[Christine Czuhajewski]

I’ve used the different types of music experiences in practice, but have probably used singing less frequently than others based on the individuals who I work with. I try to incorporate some of each into my sessions, particularly when I am working with groups. Most of my students are school aged and developmentally still within the early childhood music developmental levels. I use singing most frequently during greeting songs, but also to encourage awareness while working with students who are non-verbal and just starting to develop consonant sounds. I often pair singing with a specific movement song and focused on pairing repetitive sounds with movements such as “puh” for pat or “boo” for boom while stomping feet. In some of my sessions I use movement as a way to engage and energize the group- especially if it is early in the morning on a school day. This helps me see who is able to attend enough to imitate movements, who has body part awareness, and maybe who is even able to make choices of what movement we can do next. I use instrument play in sessions as well, sometimes paired with movements, and sometimes just to move to the beat of the music. When working with individuals, I frequently use instrument play to follow their beat and make music at the energy level or behavioral level they are showing me. With the population at my school, we frequently use instrument play to help de-escalate heightened bodies and pair the movement with specific sensory output from instruments, depending on what their specific sensory reactions to instruments are. Listening kind of goes hand in hand with some of the other experiences, such as singing and instrument play. Listening can be as complex as listening to what others are doing and trying to have a shared interactive experience, or as simple as listening to calming music to de-escalate when heightened. I always end each session with a period of relaxation to help students regulate and prepare for the transition into the next class. As an adult, I sometimes forget how hard seemingly simple tasks like waiting or sharing with another person can be, so I like to let each student have their own time to listen to soothing music, perhaps move along with stretches or blowing a scarf, play a preferred soothing instrument or sing the melody of the song with the music. I’ve seen students respond to the relaxation in one or more of these ways, and sometimes all at once.

[Christine Czuhajewski]

I really enjoyed the information about how parents might react to different musical reactions and what they might expect their children to do. It is really good to be prepared with how parents might try to prompt their children when they go through the developmental phases.

Singing- Awareness: Physical reaction to musical changes, such as turning head when music has stopped or suddenly gotten softer. Trust: Make vocalizations in reaction to or along with musical changes. Independence: Engages in vocalizations that demonstrate experimentation in intervals and imitation. Control: Ability to wait and react at appropriate times to “call and response” songs and imitate words. Responsibility: Retains melodic information- initiating or singing favorite songs and can follow the melodic contour of a song with voice.

Playing- Awareness: Physical reaction to hearing instruments- turning towards sounds, flinching at sudden sound or begin to develop a calm body while listening to sedative music. Trust: briefly moves arms or body to the beat, touching and beginning to grasp instruments. Independence: Purposefully move isolated body parts to the beat and moving different instruments to the beat. Control: Chose to participate in instrument play briefly to the same beat as another person or engage in playing to a variety of tempi and musical styles. Responsibility: Maintain a steady beat independently and engage in playing/stopping along with favorite songs.

Moving- Awareness: Moving arms quicker when exposed to stimulating music and slowing their body movements when listening to sedative music. Trust: Begins to move body to the beat of music, bouncing body to the beat for longer periods of time. Independence: Isolate specific body parts to move purposefully to the beat. Stop playing intentionally when music structure changes. Control: Intentionally imitate movements. Responsibility: Put movements in a sequence and retain awareness of the sequence along with the beat of the song.

Listening- Awareness: Turning towards familiar and preferred sounds, turning away or crying when exposed to non-preferred or unfavorable sounds. Trust: Demonstrate recognition of melodies by calming, or even reacting to unexpected changes in familiar melody. Independence: Movements and reactions change with the music- face shows emotional reactions to minor modes, slower songs or even faster, stimulating songs. Control: Choosing to stop to listen to music- control over reactions to music. Responsibility: Listening to others to imitate singing or instrument play.

[Christine Czuhajewski]

I am half Filipino and growing up only had strong ties with my Filipino family. I was raised in a household with my immediate family, grandparents and several aunts and uncles. Distant relatives are also very important in Filipino culture, so we were constantly visiting other large households or having large gatherings at our house. Many of the early childhood songs that I was exposed to were in Tagalog and were short easy melodies, similar to the ones used in America. However, the content of the songs were sometimes a little bit bizarre and frequently more designed to teach respect, obedience, or skills. For example, there was a specific song about policemen and ways to respect the law. My Grandfather would sing it every single time we saw a police car. We also had our own version of songs that teach body parts, but they were not in English. One of my first memories was getting introduced to my first keyboard by an aunt who had just immigrated from the Philippines. She was a “music teacher” in the Philippines, but all this meant was that she could carry a tune and she had absolutely no formal musical training. So she spent time teaching me how to plunk out songs on the keyboard that stemmed from her exposure to American culture. Her region of the Philippines was a few decades behind America at that point, so we sang and played a lot of old American musicals. Part of our cultural music also involved traditional Filipino dances that we had to learn and perform in groups for cultural festivals. My least favorite aspect about the cultural music of my home community was (and still is) Filipino Karaoke. Growing up, I was not exposed to traditional American early childhood songs until my mom made me watch the one kid program she had on VHS.

