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.

[Amanda Braden]

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t currently work with any young children – I work with teens and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. For the families that I’m able to interact with, I know that they really value and seek out support from the outside community as well as us, their therapeutic providers, and other parents of children with special needs. The mother of a client of mine and the mother of another music therapist’s client have really become good friends while sitting in the waiting room at our office during their child’s session time. So, I think one of the needs that my clients’ families have is just to have the emotional support of others that care and can understand what they are going through as families of children with special needs. Also, I have caregivers and parents ask me questions about my opinions on various day programs for their teens aging out of school, whether or not their child should get evaluated for new behaviors that may display another possible diagnosis, etc. So, I think some more needs that the families I work with are having support from professionals as well as having more education and information about what is available for their children with special needs in their community.

In regard to the needs of my community, I have mentioned before that there seem to be no quality early childhood music groups for young children and their families. So, I would say that my community is definitely in need of Sprouting Melodies! I was also informed by my boss recently that an agency that provides programming for children has been in contact with our company because they want to provide more programming for children with special needs in the area because they have identified a great lack of programming in this area. So, again, I’m seeing a great need for programs like Sprouting Melodies in my own community!

[Christine Czuhajewski]

Some of the families who I work with outside of the school setting are very busy families with children who are enrolled in many therapies and structured ABA programs. Their children are very busy and the families are looking for something that is beneficial for their children’s development, but also fun and engaging for the children. Some reactions that I get from families and other service providers in the community is shock at learning about what music therapy is. I have met many people who say they wish they had known about music therapy sooner or that they know other families who would enjoy music therapy experiences. It seems that music therapy is still not as widely known in the community as speech language pathology or occupational therapy is. I don’t think this is unique to my community, but rather something that the music therapy community as a whole is still in the process of overcoming. Another good point that was brought up in the video is that some parents aren’t looking for therapy. Something important for the program is to help the community recognize the value of using a music therapist to explore these developmental stages versus going to an early childhood music program that is not run by a music therapist. As a school music therapist, I sometimes see my students transition out into lesser restrictive environments, and sometimes public school settings. In these situations, it seems to be a challenge to keep music therapy services on student IEPs. I’ve run into county representatives trying to make IEP changes so that they don’t have to seek out and pay for music therapy services in their own schools, so it is constant work to show these individuals the value of keeping music therapy as an IEP service. Some of my students also graduate and their parents want them to continue to receive music therapy services and they struggle to find day program placements that offer music therapy. In my community, it is clear that family awareness of music therapy is continuing to grow, and the amount of work available for music therapists is continuing to grow. It is exciting to see more and more music therapists in our state each year.

[Michelle Russell]

In my practice I currently provide one community early childhood music class. The needs of the parents in this class are support and reaffirmation. Getting out of the house for some new moms is the biggest need of all. Having an opportunity to meet with other “grown ups” is a must. Theses families have the opportunity to not only receive support from myself, but from each other. It is also important that they feel a reaffirmation that they are “doing the right thing”. There is so much knowledge that we can share with parents, but it is also important that we tell them that they already know much more than they give themselves credit for at times.
Within my community there are well established programs offed by other companies. (Music Together). I am currently exploring the desire for parents who have children with special needs to participate in my programs. I know that other companies are “inclusive” but I’m not sure if families would be nervous about participating. Perhaps having a music therapist as the facilitator would encourage them to join.

[Katie Whipple]

There is a huge need in my community for ANY kind of music class. Mom’s around here have expressed their wish to have mommy and me classes and don’t really prefer one curriculum over the other. There is really nothing offered right now and that is why I am so excited to be going through this training so that we CAN offer these classes. As Michelle stated above, there is a strong need for mommies to connect with each other, so it becomes not only about the kiddos and their families, but also a sense of community among mommies. There is also a need for private music therapy services for adults and children in my area and surrounding counties.

[Anonymous]

It is wonderful to read how you each see the value you bring as a music therapist and how you can be a support to families.

[Jacquelyn Blankinship]

Since I’m not currently working with children or families, I’m trying to think about this from the perspective of offering early childhood classes in my soon to be new city of Atlanta. Since I’m not there yet, I’m not quite sure about what the needs of the families will be quite yet. But I imagine that in a city as large and diverse as Atlanta, the needs will be also be diverse. According to my research, there are several established early childhood music groups throughout the city that are facilitated by folks of varying backgrounds and professions (including a good number of music therapists) and using many different approaches (including some Music Together – which I think we’re all familiar with – and quite a bit of Musikgarten – which I had never heard of).

I appreciated the exercises in this module to think about what music therapists bring to this field and – but separately – what I, myself, can bring to this field as a music therapist. Those are different things, but they tend to get muddied in my mind sometimes and separating them out has helped me to clarify my vision. I think this will help me in identifying the needs of my soon-to-be community and how I can fit into helping to fulfill those needs.

