[Flora Whitmore]

I use all four types of these musical experiences in my sessions on a regular basis. During my undergrad and internships emphasis was always given on allowing the interplay of these different types of experiences allow for multimodal approaches for participation and engagement during every session. When building a session on a schedule board I usually try to use a variety of activities that touch on each of these elements, modulating the energy and position of the task in the schedule, based on our goals and what I know of the client, and how they present when they enter the session space.

[Flora Whitmore]

SINGING
Awareness- Localizes to sound, indicates interest/preference by turning towards or away
Trust- vocalizes in response to mom/familiar caregiver, explores own voice
Control- may insert a single lyric or several notes of a familiar song
Responsibility- will sing multiple phrases of song (maybe not the way the song actually goes, but an approximation)

PLAYING INSTRUMENTS
Awareness- localizes to sound source
Trust- explores instruments with mouth/hands, may pick up/drop instruments
Independence- Can use instruments briefly in the way they were meant to be used
Control- may briefly change playing in response to fluctuation in tempo and dynamics
Responsibility- can independently match and sustain rhythm and follow tempo variance

MOVEMENT
Awareness- presents different bodily/physical responses to different types of music, (bouncing with fast music or being soothed by a lullaby)
Trust- movement changes with changes in tempo and dynamics (bouncing babies!) and they may start to copy the movements of others and their caregivers
Independence- movement is more purposeful and lasts longer
Control- able to move body in more refined ways in response to tempo and dynamic fluctuation, better at copying movements
Responsibility- can complete multi step movements, sequential movement and dance with others

LISTENING
Awareness- can differentiate between voices of caregivers, localizes to sound source
Trust- responds to familiar music (turning head, smiling,) will look towards sound source, will show aversion to unpleasant sounds by crying or attempting to move away
Control- begins to attend to the music and activities of others (less self centered about music making)
Independence- can pair movement with changes in music (can move faster when they hear the music increase in tempo etc.)
Responsibility- will perform for others, share musical experiences and listen to the music of peers

[Flora Whitmore]

Where I live, it’s a odd mishmash. I get a HUGE amount of kidzbop and pop music-loving kiddos, but there are a few beloved musical entertainers with songs that I have encountered across the board. Laurie Berkner is a huge one, as well as songs from Music Together (we have several providers in vermont, including one of my dear friends and colleagues) as well as the traditional favorites and Raffi songs. I have brought with me a lot of culturally diverse songs from the populations I worked with in Toronto. One of my colleagues in my internship was Granadan and brought a lot of her childhood songs into our peer supervision times, and I was raised with Yiddish and Israeli folk songs and Irish /Quebecois fiddling so a lot of those songs influence my work. Also a LARGE amount of country music. No matter where I go in rural vermont, I always run into Blake Shelton lovers, without fail. I worked with three siblings who all loved him and always asked to earn “Home.” My work at the behavioral school involved a great deal of pop music, country and alternative. Linkin Park and Hollywood Undead were household names. I struggle with the rise of KidzBop and the normalization of pop music with small children. I think there are good reasons for using the traditional songs in addition. The newer ones may have very catchy beats, but the skills taught in older songs, I find, seem kind of crucial to development. However, I do use a huge amount of old school Disney songs unabashedly, with positive results. And Frozen. Because it’s very relatable. But I initially really struggled with it.

[Flora Whitmore]

So, I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to use these songs yet, however, Elizabeth’s song about wanting to make music is super jazzy and I found myself snapping and swinging my knee to it. We have a very similar song we use in my therapeutic playgroup, that is very inviting, in the same key, with a similar rhythmic structure. It was very interesting to watch the kids come from playing to join the group- almost like they were compelled. There’s something to be said for showing with the music, as opposed to having to verbally shepherd them using words. It made for smoother transitions and higher levels of engagement. I also love “Good Morning” and plan to use it next week with one of my groups. That being said, I love Wiggly Jiggly Car. It makes me want to appropriate my friend’s baby to practice singing with. He has chubby little feet that are made for dancing and loves music.