[Christine Czuhajewski]

I really enjoyed many of the songs presented in this video. I particularly enjoyed the use of syncopated piano accompaniments, as well as some of the acapella songs in different modes. The songs in minor keys and different modes are very interesting, not just for the clients, but also for the therapists and other people present. On one of the slides it said ” The words are used to set the stage, but the musical elements are used to replicate the feeling,” and I really enjoy how the use of minor and different modes can help facilitate different feelings. I am already working on incorporating and adapting a few different songs for some of the clients whom I think would really enjoy and respond well to these songs. I’ve specifically used the song “All of This Is Me” with a small group of children to work with awareness of self using bean bags for sensory input. I adapted the words to spend more time on each specific body part so the children would be able to hear words about the body part that they are focusing on. This particular group has high sensory needs and can become quickly over-stimulated. The slower pace of the music was definitely something that benefitted the group and the lyrics about different body parts help facilitate learning and awareness in conjunction with movement. One of the individuals in my group has higher language skills and body awareness and he was able to practice using his AAC device to select body parts that he wanted to sing about next. The majority of my clients are older children, but many of them are developmentally in the early childhood stage in most domains, so it is fun to adapt the songs for their specific needs. The interesting modes and accompaniments make it easier to adapt some of the songs for slightly older children and still be age-appropriate.

[Christine Czuhajewski]

When I first started working with a young boy who was 3 years old, he was demonstrating musical reactions of transitioning into the independence category. As he interacted with instruments, he began to hold and manipulate them with clear intentions of playing. This was through hitting mallets against the drums and shaking maracas. He also demonstrated emerging abilities to make choices- he started by reaching for the first instrument he saw, but over the course of time, he began to fix his gaze on multiple instrument choices, look back and forth between his options and then reach for an instrument. He also notably began participating in patchen songs by independently moving with the music- whether clapping, patting or stomping. Like it was mentioned in the video, he sometimes would choose to engage in the music by continuing to clap or pat along, even if the movements being modeled around him were changing. As his awareness and development progressed, he began to demonstrate an awareness of the routine within the song and anticipated the specific movements in the order they were presented in the song he was familiar with. He demonstrated many of the different musical responses in the independence stage, and it was interesting to see his emergent skills and how they solidified and developed over time.

[Christine Czuhajewski]

<p>I think I will personally take this knowledge to develop new interventions and songs to support children as they reinforce skills and begin to learn new skills. I look forward to creating and using music that will help children stay engaged and naturally develop their skills. All the information about early child hood music therapy will also support my work by allowing me to effectively help a new age group and provide a different kind of music therapy service for the community. The information we learned about specific developmental responses will further support my work in music therapy when I work with older students who are developmentally still at an early childhood stage. This will help me understand the appropriate order of skill development so I can work towards the most effective goals and objectives for my students. I also think this information will help me as I work with other professionals and families so that they can implement the knowledge and apply different skill development techniques throughout their daily lives. In the school I work in, I work closely with SLPs, OTs and other service providers, and as we work together to share techniques to support our students throughout the school setting, I have received feedback that some people are afraid to sing because they are self conscious. Having music and information to help show other treatment team providers how music can also support their developmental goals and domain areas would create another layer or support for clients.

[Christine Czuhajewski]

The most valuable take away from this week was the information about developmental responses at specific ages. Knowing the specific skills at which different physical, sensory motor, cognitive, emotional and language skills develop are extremely important. It is also important to know about the specific red flags that might be indicators of development not being on track.

[Christine Czuhajewski]

Hello, my name is Christine Czuhajewski and I am currently working as a music therapist with the Kennedy Krieger Schools in Baltimore and Rockville, MD. I also work through a private practice called Augmenting Ability, also in Maryland. My previous jobs have included music therapy work in Indiana and performing on cruise ships. In addition to music therapy, I have a background and experience in music education. Through the private practice that I currently work with, I have had many opportunities to work with pre-school aged children and small groups. Many families over the years have inquired about groups for their young children and this seems to be a growing area of interest in the region I live in. I am also specifically interested in learning more about early childhood development so I can adapt the information for some of my school aged children who are developmentally at an early childhood level. This program really attracted me because of how it draws on the knowledge and training that are unique to music therapists. I feel like this gives families confidence that the information and techniques they experience are research based.

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