[Barb Blackburn]

Music Therapists bring so many great qualities and opportunities to families of young children. It’s interesting that the video mentioned parents “not wanting therapy for their babies and toddlers”. I never would have thought about it that way. I think it’s important for parents to know that going to “therapy” doesn’t have to have a negative connotation. We as music therapists are simply promoting and encouraging healthy development, social skills, communication, and learning (among many other skills!). I think it is important for young children to be introduced to music at a young age, especially musical “activities” that are functional and help promote success. This also gives parents an opportunity that they might not have had otherwise due to working a full time job. They get to watch, and be involved, as their children grow and learn appropriate social skills. Parents and children alike can gain new knowledge and friendships through these classes.

[Barb Blackburn]

Singing:
Awareness: Uses pitched vocalizations, glissandos, crescendos/decrescendos.
Trust: Makes purposeful, pitched vocalizations using musical inflections.
Independence: Experiments with different vocal timbres, and begins to sing on their own
Control: Moves from varying timbres to dynamics as well, makes silly sounds and songs.
Responsibility: Sings with you, tries to copy your sounds.

Playing Instruments:
Awareness: watches instruments as they are played (or doesn’t)
Trust: Initiate wanting to try to play the instrument too.
Independence: Begins to hold on to and play instruments
Control: Playing instruments how they choose to, playing them in silly ways
Responsibility: Playing with both hands, watching and trying to play like you.

Moving:
Awareness: Enjoys (or doesn’t) being swayed or rocked.
Trust: Begins to attempt to move independently to the rhythm
Independence: Can move body parts and “dance” to the music
Control: Attempt to move like you are moving.
Responsibility: Can move and dance in their areas and around the room, even with peers.

Listening:
Awareness: Watching (or not watching) the source of the music.
Trust: Tolerating being sung directly to.
Independence: Can listen to entire song.
Control: Knows familiar songs and can listen for his/her opportunity to play or sing
Responsibility: Follows multiple step directions in the songs (stand up, sit down, clap your hands…)

[Barb Blackburn]

We currently only have only one client that is functioning within these developmental ranges but we are still using these four music experiences in just about every session, but all of our clients are in “responsibility” and beyond. For our lower functioning client in singing, she seems to be in between trust and independence. We sang familiar songs and left out words for her to fill in some type of verbal approximation. We sang “Old MacDonald” and she was matching the pitch during “e-i-e-i-o” quite frequently, as well as babbling with a melodic inflection. For playing instruments, she seems to be in between trust and independence as well. She very briefly use meter/pulse when shaking her jingle bells during a song, and she purposefully explored each instrument that we introduced her to. She enjoyed having the cabasa played down her arm and hand, she would hold her hand out after each time as though saying she wanted it again. For movement, she seems to be, again, between trust and independence. She is somewhat able to isolate her arms and hands to clap (with assistance) or to dance. She can move her arms up and down during the music (with some assist to begin the motion). For listening, she is also once again in between the trust and independence stages. She smiles when she hears familiar tunes such as “Old MacDonald”, “If You’re Happy And You Know It”, “Jingle Bells”. and when we played faster paced music she would smile and rock at near the same tempo. We tried some sustained attention interventions with her playing and stopping on the drums as well.

It’s so interesting to see each of these developmental levels and be able to see which one your clients are in. It’s helpful to be able to see what’s coming next!

[Barb Blackburn]

The timing of this module with my practice was perfect! Before this week I really wouldn’t have had much to add since most of our clients are at a school age or older level. We just had an assessment meeting on Monday with a new client, and had her first exploration session on Wednesday. She is currently functioning at a one year old level. She seems to be between the awareness and trust levels. She was looking and reaching toward us while we were singing, and exploring instruments with her mouth and hands. She can, at times, hum along to parts of songs, and was trying so hard to sing “e-i-e-i-o” as well as making animal sounds. She LOVED playing bells and hearing us sing “Jingle Bells”, that may be her favorite song! Before doing some sensory or attention interventions, we would say “ready, set, go!” and she as imitating the rhythm of the words with a grunting/humming sound each time we said it. It was very cool to see. At one point her mother played a recording of her own voice making some silly noises and rhythmic chants and the clients reaction was very different toward her mother’s timbre, than to us at the therapists. All of outcomes that you talked about for those two levels are things that we are looking for from her, it’s so cool to see a client and then hear all of this, it lines up so perfectly. My supervisor and I were chatting about the developmental levels as we were working with her. I’m looking forward to using some Sprouting Melodies songs with her next week.

