What are the needs of the families you work with?

[Meredith Pizzi]

What are the needs of the families you work with? What are the needs of your community? Share with the board how your families and communities might be unique.

[Kerry Cornelius]

Most of the families I currently work with are very young and have one or more children with a developmental disability. They are often “frazzled” and anxious about their child’s needs (Why isn’t he communicating with me? Why does she hit me? We can’t afford our therapies–where do I start when it comes to applying for funding?!), and usually are in need of a hug and a warm conversation when they arrive for our sessions. Though there is a large number of families with children on the autism spectrum in my community, there are not nearly enough support systems in place to educate families about funding, advocating for services on IEPs and providing emotional support for parents, caregivers and siblings. I feel that my community desperately needs a place where these families can come together to meet, share their experiences and learn from each other.

[Katie Bagley]

I currently work with pediatric palliative clients through a contract with a local hospice agency. These children are not typically developing, with diagnoses including Autism, Spinal Chord Injury, Global Development Delay, Cancer and Mitochondrial diseases. The most common need for these children’s families is a sense of support by knowledgable professionals. They want their child to have the opportunity to develop to their full potential in any and all domains possible. For a few certain clients I work with, their siblings often join in the sessions to promote shared experiences and family bonding. Often times, the client will teach songs and specifics to their typically functioning siblings. Parents take delight in seeing their 2 or 3 children, spanning ages and abilities, sharing in music making together.

[Stephanie Tassos Wohlsifer]

Most of my MT work is with psychiatric facilities, and I can go on for pages about the needs of these clients. As a private teacher of mostly adults, I do have a few voice students ranging from ages 6 – 11. These kids receive very little music-based activities in their schools which is one of the reasons their parents seek my services. I commend these parents for this because I know it is a sacrifice of time and money to bring their kids for regular private lessons. About twice a year, I receive inquiries from parents seeking MT services for children on the spectrum and have worked with several of these kids in their homes for several months at a time. I have always stressed the benefits and importance of family participation which is usually met with enthusiasm. However, in practice it is too easy for family members in the home environment to become distracted away from the session and so I no longer do this (i.e., I refer out to another music school that includes music therapy services). Tallahassee has a fairly large MT professional community because of FSU’s MT program and most of the MTs here pursue careers working with children, both typical and with special needs. I personally feel that it is adults with mental illnesses, such as veterans with PTSD, the homeless, prison populations, etc. – that have the most need in this community. I believe that if many of these adults could have had the opportunity to engage in early intervention music therapy as children, they would have developed better coping skills.

[Katherine Sestrick]

Since I work in early intervention, the needs of the families I work with are very diverse. We are a state funded program, so we see kiddos from families of all ethnic, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds. For some families, the biggest need I face is getting them to “buy in” to the value of learning new songs and practicing them with their children, when their biggest priorities are getting food on the table. As a student, I always swore I would never use “piggy back” songs, but now, I use them more than anything else. I find that families are more willing to try to sing the songs if they already know the tune. Another challenge for the families is finding appropriate materials for music making. We use a lot of pots and pans and wooden spoons and make our own shakers and tambourines.

I moved to this community about 6 months ago, so I don’t yet have a good handle on what the needs of the community are and what types of music therapy services are being offered. We are close enough to Philly that music therapy services are present, but far enough that it’s not huge. I know of one private practice in my area, but I believe they service mostly children. I think that there is a need for more community based music therapy services that are not private pay. This of course, means that there is a need for funding for music therapy in our area.

[Shonda Malik]

The biggest need of the families I work with who have children with autism or other developmental needs is funding. Often the families are already spending money and time on ST, OT and PT so their willingness to even get started with trying music therapy usually relies on whether there is funding. An even bigger obstacle is that when I present the county and local grant funding options to families only a small percentage of them will actually follow through with even attempting to get the funding set-up. I think most families are overwhelmed with their busy and stressful lives and they just aren’t able to manage following through with the funding applications.

