What was your most valuable takeaway from this weeks’ content?

[Meredith Pizzi]

Please reflect on your takeaway from this week’s material.

[Elizabeth Ferguson]

My take away fro this week’s material is that Beth reminded me that sometimes just thinking about what the experience may e like for the child is not always enough, sometimes you have to actually “jump”! My most memorable music moments in early childhood music groups was when I was really enjoying the silliness/songs/movements right along with the children. Sometimes as a music therapist I can become so goal oriented that I can focus too much on getting responses and not enough experiencing together. I look forward to next week and diving into the music aspect!

[Cassandra Reyna]

I had a similar experience with teens today! Sometimes we forget that the goal can be humanistic–to just have fun! We danced together, and I didn’t just observe them. I danced too! They taught me what they knew, and it was so empowering for them to take the lead for once. Not to mention, I had a great time as well and remembered how important it is for these teens, who are living at a residential psychiatric facility, to just dance and have a good time with one another. They proved that they can work as a team after all 😉

[Cassandra Reyna]

I am definitely a list maker, and having developmental milestones on organized slides was hugely important for my list-oriented mind. I feel like I have a firmer grasp on them than I did when we learned similar material in school, especially since I am not focused on 15 or so credits at once right now. This information will make great “cheat sheets” for parents and for myself as I plan sessions for various age groups.

[Anonymous]

Cassandra- I am so glad you found the organization helpful. You will continue to see more in the training and Beth’s book is also a great resource. She created it as a working resource since it is so much to information to remember. I am frequently reading it as I work with my clients.

[Alison Albino]

My biggest takeaway from this weeks content is really looking for those “warning signs”. It is so important to know what is going on with children as they develop. If you understand typical development, you can spot something that may be taking a while to develop and focus in on that skill. I really find all of the information presented so interesting! I loved using a small pillow as a child, it really got the message across!

[Rachel Lighty]

It was very valuable for me to understand each stage of development, what things to look for in typically developing children, and things to look for that could indicate a developmental delay. It was also very useful to have some key items to address with parents if they are concerned with the development of their child and to encourage some behaviors over others.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

I enjoyed this cheat sheet for developing children birth through 5. I think it’s really accurate and I see where my kids are, or should have been though these developing time periods, but it is important to encourage those developing behaviors as much as possible with different age groups. Neither my kids have enjoyed group music class because it’s clumped into birth to age 5. There’s a huge range of needs and skills in those time periods and they hate loud sounds and large groups scare them. The funny thing in 18-24 months that it said was that kids are able to turn a doorknob, and that’s what my boy did the whole time in music class last week and ran out. I was so discouraged until I read that this is totally devolempmentally appropriate for his age. Too bad this music class was so expensive. He was outside the class more than inside.

[Anonymous]

Tracy I am so glad this course is validating you with your own children and I am sorry to hear the class you are currently in is not providing what you would like. I think you will find, if you are not able to find a class in your area that you like, you can do a lot of this with your own kids at home. I was pregnant with my daughter when I took this training and after having her realized I would not find a class in my area, as I am the only Sprouting Melodies provider in my state. I would practice all of my session material with my daughter before bringing to my classes. My daughter really loved it and knows all of the songs I did. I also found that in practicing with her it really informed my work with my classes and clients.

[Gwendolyn Van Baalen]

I found the insights into children’s social and emotional development particularly helpful and would love to continue to expand my understanding of this topic. In my experience, it seems easier to remember when a child typically achieves motor, speech, adaptive, and cognitive milestones, but mental health milestones can seem more ambiguous and nuanced. I found it helpful to be reminded of what children typically need to feel safe in some of these stages and how they typically interact with adults and, later, peers.

[Marchele Gilman]

I think my most valuable takeaway this week is that as I listened to the lecture, I began to build a framework to which music would fit in developmentally in the stages of development. I am beginning to build a new paradigm and think in terms of development and what I can bring to the table musically to support that development.

[Jessica Triana]

The salient learning point for me this week was to remember what “normal” or “typical” development looks like. I have charts similar to the given cheat sheet hanging up in my office as a reminder. However, I have a tendency to skew my perspective of development based on what I’m seeing in my current population. As most of my patients are born prematurely, have multiple developmental delays or are globally delayed, I sometimes need a refresher on typical development. I greatly appreciated the new cheat-sheet and warning signs and plan to create more continued awareness around these aspects of development when working with my patients.

