[Emily Baroody]

I am reposting this because I don’t think my post saved last time. I have actually forgotten what I wrote just a few weeks back. But rereading everyone else’s post I have to say that I really liked what Corey said about this week’s information helping to build confidence. There is so much to know and remember about typical early childhood development. Infants change so drastically into toddlers that each stage can be a blur. This week’s information was a great way for me to relearn this information. I have found that since week two I have been looking at my clients differently. I have been trying to assess them with a new eye. Are they talking, are they running, walking crawling. How are they reacting to mom, to me, to the other babies. how does that fit in with what I know about this age now. I am hoping that I can bring this knowledge with me into my early childhood programs as a music therapist and help support parents. I am also hoping that I can help provide more inclusive environments for families who have children with developmental delays because I will be even more knowledgeable on how each child fits in with which age group and at what are developmentally appropriate responses.

[Emily Baroody]

I try to utilize all four musical elements in each of my classes, singing, instrument play, movement, and listening. And I find the instrument play to be the trickiest particularly with babies and toddlers.
Today I tried something different in my music for little ones class inspired by some of this weeks topics. The group consists of babies and toddlers in the awareness, trust and one or two in moving in to the independence phase. </p>
<p>Usually I start the class with all of instruments I intend to use for the day laid out in the middle of the circle for all the kids to come and explore before we even start the class. Then before the hello song there is a transition song to clean up and then instruments are introduced one at a time after this. This was going just ok. Even with the transition song some children really disliked putting away the instruments and often there was a baby that was upset by the cacophony of sound.</p>
<p>Today I only introduced one instrument at the beginning, some brightly colored plastic shakers. I kept these instruments out through the hello song and went right into songs that utilize the shakers. This seemed to go much better. The little ones in the awareness stage were not as irritated by the volume because the timbre was more uniform and the older ones were more willing to give up the shakers after having had them for an extended period of time.</p>
<p>I also saw the little little ones following the shakers as they moved high in low (as indicated in one song) and not just their parents movement but around the group, and this is something I hadn’t seen previously. I also feel like the older babies and toddlers felt more comfortable imitating and exploring the instruments in an organized way. They had a longer discovery period with the shakers seemed more interested than usual in imitation.</p>
<p>Its also possible that I noticed more of these things because I am looking for them because of what we are learning in this class.

[Emily Baroody]

Singing: Awareness: spontaneous vocal sounds (cooing), panting. Trust intentional vocal sounds, babbling matching some pitches. Independence:musical babble (babbling becomes more melodic), increased pitch matching. Control: attempts to melodic contour of familiar songs. Responsibility: can sing familiar songs with ease and learn and repeat new songs using auditory memory.

Playing instruments:responds to different sound qualities such as pitch, tempo, and meter. turns toward stimulus. Trust: explores making sounds on his or her own understands that he or she is the sound maker. Independence: explores instruments. can begin to identify which instruments make which sound. Control: can play instruments together in a group and can work with pulse, meter, tempo and dynamics. Responsibility: has physical coordination to keep a steady beat and can manipulate his or her music making in a group music experience to be different from everyone else and still fit in place. Likes musical games and direction following

Moving: Awareness: responds to musical stimuli with movement automatically. Trust: Uses whole body to intentionally respond to music. Independence: can isolate movement to specific body parts (wiggling fingers, stamping feet). Control: imitate musical movement in a sequence (finger plays), likes to spin around and around. Responsibility: has the muscle control to dance in rhythm and sequence.

Listening: Awareness: Recognizes vocal timbre specifically the voice of caregivers. Trust: responds to familiar melodies is even more so aroused by playful songs and comforted by sedative music. Independence: Can distinguish more clearly different musical elements such as dynamics and attempts to imitate intensity of heard music. Control: Will really listen to music and be pulled out of fantasy play. Responsibility: group music making is heightened by being able to distinguish his or her musical play and others’ musical play.

I hope that I did this correctly. I also was a little confused with this assignment and was waiting to see how others responded.

[Emily Baroody]

The traditional children’s songs culturally important in my community consist of nursery rhymes and and american folk songs, such as you are my sunshine or the ABC’s. Manchester NH was at one point an industrial mill town. The mills brought in a lot of immigration during the industrial revolution so there are lots of people who can trace their ancestry back to Irish, Greek, French Canadian, Lebanese, and German roots. Over the years the distinction and tradition of all of the separate cultures has blended into one culture heavily influenced by the media so the majority of our culture is “American” in nature. The songs I am most requested to sing are ABC’s, Wheels on the Bus, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Row Row Row your boat, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Down by the Station, and Old MacDonald.

[Emily Baroody]

I watched the video with the songs earlier today, and then waited several hours before I went to the forum to post. These songs have been stuck in my head all day! I guess this is a positive thing because I want to provide the families in my music groups with songs that are easy to remember and to replicate at home. I really like the wiggly jiggly car song and plan to use it next week. I can see this song being great for use with parents and children in the sense of bonding, but I think my older preschool age groups will also really like this song and its use of body percussion.

[Emily Baroody]

In one of my Music for Little ones classes I have worked with a little one around one year in age who was moving from the awareness stage to the trust stage. His responses to music were generally turning toward the sound or turning toward his mother’s singing and the timbre of her voice. Now he is moving when he hearing music, exploring instruments and their sounds and occasionally babbling.

[Emily Baroody]

This overview of typical development from birth through the age of five was helpful for me as a music therapist working with children both typically and atypically developing, but who does not yet have any children of her own. For me this information is a needed review so that I can incorporate appropriate goals and interventions into my current sessions and keep this information in mind when planning new sessions. Seeing children for only an hour or less a week it sometimes hard to really see the overview of development. I can see progress from week to week and month to month, but its not at the same rate as a parent might on a daily basis. I feel reacquainted with what is typical and have a clearer picture what to expect next logically in development. As I went through the chapters in the book as well as followed along with the slides at each stage of development I thought of babies and children I have worked with or who I know from my personal life. Now that I have worked and spent time with more children than I had in college, when I was first introduced to childhood development, the information took on different meaning because I have seen some of those things in real examples. I have a feeling that I will be coming back to the chapters again and again as I structure more early childhood programs in my community.

[Emily Baroody]

Hi! My name is Emily Baroody and I am currently employed at the Manchester Community Music School in Manchester NH. I studied at Seton Hill University outside of Pittsburgh PA and completed my internship last year at Shriner’s Hospitals for Children-Boston. I have just completed my first year of professional practice and am on the path to gain as much knowledge as possible to help me grow as a professional. Over this past year I have had the opportunity to work with integrative preschool groups, individuals in classroom and private settings and run a music for little ones group at the music school(this is like a mommy and me music group with an age range of 6mos-5yrs). My experience with early childhood education has been wonderful. I have witnessed a lot of growth and had a blast music making with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. However I have always felt like something was missing. I felt that my particular skills as a music therapist could be honed in a deeper way. When I was at my conference this past April and had an opportunity to participate in Elizabeth Schwartz presentation on early childhood music therapy, I knew sprouting melodies was a way for me to learn more and be able to provide an even better service to my community. I like that it is a program from music therapists for music therapists as I feel that my training as a music therapist is a unique offering I have for my community here in NH.

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