[Elizabeth Gifford]

I think the needs of the families I work with are just what Meredith was talking about in the video. They need to discover new ways to interact with each other, they need support as individuals and as a family from the MT and the community created through the class. I am hoping that as I work to create a program where I live, that I can partner with businesses already established in the area, such as the Children’s Discovery Museum, to help encourage networking and support within the community.
As far as needs within the community, I am still working to determine what those needs are and how I can best support/meet them. The main way I am working towards that is by connecting with music associations and childhood development resources in the area to see what needs they are already addressing that I can partner with, and/or what needs there are that have not been addressed yet.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

@Destiny
I struggle with being the one to set boundaries for students in a class, but I also agree with Meredith that parents will feel safer when they know their kids are safe. And I think parents are most assured that their kids are safe when the MT has clearly expressed what the rules and guidelines are.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

I agree with @Kristen that most of the big values have already been mentioned and well put. My thoughts may seem a little far-reaching, but I would like to believe that the work we do with young children AND their families will have a lasting impact on those families for a significant portion, if not the rest, of their lives. I grew up in a tight-knit family and my siblings have continued to love and support one another even into adulthood, regardless of where we have lived or what life choices we we have made. I would like to believe that by teaching and providing families the tools to connect and support each other from the start, they will continue to do that for each other for the rest of their lives. I believe that as more families learn how to support and love each other well, that can have a profound impact on our society as well.
As I said, this may seem like a far-reaching or lofty value that we as music therapists provide, but I truly believe it is the little things we as people do that have a lasting impact; whether that be through music therapy or any other venue.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

I think I have used each of these four music components to varying degrees depending on the client. Some of my clients have more of a natural inclination towards singing than the other components and vice versa. This week’s lesson was very helpful in providing more structure and organization for my sessions in what I’m looking for.
I have noticed that in my sessions this past week, I have been more conscientious about responding to my client’s needs in the moment and facilitating what is best for them, rather than being focused on the goal I’m working on and continuing to push towards that regardless of how my client is responding. The best part is that my client usually ends up reaching their goal when I am more aware of their needs in the moment rather than having tunnel vision on doing things “my” way. I think this awareness on my part has come about largely because of the training from this course. It has been a good reminder of the things I’ve learned in school as well as augmenting any previous training.

@Emma I’m glad you brought up the question about documentation because that gives me ideas on how I could fine-tune my documentation based on these musical components.

@Destiny and @Elizabeth
I was also very interested in the mirror neurons concept. I do group sessions with autistic children, and I frequently have teachers require the students to play instruments rather than watching. I think in some cases it is good for the students to try playing the instrument at least once, but often I prefer to let the students exercise their independence in choosing to play an instrument or choosing to watch and listen to their peers play.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

SINGING: Awareness – uses pitch in vocalization; Trust – matches selected pitches approx. half the time; Independence – uses a major 2nd interval, uses glissando; Control – generally matches selected pitches, imitates words of songs before pitch or rhythm; Responsibility – uses melodic contour, increases ability to match pitch center, can sing an entire song with only a few changes.

PLAYING INSTRUMENTS: Awareness – tolerates setting, responds differently to sedative vs. play-song music; Trust – briefly uses pulse and meter, can locate sounds at a distance; Independence – discrimination in playing instruments; Control – likes to pound and bang, starts and stops instrument play with the music; Responsibility – maintains play of instrument within a group, maintains a steady beat.

LISTENING: Awareness – recognizes changes in vocal timbre; Trust – recognizes familiar melodies; Independence – matches intensity of movements to intensity of music; Control – stops actions to listen to music; Responsibility – listens to the music of others.

MOVEMENT: Awareness – movements are in simple rhythms; Trust – begins to synchronize movement; Independence – can choose what type of musical movement to use (clap, tap, stomp); Control – dances spontaneously to music, imitates learned movements to music; Responsibility – uses musical movements in sequence.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

One of the things I enjoy most about working with kids is the ability to be goofy and nonsensical for the purpose of having fun and making others smile. I think that helps me relate to kids better and for them to feel more at ease in a group and/or individual setting. Because I also tend to be more introverted and reticent to join in with group activities, it helps me notice others who are like that when I am facilitating a group activity. I am able to treat them the way I would want to be treated in that situation, and they typically join in with the activity after a few minutes of being able to observe everyone around them without feeling pressured to join in right away.

@Jessica
I agree that being goofy with kids really helps kids be excited about coming to music! I have recently become more intentional with how I greet my clients/students at the beginning of sessions or even when I see them outside of sessions. It seems as though the more happily/cheerfully/exuberantly I greet them, the more they begin to respond in kind. It’s super fun to watch kids who are withdrawn in other activities begin to reach out and explore more in music therapy!

@Steve
I love how you talked about using patience and mindfulness as an aspect of self-care. One of my internship supervisors constantly worked to remind me that other people may respond completely differently than I would or than I would expect them to, but that that is an opportunity to explore where they may be coming from rather than losing my patience or giving a sarcastic response. That was a hard concept for me to internalize during internship (and still is!), but I am coming to understand it more now and can really see the value of it in my interactions.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

@melissa
Thank you for sharing what you have learned about working with people from different cultures and backgrounds! As I stated, I still have a lot to learn in this area and am constantly afraid that I will unintentionally offend someone due to my ignorance.