[Anonymous]

It is great to read what you are each taking away and gaining from this week’s content.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

I’m so glad that many of you found the lists helpful. When I first put them together in the book, I did so because I couldn’t find all the information that I wanted in one, easy-to-use place. I hope this becomes a resource for you for many years to come. By the way, I just wrote a new blog on the Raising Harmony web site that further explains the importance of clapping – something that I did not cover anywhere fully enough the first time around!

[Flora Whitmore]

When I was in my undergrad, not a lot of time was taken with developmental stages and how they related to music therapy interventions. A lot of time was spent with group dynamics and domains and learning repertoire, but it really felt like a broadstrokes overview. Even in my internship, the terms “developmentally appropriate” and “age appropriate songs” were tossed around a lot, but I never felt like I got a very comprehensive breakdown of the stages in the way that this module breaks them down. It has been so helpful to see the breakdown by age with the traits and red flags. This has been invaluable. This is my second time taking this course, and since I started, I have been continuing to encounter more and more young children. As I interact with them, both in my daily life and during my sessions, it has become easier to understand how they are taking in their environments and how to relate to them and identify where they are, when I look through the lense of the milestones. Today, I had a client who is nonverbal. His biological age is 4 but his development is that of a much younger child. Today when I sang a song with him, he paused and echoed back a slightly musical babbled offering in approximately the same vocal range as my phrase. Before this course, I would have just musically reflected back what he had provided and continued with the next tasks and noted his response and which song engaged him, but instead I kind of made a note in my head and said “ok, so I need to pause for a second here, and look at the earlier stages of development again and see where he is falling. I was giving him interventions that he is NOT developmentally ready for.” I foresee this knowledge continuing to be very helpful in application to my intervention with both this little client and many others.

[Anonymous]

I am so glad you are finding this information helpful in your work Flora.

[Beth McLaughlin]

I am just fascinated by early child development and how quickly children learn to interact and make sense of their world through movement and interaction with people in their environment. It really is miraculous. I had a few important takeaways from this week’s materials. My adult kids who are now parents, always marvel at how early their own children would respond rhythmically to music without anyone teaching them. Understanding sucking as being the first instinctual rhythmic response necessary for survival helps me to see how inseparable music and child development are. Also thinking about a fetus for 9 months growing right beneath the mother’s beating heart makes clear how intrinsic rhythm is to their development. The other aspect of EC that I found fascinating from the materials was how a child’s world changes and opens up just by sitting up. The visual perception and movement repertoire that is building and subsequent learning just from a simple change in position is amazing to me. Having this information and a clear understanding of the developmental sequences also gives light to how many things can go wrong and how subtle some indicators might be. Being diligent and observant in the music environment can bring clarity to some of these potential challenges if we make sure that we are providing music experiences that are developmentally appropriate.

[RaeAnna Zinniel]

For me the most valuable takeaway was learning those different developmental levels and especially the warning signs. I still have much to learn but this is a great framework to help me build upon as I grown in experience and knowledge.

[Alice Sorensen]

The most important takeaway for me from this content was definitely the information on typical child development and with the red flags. Being away from this population, it was important to hone in on these concepts and these signs if I’m going to immerse myself in this work again.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your posts!

[Virginia Caldwell]

My take away this week is reflecting on my own children. I have a 3.5 year old and a 2 year old. They are so different and have hit markers at different times. My 3.5 year old is very much ahead in some markers which makes me feel like my 2 year old is behind but really he is not. I have done some reflecting on how they explore their world differently and how they engage in music differently. That has made me reflect on how I would approach a group and music differently for them and what music to use.

[Ayelet Weiss]

There was a lot of valuable content this week. Having an organized list of typical development for various stages is super helpful for me as most of my work has been with older adults. It was also so interesting for me as a parent of a 21 month old…as I was watching I found myself either being impressed that my son is doing some things that are typical of later stages as well as calmed that he is doing things within the normal time that I thought he should be doing by now. I think doing this course now is enabling me to really put myself in the shoes of parents that I will encounter. The red flags and suggested tips on what to say to parents was also very helpful.

[Anonymous]

I think you both will be a valuable asset to the families you serve. You both recognize the difficulty it is as a parent in understanding and knowing your child is within the “typical” range of development. You will also be able to assist parents who may have a child that is not within the typical range.

[Author]

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