[Flora Whitmore]

I, like a lot of the other contributors, have seen clients at lots of different developmental stages, however, I am currently working with a group of six kiddos working on communication and social skills and most of them are just coming into the responsibility stage, but there is one little guy who is still working up his nerve to participate and he appears to be somewhere between independence, control and responsibility, depending on the activity. I brought out Animal Boogie today, and after struggling with many other interventions, he suddenly became very animated and initiated movements, sounds and identified colors. I also had this great moment yesterday, where a little girl who is in my therapeutic playgroup at a local community center, who often likes to run up and strum the guitar and sing herself songs had herded the rest of the adults and a few of her peers into a corner and was conducting them in a rigorous rendition of our opening song and commanding them to shake their shakers after session had ended. She had pretty good command of the group! She is solidly in the responsibility stage and just an absolute joy to observe after session. She remembers all the melodies and likes to change the words to suit her purposes.

[Flora Whitmore]

Whoops- so I totally posted before making a gravatar. let’s see if this works!

[Flora Whitmore]

I feel that what I can bring to an early childhood music therapy-based program is the variety of settings I’ve had the opportunity to interact with children in. I have had the opportunity to engage in music making with my step daughter (age 6) and other children of a variety of ages in my own community, as well as children with behavioral issues in a very restrictive environment, children with disability in a mainstream/public school environment and very fragile children, confined to hospital beds. I’ve been able to observe the differences and similarities in the needs of children in all these environments and feel that along with all the new information I am gaining here, I can apply that understanding to being a more effective provider for this program. I also have training in dance, theater and improv comedy and I feel all of those things also help inform what I am able to offer as a music therapist.

[Flora Whitmore]

When I was in my undergrad, not a lot of time was taken with developmental stages and how they related to music therapy interventions. A lot of time was spent with group dynamics and domains and learning repertoire, but it really felt like a broadstrokes overview. Even in my internship, the terms “developmentally appropriate” and “age appropriate songs” were tossed around a lot, but I never felt like I got a very comprehensive breakdown of the stages in the way that this module breaks them down. It has been so helpful to see the breakdown by age with the traits and red flags. This has been invaluable. This is my second time taking this course, and since I started, I have been continuing to encounter more and more young children. As I interact with them, both in my daily life and during my sessions, it has become easier to understand how they are taking in their environments and how to relate to them and identify where they are, when I look through the lense of the milestones. Today, I had a client who is nonverbal. His biological age is 4 but his development is that of a much younger child. Today when I sang a song with him, he paused and echoed back a slightly musical babbled offering in approximately the same vocal range as my phrase. Before this course, I would have just musically reflected back what he had provided and continued with the next tasks and noted his response and which song engaged him, but instead I kind of made a note in my head and said “ok, so I need to pause for a second here, and look at the earlier stages of development again and see where he is falling. I was giving him interventions that he is NOT developmentally ready for.” I foresee this knowledge continuing to be very helpful in application to my intervention with both this little client and many others.

[Flora Whitmore]

Hello!
I, like Rachel, am a little behind on this course, but let me introduce myself too! Hi! I’m Flora Whitmore, a MT-BC from Vermont. I currently work in a practice with two other music therapists (Music Blooms Music Therapy) out of Burlington, Vermont. I graduated from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia with my Bachelor”s degree in Music Therapy in 2009, and did my internship at Holland- Bloorview Kids Rehab in Toronto, Ontario with fragile children with complex continuing care needs. I am mostly school-based at this point- I travel all over and work with kids with developmental disabilities, emotional/behavioral/ learning issues and autism. This is my first year with the practice- before that, I was a music teacher/ clinician at a small behavioral school. I am super excited to be increasing my knowledge base and exploring more in the early child hood realms. I mostly work with kids ages 5-19 so this is a teeny bit out of my normal wheelhouse, but I had some experiences with younger children in my internship and really enjoyed them. I am looking forward to developing my skills around early childhood musical interventions!

[Flora Whitmore]

I work with a preschool group on a weekly basis, and they are a uniquely challenging age group- wanting to be independent and curious, but still requiring some guidance and direction. Their interest is inherent but their understanding is not. This course has helped me to slow down and look at how they are responding to the interventions and has given me some ideas on how to advocate for them with their preschool teachers, who are very authoritarian about how their students should be experiencing our interactions and tasks.

