[Alyssa Blackburn]

I’d say I’ve had minimal experience in this age group. While the lowest age group I worked with during my practicum was mid-elementary school, I was comfortable around children in general due to family/frequent babysitting. My internship was with high schoolers, so I didn’t begin working with younger children therapeutically until I began working in private practice in 2019. My first job, I had multiple groups ages 2-6. This would have been intimidating, but I worked alongside another music therapist at this job as I was not board certified initially. She definitely utilized some of the practices presented here in this training, but I’ve learned so much more through this! At my current position, I have had clients around this age group in the past, and now have that fun challenge we are all experiencing with trying to work virtually. I’m finding that they really do require so much parental assistance. I think one struggle is that some parents want virtual group music therapy to serve a bigger role than it is capable of serving. The children who have parents by their side are soaring, despite their age! Those who are more on their own are more of a challenge to engage without physically being there.

[Alyssa Blackburn]

5 words: Soothing, understanding, intentional, joyous, uniting

5 sentences:
“Instrument and music choices are important when working with this age group.”
“We’re here to help children wherever they are, and identify their strengths to help them grow.”
“Did you see her turn her head when you decreased the volume of your voice? She’s really listening to that music!”
“Be sure to provide lots of eye contact and positive reinforcement through touch and smiling!”
“You’re going to get tired of the songs before they fully integrate them. Keep on singing!”

Session Plan
Gathering: “Good Morning” using each child’s name and focusing attention on them individually.
Bonding: Row Row Row Your Boat using rocking/swaying; implement pauses, speeding it up, slowing back down… Keeping it interesting and gauging attention/trust.
Song about Me: Just Like Me increasing parent/child connection, provide visual cues to own body parts as well as child’s.
Instrument: In My Little Hand using shakers for all children to minimize distractions of different instruments around the room and allow focus to be on the song itself.
Movement: As Big As Can Be, gross motor movement and gauging comfort level of each child to determine movement (lifting up/down, staying up, etc.)
Goodbye: Bear in the Big Blue House Goodbye Song, recapping what was covered at the end (fit into the song).

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I enjoyed watching the videos from participant families in the previous week, and I feel like that gave us more of an understanding of the dynamic Sprouting Melodies plays in that community. Seeing their vocabulary choices as noted by others has shown the distinction between “fun music time” and “beneficial and necessary classes” which allows SM to thrive. One thing that stuck out to me too is how the facilitators communicate with the parents, such as noting that life is not always but a dream. This acknowledgment helps to put more humanness to the music therapist. I feel that some people might assume that being any kind of therapist and a parent, for example, is some magical thing since you know exactly how to meet your child’s needs… but I know that is not and won’t be the case. It’s so important to be on the parent’s level in this aspect, while still maintaining professionalism and giving yourself the credit you are due (and unfortunately often do not get as an MT) so that the parents are comfortable with you and feel welcomed, yet still respect you as the MT.

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I think it’s so important for parents to be able to look at “uncommon” ways their child is meeting developmental goals. Because I am hard on myself, I foresee myself holding a lot of blame if my child isn’t as “advanced” as their peers. I think music is one form of gauging development that people overlook because it’s “just music,” filled with silly songs and using chairs as drums. It’s so important to see these behaviors as milestones!

[Alyssa Blackburn]

The area I live in (Northern VA) is pretty heavily filled with ABA therapy, so the majority of my clients receive ABA therapy all day, every day, and have for years. I think the families I work with, as well as the families in my area, need a variety of approaches. Additionally, this area is very fast-moving and career-motivated. I think another big need is to slow down and connect with their children and others around them. Music, specifically music therapy, can provide another outlet and approach to working towards their personal goals. Music can also help slow families down and have them sit and make music with their children. With the pandemic, we all need a stress relief, an outlet, and something we can control. I think music can play a huge role in these areas.

[Alyssa Blackburn]

Music therapists help increase that connection between parents and their child’s development. With young families, there’s a lot of fear and worry over doing things “wrong,” especially in the world of social media where so much is broadcasted and ridiculed. I believe that music therapists can broaden the lens of what parenting “should” look like and provide approaches that may not be seen as standard, and can be a better fit for some families. There are many milestones such as matching pitch or responding to musical changes that parents don’t always pick up on – whether it’s a young family or parents with 10 children. With this training especially, music therapists can help parents “think like their child” when it comes to repetition and patience with music. (That really hit me and made me realize how many times I have moved on much too quickly because of a perceived lack of response!)

