[Belinda Adams]

I love the idea of these training’s and the Sprouting Melodies model! It is hard for me to sort of ‘toot my horn’ so to speak; that’s not who I am; however I do feel confident in saying I have a lot more experience, excitement and energy to provide music therapy experiences to families and young children. I find that something I really pride myself on, and one of the reasons I love being a music therapist, is the ability to change the song/instrument/timbre/etc. on a dime. Because children are so responsive to music there are so much flexibility that the modality offers. In addition, I believe that music theapists bring reassurance, support and connections to families!

[Belinda Adams]

Thank you for this lesson! As many others have said I sometimes find that I don’t incorporate enough listening opportunities in my sessions. Often I think there is this stereotype of ‘ the participants have to be doing something ALL the time.’ I think I just have to educate the parents.

I also find that I spend a lot of time singing while playing and when I want the kids to play.

Sometimes it’s nice to take a step back and think again about why I program what I do. I am going to try this tonight at my session— backing off and not putting too many directions into the expectation.

[Belinda Adams]

Singing: awareness- makes pitches noises in response to singing; trust – match selected pitches, vocalize and explore with their voice; Independence – use of repeated sounds, vocalize descending intervals (sol-mi), babble with inflection; Control – match more pitches, sing more intervals, attempt to imitate words, pause/take an active role in turn taking (call and response); responsibility – recalls favorite songs, matches pitch, steady beat and tempo.

Moving – awareness- may turn toward or away from music/voice – passive; Trust- active role in movement, repetitive movements; Independence – uses whole body rhythmically, matches music with movement, imitates movement of others; Control- dances independently, can follow directions; responsibility- can follow multiple directions/movements successfully (repetitive)

Playing: awareness – turns toward and away from instruments, may reach; trust – will play for a short time, explores instruments; independence – holds instrument, shakes, chooses instrument and duration; control – chooses instrument, follows stop and go, copies or imitates; responsibility – maintains steady beat, follows tempo

Listening: awareness – prefers familiar voices; trust – recognizes songs, inward response to soothing music and external response to play singing; independence – chooses position in the room; control – expects the end of a song; responsibility – transitions between things

[Belinda Adams]

This is a challenge…. the music in my home/life is very eclectic. We listen to everything from disney, kid songs, contemporary christian, church music, classical music, top hits, etc. The students at school are always telling me about new bands and things I should check out. As far as the community is concerned part of the community is very tolerant, eclectic and open to just about anything. There are other parts of the community that are not as tolerant and farther from town and seem to only identify with county music.

[Belinda Adams]

I enjoy “Will you Come?” I am teaching a toddler music class where I would like to use all of these songs and all of my learning. This week’s content made me realize that I was bringing too much of my older ‘classroom/teacher’ values and expectations to the class. I love that this song and many others gives the child the opportunity to decide — to foster independence– if they’d like to participate or not. Sometimes my day at school is so dependent on whether or not students follow directions that I forget there are other options. Thank you for that!

[Belinda Adams]

Sorry that my response is late…. things are busy, as I’m sure they are for all of you!

This request makes me wonder…. when children (not just toddlers) develop into these musical stages of development is their only a certain window for this? I wonder this because I work with students who are emotionally/behaviorally challenged usually due to trauma. In these cases many students are ‘stuck’ in some developmental stages and can not progress until they have moved through that stage. Is this true with music? I have seen students, with disabilities, be able to master steady beat eventually — however I have had some for whom that has taken 5 years of weekly intervention.

In addition, once the window for learning a musical task ‘closes’ or once the child moves to the next developmental stage is there an ability to go back or is that skill lost ‘forever?’ I often wonder this particularly for students who can not develop steady beat consistently no matter how much practice or what tempo etc.

[Belinda Adams]

I hope to bring just that…’early childhood music therapy based programs’ to my community. I live in a city where music is highly valued and there are numerous activities and concerts with music as the focus every weekend; however, the communities offering for young children is limited. As I searched for a place to meet people as a new mom, and places to take my daughter, I found that there were one 2 options and both were really expensive… more than my husband and I could afford; both working professionals. This lead me to develop my own offering for infants. In retrospect I was so beside myself in parenting that leading others was probably not my best choice but I did meet some great friends who helped me through that time of grief within myself.

Twenty months later, I am offering a ‘Kids make music’ course at a local Y. I’m not calling it music therapy — as no one in this community really understands or knows what it is but I do add my credentials and the education that we all have in my own bios. This course has been great for me once again meeting others but perhaps more importantly to see how different every little one is. There are 4 toddlers in my class, including my daughter, and each one is so different! It’s so interesting to see that it almost seems like one child excels where another child lacks — clearly why these milestones are just estimates.

Anyway, I hope that the additional education from this course will help me to bring new ideas to the courses as well as to my own family and to my position within a special needs school. I hope to slowly but surely broaden the understanding of music therapy and what it can do for people of all ages but especially young children!

[Belinda Adams]

I found it fascinating to see this information again and to perceive it from a new perspective. I am the mother of my first daughter who is 20 months. Seeing this information reminded me of all the things I wondered about even after being educated in early childhood in both undergraduate and graduate studies. I ‘knew’ all of this, and yet I didn’t see that my daughter had speech and language delays. I can’t imagine being a new mother/parent without this knowledge of early childhood. Everyone’s advice now is ‘they all will develop in good time’ or ‘they are delayed’ so it’s hard to know who to listen to and what is the right advice to take. It is helpful to have resources that are all in one place and organized in a way that makes looking quickly possible.

[Belinda Adams]

Hello everyone. My name is Belinda Adams and I am currently a ‘music teacher’ in Ithaca, NY. I put that in quotations because that is my title but without my music therapy background I would have never been prepared to work in a BOCES special education school. I have undergraduate degrees from Mansfield University of PA in music education and music therapy and a minor in psychology of childhood development. I have a master’s of science in ‘Students with Disabilities’ from Western Governor’s University out of Salt Lake City.
I have spent my time working in various BOCES programs in upstate NY from the time I completed my internship (which was in a BOCES program) in 2008. My current job placement supports about 180 students with disabilities from ages 5 to 21. In addition, I am the mother of a 21 month old little girl. Because Ithaca is so music rich it is often really expensive to enroll your child in a music class but I really wanted to meet people…. So I am teaching a toddler music class at a local Y. I’m hoping that all of these insights from Sprouting Melodies will overlap in a variety of ways in my professions.

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