[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.

[Alice Sorensen]

I definitely agree with the thoughts that have been posted already, and I’ll add to it by saying we can offer more tailored experiences to more families. For example, if a family with young children of varying developmental levels is looking for early childhood experiences, they might choose Music Together or some other non-music therapist based Mommy & Me sort of program, all of which are great. But because music therapists are especially trained, we’re offering therapeutic interventions to support child development, not necessarily music development (although it can also blossom). Other early childhood classes that I’m aware of offer music development or early child development, but none that offer child development with music as the primary conduit. I think that makes us very unique.

[Alice Sorensen]

I’m not currently in practice, but I recall using elements of sing/play/move/listen not only during my time in early intervention but in my work with the elderly, especially in the realm of listening. To listen to one’s self is to accept and acknowledge one’s output, to accept yourself in a small way – and we are what we repeatedly do. To listen to others is to extend that love to another!

In my work with adults, instrument playing was a great way to regain a sense of autonomy and a sense of ability to contribute/be part of reciprocal interactions despite possible loss of skills required to do that in a nonmusical way. For example, while a patient with Alzheimers wouldn’t necessarily be able to carry on a reciprocal conversation, very often they were still able to actively engage in music playing to a specific beat as part of a group.

I recall working with a young girl in early intervention as she was investigating the array of instruments available to her; as a young student I recall feeling very anxious that she wasn’t picking any specific instrument and instead sampling each one – it was an important lesson for me to learn about how she processed the world at the independence stage.

[Alice Sorensen]

SINGING

Awareness: Cooing, vocalizing to a pitch, uses descending pitches
Trust: Attempting to match pitch of caregiver in play exchange
Independence: Conversational vocalizing or babbling in glissando and varying pitch
Control: Might attempt to recreate a familiar tune, perhaps a theme song to a favorite show or imitates a favorite song
Responsibility: Sings entire favorite song, not always staying in pitch but can replicate song more fully – might enjoy singing for family/friends

PLAYING

Awareness: Responds to instruments, listens to instruments and recognizes softer playing vs louder playing, lullabies vs very energetic songs, might put instrument in mouth.
Trust: Might shake an instrument to a specific pulse for two shakes or one, short but consistent meter
Independence: Takes advantage of a diverse array of instruments, chooses different instruments and examines them closely, seems more invested in the instrument’s purpose
Control: Enjoys structure in instrument experiences, becomes fascinated by and engages with the structure of music play, takes more autonomy in designing the structure
Responsibility: Marches, capable of more prolonged interactive play, more empathetic to other players, responsive to changes

MOVING

Awareness: Moves naturally, visibly relaxes to lullabies or increases energy in response to more exciting music
Trust: Might smile in response, not matching the meter but might bop their head or move their legs/arms, moves in a whole body way/whole body reactions
Independence: Moves a specific part autonomously, is able to move according to instructions in a very basic way (e.g. pat knees, etc).
Control: More enthusiastically participates in group movements, imitates movements, is thrilled by completing the movements – more likely to clap on meter, pat knees on meter, etc.
Responsibility: Can complete routines and sequences in response to songs, can recall the general meter and tempo and move consistently to that

LISTENING

Awareness: Turns attention toward a voice, recognizes voices of caregivers/different timbres
Trust: Can recognize and remember familiar melodies and timbres, emotions can be mitigated by familiar tunes or melodies
Independence: Shows bodily response that matches the music, responds to changes in music such as dynamics, timbre, mood
Control: Takes initiative to listen to music; uses autonomy over body to actively tune into music that they want to listen to, whether it’s a music instruction or just music that they’re anticipating
Responsibility: Watches or spectates peers and parents, takes active interest in what others are doing, is engaged and interested in reciprocal watching/listening, less focused on self

[Alice Sorensen]

I enjoyed singing and learning these songs, some of which were familiar to me from my time at Alternatives, and some of which were new!

Unfortunately, my kid’s choir is out for the summer so I don’t have any children to test these out on – but when they were in session, a lot of times I’d use the transition song “we’re gonna walk to music” when moving from our rehearsal space to the performance space – it kept them focused on the task at hand, minimized the anxiety of the transition/location, and made them feel purposeful. It made me smile when I later heard kids singing it spontaneously, self-directing on their way into the rehearsal space!

[Alice Sorensen]

I live and work in a very diverse community as well, the families at my church and who I believe will be in the sprouting melodies programs are mostly from the West Indies and Africa, as well as Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, other Hispanic communities. There is also a lot of traditional American folk music in our area, so it’s pretty well spread out. I have some ideas on changing words to some of the West Indies traditional folk melodies to make them suitable for the goals of Sprouting Melodies – some of these tunes are so catchy and they really stick in your head.

I agree with Gwendolyn’s sentiment though, that it’s challenging to integrate cultural music without making assumptions or by putting anyone on the spot. Luckily I’m pretty familiar with my church community’s music, but there’s a very real possibility that I’ll be working with children from outside the church community in these groups and I will run into the same problem!

I think that one way of doing it would be to take those traditional melodies and the altered lyrics and include them, no matter the cultural makeup of the group – “different sounding” melodies and rhythms might be a welcome addition. For example, I was thinking of maybe altering the lyrics to support early childhood development to the refrain of a song like “Cielto Lindo” or a song like “linstead Market”. It’s definitely something I may give a try.

[Alice Sorensen]

I recall working with a young boy on the autism spectrum, and once during the session, he spontaneously began singing a song that he probably heard on the radio (it was a hit at that time) – and reading the slides and watching the videos, I recall now that the melody of that song is composed of “do do re re”, a major second, and now having consumed this week’s material, it makes more sense to me why that song in particular appealed to him. He also had a fast internal rhythm and especially enjoyed moving to music.

[Alice Sorensen]

I am very excited to be immersed in this course material, as I am looking to bring an early childhood music therapy program to the community in and around my place of employment (which is a church). I am excited to bring my experience as the music director as well as my experience as a music therapist (with geriatrics as well as with the little ones!) to early childhood music therapy. As I’m reading about how children develop, mentally, physically and musically, I’m experiencing both feelings of “oh yeah I remember some of this from grad school” as well as “this is much more meaningful now that I’m a few years older and planning on applying it in a specific, concrete way”. This makes the information “stick” for me a bit better, and it’s going to make me a better early childhood music therapist because I’ll be freshly armed with this very depthful understanding of child development.

[Alice Sorensen]

Hi everyone,

My name is Alice Sorensen. I’m a graduate of Molloy College, and I’m coming up on three years as an MT-BC. I did a practicum with Beth at Alternatives for Children back in 2012, which was when I surprised myself in learning that “yeah, I’d like to work with kids again someday.” I’ve mostly worked in hospice and with geriatrics, and most recently I was at Brookdale Hospital for just over two years working with Alzheimer’s/Dementia patients, typical geriatric patients, HIV/AIDS and stroke/rehab recovery.

I felt the need to go in a different direction with my career overall, so I took a FT job as a church music director for a Catholic parish in Brooklyn back in October. This career move included aspirations to go into private practice as a music therapist, once I got settled in at the church. My hope is to bring Sprouting Melodies to the Bedford-Stuyvesant community, as my boss has offered use of our church space to facilitate this and is very supportive of music therapy.

I currently live in Brooklyn with my two kitties. I am looking forward to completing this training and to meeting all of you!

[Author]

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