[Alyssa Blackburn]

Incorporating movement with really young children can be so difficult, especially now with needing to keep some distance! I really like using stretchy bands and scarves with babies and young children. Another way to incorporate movement is using two-part instruments (drum/mallet, triangle/stick, etc.) and having them reach to hit the instruments. This works on that gross motor movement of the arm, vision and focus, and you can use it to cross midline too! It’s definitely my go-to way to address upper body movement, though lower body movement can be a bit trickier. Still brainstorming here! 🙂

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I began utilizing more transition songs when I took the Music For Kiddos Early Childhood CMTE course. I typically end up making up my own song in the moment, but these new melodies are great to add to my “backpack” so I don’t always have to pull a random melody with random lyrics. I liked the “are you ready for music” song and have already begun incorporating it as a song to place in between our hello song and the first subsequent experience. I usually keep the same melody and lyrics, but add a tag on the end to choose one of the two instruments I demonstrated during the song.

One thing I have already begun to change is my play/stop songs. I tend to use this with all kiddos, but now I am backing off from using it with my youngest clients until they are fully in the “trust” stage of development. I also encourage more instrument play in transitions and before instruments have been collected!

I also liked the phrasing when discussing parents who try to stop the music when the child has not yet been prompted to play. This is definitely something I will be able to incorporate in future sessions. One thing I was completely unaware of was keeping from interfering when babies first begin singing and making music. While I don’t have clients quite this young, I know it will come into play at least with my own future children.

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I like how you mention incorporating other cultures, despite this not being the celebrated culture of the individual. Especially when clients are young, it’s so beneficial to increase that acceptance of other cultures and to show early on that other cultures exist around them!

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I work in Northern VA, which is a bit more diverse than where I grew up, and here the population is about 55% white. Reflective of this, I work with clients from many cultural backgrounds, though in terms of holidays celebrated and favorite songs reported by parents, there is less variety. The majority of my clients’ families report celebrating Christmas, which is where I expected to see more diversity. This kind of keeps my own judgements in check, because I found myself assuming that race determines culture. The biggest “culture clash” so-to-speak that I experience in my work is when clients and their families speak Asian languages to one another, or clients begin singing songs (both familiar and songs unknown to me) in another language.

I do have one virtual group (in cycles of 12 weeks, beginning with a 30 minute “lesson” led by another individual with a predetermined outline) of families from a large variety of backgrounds. This group often incorporates Spanish speaking, though there’s much more diverse clientele. I always incorporate a hello song in which clients can unmute, share a greeting (visual, verbal) with the group. The majority of the greetings used are different languages, and the group repeats that greeting back. I’ve only worked on one cycle with this group, but during the next cycle I’d like to challenge myself to incorporate more cultural music I’m not as familiar with.

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I have a new client who is very young and seems to be just beginning to move from awareness to trust. She experiments with various ways to play instruments, often reaching to put them in her mouth. In one session, she was very fussy and started to cry when a new instrument was presented. When I began playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, she stopped crying and began to bob her head/upper body along with the music.

[Alyssa Blackburn]

Awareness: Jolting back at the sound of a drum, turning to look at a new instrument being played, reacting when the music stops
Trust: Singing along/echoing, reacting to altered familiar songs, playing with instruments in unique ways
Independence: Slowing movement/instrument play in coordination with MT, melodic babbling with varying pitches (often descending and glissando), demonstrates excitement with music stopping suddenly
Control: Initiates movement and dancing to music, increased singing (spontaneous and singing along with similar melodic contour), words more accurate in familiar music
Responsibility: Listens to other group members playing, mimics dynamic levels when singing, remains on beat/in key for longer periods of time

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I, too, love piggyback/simple songs with younger clients! I’ve found that I’m more confident in my songwriting with this age group than any other 🙂

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I work with a lot of younger clients and have always based their goals on their current stage of development. I think that having more knowledge behind the stages and taking a developmental approach will benefit my work as I can create appropriate goals for my clients. I have a virtual group of younger children and their parents that runs for a few weeks at a time, and I think bringing this approach into the sessions during this next round will be really beneficial. It’s more of a co-treatment, as my 30 minute session piggybacks off of a 30 minute class prior, and I base my sessions off of their lesson plan. With it being virtual, it brings new challenges, so I think that having a stronger knowledge base in the “background” will help me to be more confident in what I am doing, despite the virtual setting.

[Alyssa Blackburn]

I agree that since we often work with children in these age groups, it becomes difficult to know the standard stages of development. My niece is really ahead developmentally, and I have friends on social media who have kids of various ages developing at different rates. I greatly appreciate having this information in such a straightforward fashion! Especially the checklist.

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