[Flora Whitmore]

I have to say I agree that music therapy in a community setting, just like music therapy in a school based setting, is more about meeting non-musical goals, but I think it is also about spreading the awareness of the importance of music to daily lives, development and growth. It spreads awareness of music as a therapeutic tool but also makes it approachable and more accessible and inclusive and promotes…well..community. Bonding and understanding as a united group with common needs and causes.

[Flora Whitmore]

My five words to describe the music experiences in Sprouting Melodies 1:
1. Calming 2. Awareness 3.Supportive 4.Nurturing 5.Bonding

Five sentences to describe Sprouting Melodies 1:
1. Sprouting Melodies 1 is the first step in exploration of your child’s earliest development through music.
2. We are here to guide you with developmentally appropriate and appealing music to help your child begin to explore their world and interact with you.
3. Sprouting Melodies 1 invites to you grow and bond with your child and take part in shared, meaningful musical experiences and help you understand how your baby is developing.
4. Move and sing, feel and listen with your baby and us- you are your baby’s first guide to their environment. Let us help you navigate together on that route.
5. Each child is unique and develops at their own pace, and our music therapy backgrounds help you meet your kiddo where they are and nurture their responses within the music, and apply them to their experiences in your home and the outside world.

I would start with riffing on a major key on either guitar or piano in the key of the gathering song- probably Good Morning, or a song I use with my pre school and younger groups, which can be easily adapted called “Come on in” and goes through gentle swaying motions, bouncing, patting knees, touching hands or feet and has an inviting melody with gentle, ascending thirds. Parents could move babies to laps or comfortable sitting/supported position for the bonding song- I would probably use Wiggly Jiggly Car, or Trot Trot to Boston (to the tune of twinkle twinkle) with a pause after “You Might Fall…” “IN!” I would go into “Just like Me.” For an instrument song, I would use possibly use a song from my internship with a calypso beat with maracas that the parents could shake along with and sway/ bounce their babies to called the Papaya song or “hand hand finger thumb” with a drum beat, with parents can tap with their children’s fingers and nesting drums can be used to hand-over-hand gently tap pulse. For the movement song, there’s a scarf song that I learned from the ladies in my practice about falling leaves where the voice goes up in down in a 6/8 rhythm and the “down” of the leaves / scarves falling is accentuated by a drop in the voice, and can be delayed and the scarves can go “up up up” to get back up to the ‘sky’ above the heads or hands or feet of the babies. For closing, I would either use the goodbye mentioned in our course or “bye bye, butterfly” with rhyming animal words and a jazzy melody “bye bye butterfly, see you later, alligator.”

[Flora Whitmore]

The two biggest needs in my community are accessible, fun, enriching and affordable opportunities for young children who are not yet in school and their families and support for families with young children with higher developmental needs or delays. The community I serve here is small, with many low income families, lots of day cares, but only really limited enrichment activities at the area libraries. I talked to one parent who said “my kid is two, super smart, on the go and musical. There is nothing for his age that happens on a regular basis around here.” These populations are perfectly suited for a clinically informed early childhood program because the needs are so diverse. Many of these families are also on govn’t health care that does not cover music therapy services, but desperately want and need the support that music therapy could provide for their kids. Area mental health agencies have also expressed interest in this type of program because it is a way to provide support and enrichment to the families who need it most.

[Flora Whitmore]

I feel that the benefit of having a music therapist providing an early childhood program is their ability to read the dynamics of a group, understand clients needs in a clinically informed manner and provide interventions that can be tailored to the members of the group (both adults and kids.) the educational background and clinical experience prepares us for a whole range of musical and behavioral curveballs. I agree with the points around many music hours/ acts being more of a show. The ability to appropriately engage families and meet them where they are at, but also help troubleshoot any obstacles (developmental delays) or otherwise is something that music educators and entertainers are just not generally equipped to do.

[Flora Whitmore]

I use all four of these areas in my sessions- my inherent session structure with lots of my kiddos involves elements of movement, listening, music making and singing. Often in my groups, different clients of the same age have been in different stages. I co-treated with a physical therapist, and one of our clients was in the control stage with movement and then another (who has autism) moved between the awareness stage (turning her head to a familiar melody) and responsibility stages ( full lyrics of a high preference song) in singing, depending on the song.

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