[Jaycie Voorhees]

Our Salt Lake community has a LOT of kids. It’s not uncommon for there to be families with 4+ kids, and sometimes up to 9-12 (although that doesn’t seem as common with the people I know my age). Married couples also tend to start their families earlier than in most other locations and start having children in their early twenties, which makes for a lot of young mothers. With that, there are a lot of services out there, and I know of at least 4 different types of music programs offered closeby–Music Together, Kindermusik, Music Garten, and another Parent Tot music class that I saw a flier for the other day. So I have a lot of competition, but I also have a lot of children around! One of the biggest challenges for me is finding a way to connect with those moms and to show what’s different about my program.

We also have a high number of children with special needs, and last I checked we had the highest rate of Autism in the country. Because my practice focuses on children with special needs that means there is a lot of potential for children I can serve, and it’s just getting the word out there on how valuable this service is to them.

[Kayla Lyles]

The needs of the families that I work with, at least in the early childhood/group context are usually socialization for the children and appropriate social skills. When looking at the community, I feel like I at least am still learning where priorities lie and what wants are.

[Darcy Lipscomb]

I think education is a big need for some of the young families with which we work. Specifically, education as to appropriate expectations for their child’s musical engagement and ability as compared to their current developmental level as well as awareness of pre music output milestones (eye contact, moving mouth/ tongue, body movement in response to music changes, etc.). I am excited about having new language and research to share with families to help in the educational process. Another need for all of our families is support. They need the opportunity to connect with other families who have been or are currently in similar situations. They need to know what other resources are out there for their child and family. They need to know that they aren’t alone.

[Megan Dewing]

Many of the families that I work with, like Darcy, are in need of education. Both developmental and musical milestones are important to share with the families we see in our practice. I, too, am excited to have more knowledge to share with them. Helping them to not only know what we can expect from them at this developmental stage but also how to help develop that skill through music is something that is a need of our clients.

Our community has a few other Early Childhood groups, such as Kindermusik and Music Together, but there is a real need for groups like these during the weekend. Most of offered during the week, and some parents are unable to take advantage because they are both working. I enjoyed the exercise of what music therapist and I, myself, can bring to early childhood classes, and I think this knowledge base is something that our community will also appreciate.

[Milijana Majstorovic Kozul]

Well as I already said, by now, I am offering baby massage classes (from 0 to 12 months), then another program – musical baby bonding program (from 0 to 7-8 months) and also working part time as a music therapist but with adult clients. So as I am mostly in contact with new mommies and their babies I would love to offer something new for them. Sprouting Melodies training looks like great opportunity and chance to obtain my knowledge and expand my horizons as a music therapist and also provides me opportunity, through musical experience, to work with kids from 0 to 5 year and their families. If I integrate all my knowledge and all contacts that I have already made, and start to found future one, I m sure that it would be very beneficial for the both sides. Parents need education, especially not typical one in my country. They need social bond with other parents. They sometimes need manual “how to” or structure to be able to spend quality and fun time with their kids and it can be great opportunity to experience and learn that.

[Kristina Rio]

It is great to read about all of the excitement around educating parents! The caregivers will be just as excited to learn what you have to offer!

[Anonymous]

Many of you have identified the list of different early childhood classes offered in your area. I too, have a very large offering in New Jersey. Music Together’s headquarters is actually in New Jersey. In working with Meredith, she has pointed out that this is actually a good thing. It shows that parents are utilizing these services and therefore you will find they will value what you have to offer. Sprouting Melodies Providers also get a tremendous amount of support from Beth, Meredith, and the entire Sprouting Melodies community to help you navigate beginning and continuing a program. Jaycie I had to look up the rate because Utah and New Jersey have been neck and neck with Autism rates. Last month, New Jersey jumped up. We are now 1 in 48. But that being said, you have a wonderful opportunity to support these families and they will be lucky to have you.

[Amanda Maestro-Scherer]

Working at a pediatric hospital, the needs of the patients and families are quite unique and challenging. Bonding with their infant is often a challenge for parents due to the medical complexities of the children, and developmental stimulation is also a great need for the kids due to those same medical needs! Once the babies and infants are stable enough to leave their rooms, or hopefully the hospital, I have had parents express to me how much they would love a developmental music therapy group, as their child has catching up to do, and also they get concerned bringing them to groups with kids that may have viruses or the like. So I think that could be a fantastic opportunity for us to offer our community.

[Jaycie Voorhees]

Send them to us Amanda! If they’re in Salt Lake County, at least 🙂

[Mary Withington]

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I see in the community a need for music therapy groups with young children with autism and developmental delays. I have had numerous requests from parents of special needs children to start an early childhood MT group. There is not one in my area. There is a demand for general early childhood music groups, and I currently teach 2 of those. Within these groups, parents are hungry for information about development and ways to interact musically with their child. They want direction in how to make music, and need encouragement to sing with their child, and get down on the floor and be silly, roll around, act like an animal, etc, with their child. They want information about family resources, play groups, events for children, music selection, and when to start music lessons. They also want cost effectiveness, and sometimes don’t want to pay the total cost, or are unable to pay the cost of an early childhood music group. They are looking for free classes and Saturday classes, which I will not be offering.

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