[BJ Waelz]

I have been working with children in some teaching capacity since High School. I feel that my experiences have helped me to become more aware of development and educational needs of children. As a music therapist I feel that I am poised to provide outstanding music driven developmental experiences for young children. I am hoping this training experience will prove to increase skills and give me a network within the music therapy world to build my practice up in the area of young children.

[BJ Waelz]

I do feel that it is important to share this information with colleagues, administrators and families. Most of my music therapy work is currently in Nursing Home or Rehab facilities. I do try to promote intergenerational music activities between my class and the facilities I work with. This has brought awareness about my early childhood classes, to those I am serving, care givers and administrators. It is essential to promote music therapy as a profession and I feel that this area of need (early childhood) is an awesome area to do this. We do have a special and unique understanding of music and the effects music has on body, brain, emotion, and skill development. This unique professional understanding allows us to truly structure program sessions to meet specific needs, our unique musical ability allows us to be flexible with live music to fit music perfectly to the moment. We need to continue to demonstrate this ability so that more people begin to see the necessity of our profession and we will increase accessibility of music therapy programs to the population in general. Currently I provide in service programs for staff at facilities I work with so they can understand what I do and I have seen the positive effects of this as staff explains who I am to families (and they DON’T describe me as the music lady or entertainment). I will continue to provide such in services and work with local childhood advocacy programs etc. to provide educational services and share research information. Sharing our knowledge and expertise with clients is important, but it is just as important to get the message to the general population so that we can work towards reimbursement for services, increased demand for music therapy programs in all types of facilities and an overall understanding of the need for our profession.

[BJ Waelz]

I would like to become an official sprouting melodies provider so that I can bring this fantastic program to my area. Currently there are limited opportunities for early intervention / educational music programs in my county. There are more opportunities in Charlotte which is not far from here, however, it makes it difficult for folks in my area to access choices. I currently have 1 class provided through my church that has about 10 – 12 participants. I would like to expand the program to offer SM1, SM2 and SM3 classes. I feel like this is an outstanding way to expand my practice and with the opportunity for space through my church it will be a realistic possibility. I am currently in contact with local agencies providing early intervention programs so that I can also help provide referrals if necessary. I liked the idea offered about becoming the “one” sought out for my expertise in my local area. I feel like this is an opportunity to expand my practice and bring more awareness to the music therapy profession. I would like to incorporate sharing research and news of music therapy through handouts to my current students and during other events. I am pleased to find an early childhood music program within the Music Therapy Community (I have been a former kindermusik provider, but found the program restricting).

[BJ Waelz]

I am looking forward to the relationship with families and providing a program for young children to help with development and skill building through music. As a music therapist I am aware of music’s powerful effects on the human mind and body! I have witnessed children and adults accomplish things no one believed they would through the power of music therapy. Using music at this stage of rapid development for these little humans is a no brainer. What an awesome way to provide support in development, relationship building and skill development in a relaxed and fun environment. The songs are songs that families will be singing and using at home, providing consistent support. I am excited at the opportunity to expand my skills and work with little babies as well as older toddlers. This is an area I am less experienced in, however, I see a need for this type of early learning program in my area.

[BJ Waelz]

I believe that one thing that helps make sure that all kids are engaged and I am meeting the child’s needs is setting up the group as well as possible. Trying to think ahead to be sure that the room is set up to minimize distractions and maximize on target behavior. I also communicate clearly with parents so that they can be ready to help with engaging their child. Model behavior for parent and child so they BOTH know what is expected and that they feel connected and like a part of a larger group. It is important to consistent and watch for problems that might arise. It is our job to create success for the group. Keeping activities interesting, age appropriate and easily successful for the children will help to keep the children engaged. Recognizing issues and dealing with them quickly and appropriately will also help the group success and individual child’s success. Try to notice where each child is developmentally and accept / praise the responses they offer, even if slightly different, to help build confidence. I need to understand what I am offering, understand early development and understand parents so that I can provide successful groups for families.

[BJ Waelz]

The music in SM2 again is engaging, fun, interactive, interesting and age appropriate. It was easy to see this music was for an older crowd of children with growing independence. It allows opportunities for surprise, response, interaction and musical growth. I liked the originality of the music, yet melodies were simple enough for families to learn and reproduce at home.

My Session Plan might look like this:
Welcome Song
Lap Song
Instrument / movement song
Dance or out of seat type song (with scarves etc)
Listening Song
Then I would determine the direction needed to work towards the end of the session.
Closing Song

[BJ Waelz]

Music for development supports the developmental growth and milestones in gross motor, fine motor, communication and cognitive areas. Music for skill building is building life and educational skills such as colors, numbers, shapes, pictures etc. as well as social interaction type skills, and musical skills.

[BJ Waelz]

It is a challenge to keep multiple ages engaged at one time. I find using the older siblings as models or helpers can be a good little trick to keep them engaged with a less challenging activity. However, I do often notice that they like going back to simpler activities, or familiar old songs that they know well and may remember from past classes. The younger ones love to imitate the bigger kids. While it is important to engage the older ones, we don’t want to overwhelm the younger ones so they feel left out or withdraw. The use of movement songs allows for a wide variety of responses, instrument playing can provide this as well.

