Your Personal Reflections

[Meredith Pizzi]

Post to the board a personal reflection of what you personally will bring to early childhood music therapy based programs and how this information will support your work as a music therapist.

[Angie Carter]

My experience as a parent personally supports my music therapy practice in early childhood. My knowledge of child development and experience in working with children for many years prior to having my own kids was obviously important, but there is a completely new appreciation for families and parents after you have children your own. I feel that I am better able to communicate with parents and have empathy for them. Having multiples, I am often able to support families of multiples in a way that other professionals may not be able to. I have awareness of resources in the community….or lack there of…..and am able to provide parents with what they they need to aid their child development. I feel that I have a strong base of rapport building, child development, and interaction with families. I need to increase by ability to support my use of music and become more confident in discussing evident based practice.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

It would be great if you could add some of your insights on multiples as we go through the course, Angie. Although I have had the chance to work with many families with twins, triplets and even quads, I know that there must be challenges and joys specific to parenting of these kids that you could share. That would be very helpful to me.

[Amy DiLabio]

Angie much of what you said resonated with me. I too am a mother and my experience as a mom has helped me to understand the children I work with. It has also given a context beyond my education to draw upon when talking with parents and care takers of children with whom I work. Keeping the stages and expectations of development in mind will be very beneficial as I develop programs and work with children and their families in a music therapy setting. I hope to keep the developmental delay red flags forefront in my mind as I work with children and their families. These I find to be particularly interesting.

[Wei Ming Loi]

I agree with both Amy and Angle viewpoint of how being a mother allows me to have a better understanding of the early childhood population and our work with their parents. I could better understand the anxieties of the parents in tracking the developmental milestones of their child in this highly competitive society. personally, my husband also had difficulties reading the cues from our child and while working with him to build up the bond between my son and him, I feel that I’ve gain tremendous experience on the specifics of guiding a father in my own work as an mt.

[Tamara Strom]

I am not yet a parent, but have a 4 year old niece, and a 9 month old godson, both of whom I absolutely adore! I have also had the experience of working in day care, preschool, and early intervention settings. One thing I think I personally bring based on these experiences, is an ability to connect well with young children and to enter their world. I think I’m able to connect well with my own childlike side, which is helpful for connecting with children through music, as I’m not afraid to be silly, or to jump, dance, etc. while singing and playing the guitar. I would love to learn more from the experiences of those of you who are parents, as you bring a unique and insightful perspective having experienced both sides, as a parent and as a therapist.

[Lisa Spall]

I agree! I’ve definitely found this information (I’ve been studying with Meredith for a while before the course as well) to help me so much in discussing music therapy with parents and other professionals. I’m so much more articulate and knowledgeable in my assessments, and that is what is important to the people you work with. Since I’m still a pretty new music therapist, I can only imagine what more time and education on the subject will do!

I am not a mother, but I’ve always had a really close connection to working with young children. I adore them and sometimes I feel like more of a child than an adult, haha. In some ways I wish I had the first hand experience you Mom’s do, but I’m in no hurry! No harder job than being a parent… I don’t mind really not having the parental experience, I think because this work and the kids I gain an understanding of now will make me a better parent AND music therapist in the future 🙂

[Alyssa Kereki]

Personally, I think it is important for everyone to connect with their “inner child” both inside and outside of the therapeutic setting. I have noticed that the more stress I undergo as an adult, the easier it is to feel drained and let the spontaneous aspects of my personality fade away. I try to remind myself to see the world through a child’s eyes and appreciate the little things in life. Doing so not only helps me recharge and take a few moments away from my responsibilities but allows me to relax and act goofy with all of my clients. An added bonus is that my clients tend to relax and act goofy when they see me acting that way, and younger children especially need to be encouraged to be silly and explore both themselves and the environment.

[Cindy Humphreys]

I have found when working with children and parents that initially the adults are very inhibited. I try to model and encourage playful interactions to let parents know it is okay to have fun . I think part of the group process is establishing a safe and caring environment where all participants can be respected.

[Laura Montesano]

I will bring playfulness and create an environment of acceptance to my early childhood music therapy work. Much of my work right now is with the latino population and some of the families, not all, but some of them, at first are quite hesitant to let go and be silly and play, they have expressed to me that they have taken on the role of care-taker but not necessarily as play-mate, but modeling playfulness and giving them permission to be silly has really been a fun experience, and quite a transformation to watch. Having the stages of development on hand to refer to to explain why specific actions are important and what exactly we are working on, validates the work, and also increases the chances of carry-over in the home in every day routines.

[Robin Jacobs]

The combination of my music therapy education, varied music therapy work experiences, many years of birth-5 family music classes, studying yearly for 10 years with the co-founder of Suzuki Piano basics (Haruko Kataoka) and many years of teaching piano using the Suzuki method has given me a wealth of experience to draw from with so many wonderful people. One of Dr. Kataoka’s teaching was if the child is not learning what you are tyring to teach them, the teacher is the one with the problem not the child. Find a different way to connect/communicate/teach the child. This is when I realized that my teaching style using Suzuki method was a natural extension of my music therapist role.

The other piece I bring with me in my music therapy/teacher role is that of parent. I have beautiful 26-year-old daughter, Jayme, who began studying violin at the age of three. As others have expressed, having the personal experience of being a parent gave me another valuable perspective for my work.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

What a wonderful wealth of experiences! So many of you talked about finding the ‘child’ inside you as you try to connect with young kids. Some of you also spoke about the real issue of encouraging parents to ‘be with’ their child to make music. I do find that explaining to parents the importance of play in their child’s development goes a long way in getting them to join in the music. This is often hard in our current educational climate. Sometimes I find that parents are looking for permission from us to enjoy. We can share with families that learning, and growing and having fun can and do happen at the same time in music.
There are also cultural considerations that we need to respect as some of you pointed out. Again, when I am clear about working toward an outcome of overall development rather than specific skills, most of my parents are able to relax and see the child’s blossoming sense of self.

What specific techniques do you use to encourage parents to join in the music? I have a saying that I use all the time…”Everybody stays…everybody plays.” …and I mean it. While on that topic, you might ask Meredith about the Governor of Massachusetts sitting in on a music therapy session with little ones and playing maracas!

(If you are interested, visit my recent blog on http://www.RaisingHarmony.com which talks about the work of music scientist Dr. Daniel Levitin and the science behind magical musical moments.)

[Leigh Giglio]

Again, I’m sorry that this entry is late as I was dealing with a sick little one last week and that took away my “course” time. I also agree that my role as a parent has helped me to be a better therapist to the children that I do work with at the prescool. I have a better understanding of the developmental stages, how to set boundaries and incorporating kid-like play that helps to teach and grow them. My kids at school love how I “play” with them in class and will go home and tell their parents all about what they learned in music…mind you, I only see each class for 15 to 20 minutes once a week, so I think that’s pretty good that in such a short period of time they are picking up whatever I am sharing, feeling confident enough to share it with their parents, as well as retaining what was taught.

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