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

[Meredith Pizzi]

[Coleen Shanagher]

I think what struck me during this weeks lecture was the specificity of developmental goals. It was so great to be reminded that each small growth is really a developmental step. This stuck out to me when I heard that children will come to understand the use of prepositions. It hit me that we are not born with the understanding that “on the piano bench” is different than “under the piano bench.” And these milestones could be missed if I didn’t know to watch for them.

[Keeley St Clair]

I was also keenly attentive to the detailed milestones that young children experience. It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten that information and I feel as if I see it through different eyes now that I am a practicing clinician and not just learning theory. I’m very excited to learn more about developmentally appropriate musical experiences and really get this “nailed down.”

[Andrea U]

I thought this week’s lecture provided a great theoretical background into the developmental stages. When I was at a pediatric hospital, I had the opportunity to provide the staff’s children with early childhood music classes. I would think about what each child did on that day but never really thought much further than that. When I was watching the lecture, it provided me with a theoretical framework that I wish I had in that clinical experience, so it was nice to see some practical work combined with theory.

[Toni]

My most valuable take away this week is about reassuring the parents that what they are seeing with their child is “ok” and part of normal development. Particularly the teething/biting stages being a sensory experience. I have not worked with families yet, or this age group, and would likely not have thought about giving parents this feedback. It has been a long time since I’ve learned about developmental milestones (and observed them in my own children!). Thank you for providing this framework in this course.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

I am so glad that this information has been helpful. I do believe that we as clinicians are more ready to understand and use the information to help real children and real families. Seeing development in real life is nothing like reading about it in a book.

[Kehlen Bushatz]

I also think that reassuring parents about what they are seeing is a very important reminder that I sometimes forget. Parents look at us as the experts because they don’t know exactly what is appropriate, and they really need that reassurance. The part about a parent being worried that their child participates in pretend play too much really reminded me of a conversation that I had with a parent last week… their 4 year-old daughter only wanted to pretend play and had little desire to do any kind “academic” activity. I shared with the parent how that’s not something to be overly concerned with and that teaching pre-academics is often very play-based at this age too.

[Erin Spring]

I think just reviewing the specifics of developmental milestones in such a detailed way was extremely helpful for me in thinking about my work with children. I also teach a parent-child swimming class at a YMCA that incorporates a lot of singing with various activities and water movements, and have had specific water skill development training for early childhood, so it was great to mesh the two together in my head. Having this knowledge more readily available in my head and at my fingertips will be very helpful with working with families in my early childhood swimming class as well as my supervision at preschool sites and eventually my work with Sprouting Melodies.

[Jennifer Sokira]

For me the most valuable takeaway is reinforcing to families that while each developmental age has specific tasks and milestones that every child is going to develop a little bit differently. Reflecting that what they are observing is normal, and providing developmental information if something is a “red flag”.

I also loved that Beth highlighted that it is important that the child be introduced to the MT or other strangers. As a parent and as a therapist I have observed individuals who are unfamiliar to the child, albeiet with good intentions, really invading a child’s space and causing them to feel upset, etc. It happened this past weekend to us at a restaurant when the waitress was in my 17 month old’s face and cooing at him, playing with his hair, etc. As he started to have a meltdown I had to politely ask her to stop and say “he doesn’t know you so he’s scared”…. SO important that we remember that we need to give children the time and space to develop trust in us!

[Shannon Kiley]

I’m a little late to the party, but this last week’s content has been so useful to review and learn again, especially now that I am out working in the “real world” of music therapy, rather than just studying it in text, as Keeley mentioned… Several times this week as some of my clients were not “getting” what I was trying to get them to do, I had to step back and ask myself whether my expectations were appropriate, and I realized that I was asking them to do something beyond their developmental level! Can’t wait to integrate this information into next week’s (this week’s) music development content.

[Petra Paukova]

Ok. I just got through the part ! and 2, finally. Very helpful. I refreshed my memmory. My son is 11 now so I kind of forgot a lot of that stuff already. Some of the terminology was new to me and very helpful. I had a little hard time with sound of the videos, especially part two. Is there anything that could be done to make it louder? Also, part two text was very blurred on my monitor.

[Anonymous]

Petra I will let Meredith know about the technical difficulties you are having with the video. I just went over part two and I do see that it is a little lower, however I did not see anything blurred. You may want to check your monitor connection just to be sure. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

I have been working with small children for such a long time, but I still need to go back to this information every once in awhile to remind myself of all the details 😉

[Siobhan Rooney]

Working in the special education setting for 17 years and not having any children of my own sometimes I forget what typically developing children are capable of! Although I’ve studied early childhood development before, I thought this week’s content offered me a great deal of perspective of where my children are functiong in relation to their neurotypical peers.

[Sarah Tree]

Though I have taken several classes in development and early childhood, it was really wonderful to have such an in-depth look at each developmental stage. This information was more accessible to me because of my 2-year-old niece and nephew, who were born after the last time that I took a course on development. Though I have worked in early intervention, I have not worked with children under the age of 3, so I feel that this information will be very beneficial as I begin working with younger children.

I really liked the “red-flag” alert ideas, allowing me to be watchful for concerning events which an young parent might overlook.

[Kathryn Opher]

Such nice reminders that are worth reviewing often. When we work with special needs kids we tend to forget what the norm is. I also like to remind myself of the continuum so not to always put ages with tasks but rather the order things occur.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

I’m glad that the developmental levels are useful for you.

[Author]

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