[BJ Waelz]

The music in SM2 again is engaging, fun, interactive, interesting and age appropriate. It was easy to see this music was for an older crowd of children with growing independence. It allows opportunities for surprise, response, interaction and musical growth. I liked the originality of the music, yet melodies were simple enough for families to learn and reproduce at home.

My Session Plan might look like this:
Welcome Song
Lap Song
Instrument / movement song
Dance or out of seat type song (with scarves etc)
Listening Song
Then I would determine the direction needed to work towards the end of the session.
Closing Song

When speaking with parents I would encourage them to let their child participate as they are able, “Johnny will come back to you when he is ready” , “I love how Katie is watching everything that is going on, she is really taking it in”, ” See how Jackie is manipulating that instrument, very soon she will be playing to the beat with us!”

Parents need reassurance that what their child is doing is appropriate and “on target”, I have many parents who seem to worry about their child doing every task perfectly, just as I demonstrated it.

[BJ Waelz]

In observing my class with children at this stage I have noticed the vast differences in how the children observe, relate to and interact with the world around them. There is a fine line between enough stimulation to get good interaction and over stimulation which can lead to negative behavior or the child shutting down. I try to keep the class moving at a good pace, a welcome song, a lap song, a movement or dance song, then bring them back to something slightly quieter and group focused etc. My kids seem to love the surprises you talked about, however, with the multi trust levels going on it is easy to over do surprises for some. They do look forward to those surprises they know are coming and it is neat to see their pride when they can predict a surprise others did not.
The music in SM2 again is engaging, fun, interactive, interesting and age appropriate. It was easy to see this music was for an older crowd of children with growing independence. It allows opportunities for surprise, response, interaction and musical growth. I liked the originality of the music, yet melodies were simple enough for families to learn and reproduce at home.

[BJ Waelz]

I love the remo shape drums, they are small, colorful, easy to manipulate. I also use sticks from my old kindermusik program, egg shakers and single bell jingles that are easy to hold and manipulate. The children also love the large gathering drum. I do have some plastic bells and shakers that are designed more for infants as well.

[BJ Waelz]

I have not worked with children less than 12 mos old in a LONG time. The youngest child I currently serve is 12 mos. I do have younger siblings come to class with my students and have had the opportunity to watch them along the way. I am realizing now that they have been benefiting in their own way from coming to class. I have watched these siblings move from awareness (checking out the world from their rocker seat) to trust, reaching out, watching even holding or attempting to play instruments given to them by a sibling, even towards more independence, crawling towards instruments to get one for themselves and bouncing to the beat. I believe there is a need that I might be able to serve and that I need to start looking at expanding the goals of my current fun little music program…again I am hoping this may be a beginning for me….new direction….

[BJ Waelz]

Immediately the words that come to mind are interesting, engaging, soothing, fun, educational. The high quality of music and the presentation style offer outstanding opportunities for infants and parents of all backgrounds to benefit. I think it is important to note, if the parents aren’t reached at this level, they are not going to be engaged and they are not going to take these skills home to use with their babies. The music presented is easy to follow and repetitive enough for parents to reproduce again on their own. Not only are we working to engage the babies, we can’t forget that the parent is the one the child will be taking most of their cues from.
5 things to tell parents at this age:
1. Your voice is the most important one for your baby to hear, that is the one they are really going to pay attention to.
2. Watch your baby for their comfort level when engaging in movement activities, they will grow to accept larger more challenging movements, but stay in their comfort zone until they are ready.
3. All babies develop at their own pace, what your are experiencing is normal for their age range.
4. Your young baby (2 mos old) is in the awareness stage right now, they are absorbing the world around them, although their responses may be minimal at the moment it is important to continue to engage, sing , play and let them absorb their surroundings. As they move on to a trust level you will start to see more responses.
5. Babies like repetition continue to use the songs and activities at home, remember using the pauses or quiet spaces in the music is just as important as sung parts. Try some stop and start activities during your play time.

[BJ Waelz]

I have always felt that as a music therapist I have a unique view on development, goals, needs etc. In other words, even when I am seeing kids in a more typical setting, often because of my training I have been able to pick up on needs or problems with a child because of my background. I have even had many parents who are sure that their child is ADHD or developmentally lacking when truly the child is just more energetic than most or shy and quiet. I think we are “tuned” in to notice things, it is our assessment background. I believe that it is vital for MT-BC’s to be out there serving the community in community based programs. Our unique training and understanding of music and the effects of music to elicit change make us the ideal candidates to present music programs to young children. It also puts us at a good vantage point to help parents with children who truly are in therapeutic need to find the proper resources that they might miss out on.

[BJ Waelz]

There are many families in my area with special needs who are unable to obtain services due to funding. The community I am serving currently is a small city trying to come back from loss of many large businesses. We have a large hispanic population that settled here for mill work or local agriculture, many of those jobs have dwindled over the past 10 years. Leaving our economic position very poor. The city is trying to make a comeback and is pushing to revitalize the uptown area, new businesses have come in to our Main Street area and larger stores and restaurants continue to pop up in our commercial areas. I feel that this growth means that there will be a growing need to serve families with babies and young children. I also feel there is need for education for parents with young children, unable to afford programs. Through sprouting melodies if I were able to grow my practice, I maybe then could offer some scholarships to help with both needs in my area.

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