[Barb Blackburn]

Very excited to try some of these songs on Monday! Most of our clients are school age, or adults, but we have a new client who is functioning at a one year old level so these songs would be very appropriate. I’m sure my supervisor (who has already taken this training) will be using some of these songs, if she isn’t already, with one of her clients, who is 5 years old, but functioning at a much lower level.

[Barb Blackburn]

Working in Colorado Springs, it’s a pretty big melting pot. With that being said, we don’t really have a very diverse culture of clients. We have one Hispanic client and one client who is Asian and Hawaiian. So we use a few Spanish songs, and will be adding some Hawaiian songs (this client is brand new) to our repertoire. We always ask cultural questions during our music therapy assessments, if families have any cultural or spiritual needs. Typically they tend to not really answer the cultural part of the question, they normally state that culturally, they are American and like most music. They will move on to spiritual and tell us of their religion (usually Christian or Catholic) and whether or not they enjoy/approve of holiday music. I do think it is important to validate their culture. Our Hawaiian client’s mother has been teaching us some Hawaiian words, which has been fun. We plan to write some songs using the Hawaiian words for “more”, “all done”, “hello”, “goodbye”, and other simple terms.

[Barb Blackburn]

Although I fear that parents won’t think that I understand what they’re going through (since I’m not a parent myself, yet) I can pull from my experiences as a music therapist with knowledge of developmental growth as well as from when I was a nanny. I hope to bring creativity, fun, and learning to the Sprouting Melodies groups that I lead. I am a very friendly, bubbly person and I hope that my personality will shine through and encourage the children to play, learn and grow with their parents and peers.

[Barb Blackburn]

I think the biggest “take – away” for me was the fact that 36-48 month old children don’t understand moral concepts such as “sorry”. I don’t have children of my own but I was previously a nanny and I struggled with the oldest girl (when she was two, and into three years) about saying sorry, even if it was an accident. She totally did not understand that! That was very interesting. I also found the biting very interesting! I had no idea that it was sensory input!

The red flags can be tricky though, I wouldn’t want to frighten a parent into thinking there may be a problem when there isn’t. An example: My younger siblings are twins and my sister could run before my brother could even crawl! Same with speaking, my brother had many speech problems at a young age. He had/has no delays and is currently a very successful web designer.

I also loved the “trading rather than sharing” concept. Sharing is difficult to do, even as children get past age five!

[Barb Blackburn]

Hello Everyone! I just joined this training a few days ago (a little late, but I’m here!) I currently live in Castle Rock, Colorado with my husband and our cat and dog. I got my bachelors degree in music therapy from Eastern Michigan University, and I then completed my internship at The Maryland School for the Blind in 2010. I became board-certified just a few weeks later in 2010. I also received my Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) Certification in 2012. I started my masters degree at Colorado State University in 2012 but had to put it on hold for a little while, 2013 was an extremely busy year! I am currently getting the ball rolling to jump back into CSU’s masters program in January.
My first music therapy job was in Valparaiso, IN at Behavior Specialists of Indiana. I worked there for a year before moving to Colorado. I met my husband in Valparaiso, and we moved out here for a schooling opportunity for him. Once we moved out here I started my own private practice, Front Range Music Therapy. Owning a private practice made me realize that I am not a business woman! But, the company that I was contracting with before closing my practice to pursue other opportunities got in contact with me almost two years later to offer me a full time music therapy position!
The company that I currently work for (and contracted with) is a small private practice, NeuroRhythm Music Therapy Services. My supervisor took this online training the last time it was offered and told me that it was absolutely amazing and she wanted our company to offer these services. So, now here I am! I am very excited to learn more about early childhood, I have worked mostly with adults (and children now) with development disabilities. Although I don’t have children myself, yet, I was a nanny for almost two years. I got to experience birth through three years of age as the two children grew up. I would often bring my guitar, keyboard, and drums to their house for special treats. It was so fun, I am greatly looking forward to this training!

[Barb Blackburn]

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