectations. To address the need I’m seeing for development in social and emotional skills in Pre-K, I’m placing a strong emphasis on these two areas during my time in these classrooms. I introduce ideas like sharing, group cooperation, problem-solving, self-regulation, and more in the sessions and practice them many times in the following weeks. Music helps to serve these needs by being a client-preferred modality. The kids love playing instruments, singing, moving, and listening, and in doing so, are further developing their social and emotional well-being.

[Brenna Sheaffer]

What are the needs of the families that you work with? Ways to have their children engage in music and continue to develop social/emotional skills given that we are still coming out of a pandemic and many of these children have not had the opportunity to foster these skills and become exposed to peers.

What are the needs of the families that you work with? I would say the needs of the families is learning how to take a step back and allow their child to learn, grow, develop, and problem solve. We as a society are attempting to come out of this “fix-it” environment where we want to control the outcomes for our children and solve the problems for them. When we do that, we are hindering their social and emotional development. So I think families needs are just observing and identifying when it is okay to take a step back and provide the pause and space for their child to figure things out independently and explore their environments.

What are the needs of your community? The needs of the community is just continuing to foster and develop social events that foster community, togetherness, team work, social skills, and emotional development.

How can music meet the unique needs of your families and community? Music has the ability to touch upon all of these needs and provide a safe, structured, nurturing environment that allows children and families to growth and develop together. The past part about it is that they sometimes rarely know that they are developing and learning new strategies and developmental milestones because they are so immersed and engaged in the music! (I.E. They think it’s a lot of fun!)

[Caitlyn Pawelek]

When I was working at a facility doing home visits many families shared that they wanted a sense of community for their kids, especially older kids/young adults who were out of school. Feelings of isolation were common among the families that I worked with. With kids just getting back into in-person schooling a need for skills that aid them in engaging in lessons and interacting with other students also came up a lot. Parents would also reach out for guidance or vent with me while I was in their homes. The need for respite and support with the families seemed like a need as well. It has been harder to see this directly at my new position as I do not interact with many families directly and see students in school. Here, it does seem that the same things are needed though! Fostering community, support, and interaction are areas that are sought out here as well.

[Leeann Mcmorrow]

When I was working in pediatric palliative care, some of the goals that I had as a music therapist were to create an environment where siblings could interact together, especially considering that the patient/child had a terminal illness and often they were very medically fragile. Sometimes I would help the siblings (and patient if the patient was verbal) write a song together to sing to the patient. </p>
<p>I have a thought from a community perspective that I’d like to run past all of you. Recently, I signed my 18 month old up for a gymnastics class. The class ages span from 18 months-3 years. I’m finding that the difference in what a 3 year old in the class can often do is so different than what my 18 month old feels confident and successful doing. For example, sometimes the teacher sets up obstacle courses with a small toddler-sized rock climbing wall, but my 18 month old is not ready to rock climb yet.<br />
Perhaps this doesn’t happen as often in the music settings, but I’m curious if any of you find this age group to have some big differences between youngest and oldest and if you have ever felt a need in your community to narrow that age group?<br />
Personally, I’d love to make two community music groups that splits these ages up a little bit more- maybe 18-24 months and 2-3 years. I’d certainly like it if gymnastics was able to do that for us!

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