@kristen
Did you know any Spanish prior to your internship and/or did you learn conversational Spanish as well as songs in Spanish?

[Elizabeth Gifford]

I am currently working in the same city in which I grew up. However, I was homeschooled so I was not exposed to many different genres or music from other cultures, I am most familiar with country and Christian music. Victoria is a rural area with a fairly even mix of Caucasians and Hispanics. The majority of the clients with which I work say that their preferred music is country or Christian, or they listen to typical children’s songs (wheels on the bus, skinna-marink, twinkle twinkle little star, etc.).

Coming from a background that was not well-versed in many genres or cultures, I struggled a lot with my repertoire while doing my internship in San Diego! Unfortunately, I did not make it a priority to really expand my horizons, so that is an area in which I still have a lot of work to do.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

@emma
I was also a bit unsure about the summertime song in a minor key. I understood her explanation of why she had done that, but the song itself seemed a bit strange to me. The best I can figure is that it’s something very different than what I’m accustomed to, so hopefully it will make more sense the longer I think about it and use it.

@melissa
I agree that our culture is too focused on moving into “positive” emotions and doesn’t allow time to really sit in and feel any “negative” emotions. When I am experiencing “negative” emotions, I tend to avoid talking to anyone about it because I don’t want them to try to cheer me up when all I really need is for someone to listen to and validate what I am experiencing. That being said, I hadn’t thought about young children also needing time to experience and process “negative” emotions! Thank you for bringing up that point; I will be more conscientious of it in the future.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

I really like that Elizabeth talked about the importance of bonding songs having both sedative and play sections and how that is incorporated in the songs she shared. I had never thought about it in those terms before, but now looking back I can see that I have done that somewhat in my group sessions. I’ve found that it works great to hold the children’s attention and keep them engaged in the music!

I also really like the “Being in the Music” category and how Elizabeth explained that most cultures have the same word for music and movement. I know that I tend to enjoy music much more when I am able to move and be active in response to it rather than sitting and taking it in statically. I love using musical elements to support physical movements, whether that’s in an improvised song or a pre-written one.

I’m excited to add these new songs to my repertoire and begin using them in sessions!

[Elizabeth Gifford]

@destiny It’s exciting to be able to clearly see which stage a client is in! I appreciated the time you took to explain what stage you thought your other client is in and why. It was helpful for me to see what goals you were looking at for him to achieve in order to determine what stage he is in. Have you had communication goals for that client since he is non-verbal? Or have you worked with him long enough to be able to recognize and read his body language?

@emma Did you ever use bonding songs for the purpose of promoting bonding between yourself and the client or were your goals to promote bonding between the client and his mom? Was the mom comfortable with singing and joining in with the music or did you have to work to find bonding songs that she was comfortable with facilitating? I imagine that would be an interesting and potentially challenging scenario.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

One of my clients is a 5 year old boy with autism. In the past 4 months I have been working with him, I have observed him move from control to responsibility. Over the course of the first 2 months, he learned the words to our “Hello” song first and would sing the song monotone. Now he is able to come into the session and sing all the words with the correct tune even without me prompting him on when to begin or what the starting pitch is. He has mastered the elements of ‘control’ by being able to choose what song or instrument he wants next, how long he wants to participate in it, and how he wants to play. He is gradually improving in his ‘responsibility.’ He is able to recognize and mimic dynamics, separate rhythms into duple and triple, and imitate some rhythmic patterns. He is working on being able to recognize and repeat rhythmic sequences, listening to the play of others, and initiating his own creative music. I’m very excited to be able to recognize the growth he has made in the last few months and am excited to see how he continues to grow. The videos on musical development have been very helpful in determining how to structure sessions and what to look for in my student’s musical responses.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

@melissa I hadn’t thought about the challenge of having to constantly be recruiting for classes…although that totally makes sense when I think about it! What are some of the most effective ways you’ve found to do advertising/recruiting?
I also hadn’t really thought about some people not knowing how to interact with babies. That’s a really important point that I’ll have to work to remember when facilitating group sessions.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

The most valuable takeaway I got from these videos was to continually educate the parents about their child’s developmental stage and that what their child is doing is likely developmentally appropriate. I love how this training is targeting the entire family and not just the child!
I also really appreciated the “red flags” to be watching for. There are so many developmental milestones happening in such a short period of time that it can be difficult to know what to focus on and be aware of.
I have had the privilege of being around young kids the majority of my life. I currently have four nieces and nephew in the 8-48 month stages so I was able to relate the skills children are learning at different ages to real life examples. But it also made me realize that looking for specific skills can be challenging to remember to do. I will have to be more conscientious about applying what I’m learning to my practice.

[Elizabeth Gifford]

Melissa –
I briefly looked into the training for being a Kindermusik provider but would have had to travel to complete all the trainings. Hearing your and Emma’s feedback about the Kindermusik program makes me glad I didn’t look into the training any further. While having a planned script might make session planning easier, I agree that having the ability to be flexible is much more important and valuable in providing quality music experiences. Thanks for giving your feedback as that gives me more peace of mind that this training is a better fit for what I need!

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