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Singing: Awareness- mimicking sounds during singing sessions. Trust- begin singing familiar songs and letting the child match the pitches even if the words aren’t there. Independence- shows a response to crescendos and decrescendos. Control- singings along with familiar songs and matches the pitch. Responsibility- uses songs to help regulate breath control during phrases
Playing Instruments: Awareness- will turn away/towards or sigh/kick depending on the type of music whether sedative or playful. Trust- stop playing to listen to leader, or begin playing when leader stops. Independence- Understands the foundation of the instruments by exploring the sounds of each one. Control- stops and starts playing instruments when told. Responsibility- is able to create a beat with the group and play as a group, not just self.
Moving: Awareness- instinctual but important to develop the next level which is… Trust- repetitive movements are key for learning. Independence- move just the hands or just the feet and work on each body part with repetitively. Control- they can take all their body parts and use them together to create musical movements. Responsibility- movements become meaningful and full songs can be done with movements added
Listening: Awareness- can recognize the difference between mom, dad and therapist singing. Trust- sing songs that were familiar in the womb during sessions. Independence- switch up the pitch or melody of a familiar song to see if the child can recognize the difference and change in melody/pitch. Control- will stop an activity to listen to the group, or the leader or a familiar song they hear. Responsibility- can now appreciate music and give feedback to others as they play.
August 16, 2023 at 4:19 pm
in reply to: How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?
ParticipantI love doing singable books! It helps me practice using my voice during a session, but creates that idea of sitting and listening and looking at the pictures/words with the kids!
August 16, 2023 at 4:18 pm
in reply to: How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?
ParticipantSo I have never been confident in my singing voice, even with all the music training we do as therapists! So I tend to exclude my voice during our sessions, and I realize just HOW IMPORTANT our voice and singing pitches, singing commands, or imitating sounds is! This is definitely something I’ll be working on personally. During this section, you talked about not letting our musical repertoire hold us back from creating a musical space for our group, and me not singing holds back their development.
With little kids, I feel like its always go, go, go! And I mentioned in our zoom that I FLY through all the planned activities in 15 minutes and then I don’t know what to do for the other 15 minutes! So one session, I had the kids and parents just LISTEN. I played “Jupiter” from The Planets, and passed out scarves (because I knew 4 year olds with Autism would not sit still) and we just swayed and listened to the music. Afterwards, the parents realized why I picked that song… Because it was a familiar tune to everyone since it’s featured in a Bluey episode!
ParticipantAwareness: infants can turn their heads toward or away from music depending on their preference, maintaining eye contact with music making person to absorb in the sounds, and reaching out towards the sound
Trust: Infants can begin sweeping their eyes around the room and looking from sound to sound, exploring instruments with hands and mouths, deciding when to stop and start music by turning their heads away or looking away
Independence: fulling grasping instruments and striking instruments with hands, changing babble/pitch of sounds to begin mimicking conversation, imitate rhythm
Control: imitating words more than matching pitch now, beginnings of structured movements through dance, generally have fast movements and rhythm, not necessarily out of control
Responsibility: maintains steady beat, can wait their turn while another child is playing an instrument, lead the group
ParticipantIt must be so fun and rewarding living in a such a culturally diverse area! We have a high population of families from the Marshall Islands in our town. Unfortunately, I don’t have any families yet that participate in my music for littles class, but our High School now offers Ukulele classes as a music elective because the population is so high here and those children LOVE playing the instrument from their native home!
ParticipantLiving in the “Bible Belt” of America, a lot of my families listen to a local Christian radio station, so a lot of the children in my group recognize some of the popular songs on that station. I’ll incorporate one or two songs into the group for familiarity. One song that’s played a lot on the station is called “It’s a Good Morning” by Mandisa, and this song is so fun as a Hello/Movement song with littles!
ParticipantWhen my cousin was an infant, I would sing Frère Jacques to her. When she was about 5 years old and I was trying to get her to go to sleep, I sang it and she immediately fell asleep. I was in high school at that time and I thought it was so cool that she remembered it. I didn’t really understand the power that music has on us back then. Now that I’m adult and have gone through music therapy training and studied music, it all made sense! So when we had our son, I now sing You Are My Sunshine every night to help “condition” him to that sleepy time. And I’ll use it during the day when I need him to just lay down and rest for a little bit.
ParticipantThat’s such a sweet and fun moment when you see that “Ah HA!” look come across their face!
ParticipantOne little boy in my music class is showing the first signs of Independence during his developmental level. But because of his diagnosis of Autism, his mom kept trying to bring him back to the group and make him sit still and listen. During the next session, I included a time where the children in the class could have that time to play instruments and discover sounds on their own. During this time, I talked with the mom about letting her son explore and that music is a safe place for him to express his independence, even with his disability.
ParticipantI love the idea of singing the song while using a drum or other instrument to emphasize our body parts and help incorporate touch!
ParticipantI love the “Car on My Knee” song! As a new mom, I totally understand that “mom guilt” of not feeling like I’m having meaningful play time. Now that my son is older, it’s easier, but when he was an infant…. I just didn’t know what to do to bond with him! I’ll definitely be using this song for our next child to help “play” and bond with them and elicit those sweet baby giggles!
As for every day embedded songs, after watching this training, I came up with one last week to help my son start getting ready for bedtime! This summer has been hard getting him to stop playing and start picking up and lately he’s been DRAGGING OUT the bedtime routine. So now I’ve been singing to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: “Brush our teeth, get a drink, put on our pajamas and take our medicine. Read a book, say our prayers, sing a song and give a kiss.” It’s been helping him move through the routine a little faster!ParticipantYes!! The HUGE expansion of developmental across just those first 5 years is insane!! And definitely needs to be addressed individually by each child’s own development stage.
ParticipantThank you for sharing this book! Just like Sarah, I too need to work more on using my voice during sessions. I use a lot of pre recorded music like Ms. Rachel, because I know the children will recognize her voice and videos, but being able to express the tone of communication and sentence structure through song using live music will be so much more beneficial! I’m just not as confident in my own voice….
ParticipantOur early childhood group that we just started is set for Birth to age 5 and I’m realizing that as the group begins to grow and bring in more families, I’ll need to do different age groups! Because that 3 month old baby is needing to working on a whole lot of different things than that 5 year old needs to work on! I’ve been lucky so far that most of my clients are around the age of 3, but this helps me focus on that specific age development and create interventions specifically for them!
ParticipantThe rhythmic sucking I found very interesting too! I would love to see this being worked on in a NICU setting by a Music Therapist!
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