[Katie Romano]

The families I worked with biggest needs were socialization and normalization. These children were developmentally delayed so their parents hoped that there involvement in music would help reiterated developmental advances and tasks being studied in other therapies and school. In a different setting, the hospital, the goal is control and opportunities for developmental play. If they see their kids having fun and secretly learning something, it is a success.

[Kristina Rio]

I find in my Sprouting Melodies groups that the need is as much for the caregiver as it is for the children. They need that time to PLAY with their kids, let loose, have fun, and forget all the errands they need to do as well as other stressors in their life. This is also the need for many of my families I work with for music therapy services. Family based music therapy groups are so important for the whole family to learn and grow together.

[Kasey Sollenberger]

I currently work at a sensory gym for children. Many of the families that visit the gym are looking for different opportunities that meet their child’s sensory needs. Children of all ages attend the gym, from little babies all the way up to teenagers. It is an environment that provides opportunities beneficial to typically developing children along with children who have sensory and developmental challenges. Many of the families I come into contact with at the gym want their children to be involved in an inclusive activity with their peers. Some of the children receive music therapy services individually but their parents have been searching for an MT group for them as well.

[Christina Wensveen]

In my work with various community agencies, I have noticed these music programs can provide a sense of belonging- especially to families who have children with special needs. Some parents have told me they are not always welcome in other community programs and I think creating a community program that is inclusive is still (unfortunately) not as common as we like to think. I have also found that parents can find a great source of support in one another, and facilitating programs such as this, can assist in bringing parents together to form connections.

[Adrienne Salmon]

The needs of my clients are so very diverse. I really consider myself to be extremely lucky, because the job that I have allows me to meet such remarkable people each with different stories. I have some young children, ages 2-5, with congenial and acquired blindness. I have some clients, ages 7-19, on the Autism Spectrum, which certainly is a broad spectrum! Some of those clients have coexisting IDD, ADHD, etc. I have adults at the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s and Dementia. I have adults with various and varying levels of IDD diagnoses. I have pre-school and high school classes of children and young adults with any variety of diagnoses. I consider myself incredibly lucky because I really get to do so many different things on any given day, and to learn so much from so many different individuals.

[Kathryn Costanza]

I work at a clinic for individuals with developmental disabilities that specializes in Neurologic Music Therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis, so right now the individuals I work with have a variety of diagnoses and needs in both developmental delay and autism spectrum disorders. The age range of my clients is 3½ – 61 years old, although all but one person is 17 or under. We typically try to work with the family’s needs and the school goals to make sure that what we are working on can be generalized across settings. Academic goals, behavior, sensory needs, cognitive and attention tasks, gross motor coordination, speech/communication, and adapted lessons are all specific areas of need that our families have come to us to address. Because the needs of people with developmental delay are so unique to the individual and so broad, we end up addressing a little bit of everything.

[Nicole Sanabria]

Majority of the families I work with are looking for someone to understand their situation, and to have a little guidance in order to provide their child with experiences that will expand the child’s development and growth. It seems like on some level they are in need of answers and look to various professionals to provide that and at times much more. I also feel like on some level, they want to understand where their child is coming from more so, from a different stand point rather than as a parent. I feel overall they are looking for a place to be accepted and to be normalized and be seen as a parent that has an awesome kid no matter how you slice it.

[Jonni Fogerty]

The families I work with often need assistance developing communication skills with their children for connecting/bonding with the child, providing basic needs more easily, and in order to aid in handling difficult behaviors. These families are often very busy with multiple commitments and time restrictions. That is why FMT is community based and provides home based services. The needs of the community include more funding sources for programs, more direct support staff to work with individuals with disabilities (there is often high turnover with these jobs), and music classes that children with special needs are able to fully and actively participate in. The community I work in is unique because it is a small college town. It provides high diversity with the university culture and local rural families. Also, the town is very supportive of arts and open to individuals with disabilities. My community attracts families who have loved ones with disabilities due to the great services that are already available.

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