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Participant
hello Erika!
I received my book this week! Thank you! It arrived a few days ago!
ParticipantErika,
I just saw this post on this forum. I should get the alerts for follow-up replies. I’m sorry!
Thank you so much for sharing your story. Your experience is so deep and really amazing to hear. Parenthood really changes you, and through all the ups and downs, its beautiful to hear you share that it has made you into a better parent, and therapist. I’m at the beginning stages now, and hearing your story is so encouraging. Thank you again.
ParticipantThat is so cool that your daughter is in a spanish-immersion daycare. What a great thing you’re doing for her. I’m so curious how her language and music growth will develop through her time there.
ParticipantThat’s very exciting when a child is able to recognize a familiar song just by listening to the music without the lyrics, sometimes even the first few notes of a song. Its like they are tuned in, and so ready to grow and learn and expand more. It is thrilling to watch as their skill develops, because it makes me wonder, “How are they doing that? they’re so little!” But they are so smart and like sponges. And also the pace is truly wild the first few years of life.
ParticipantI was relieved and encouraged as well when I realized that simple and short is appropriate in EC at certain stages of development. And since being a music therapist really involves a lot of improvising, its a lot less intimidating to create simple and short embedded songs using the therapeutic insights that present themselves moment to moment.
ParticipantI loved the Just like Me song as well. It reminded me of how much children at a certain stage in development love to find differences and similarities between themselves and others, especially with the ones they love. I also think this song can be adapted in so many ways to support children who are in a sensitive period of learning about their bodies.
ParticipantI actually used the “Coming to Get you” song as well for my son while changing his diapers the past few days, which is always such a wrestling match. When I sang it for him he immediately turned his attention towards me and my hand and started to smile with expectation, then laugh at the climax. The only problem then was I couldn’t use both hands to change his diaper. So I taught my daughter how to sing and move her hands to the song. It worked a few times until she started to really “get him,” by grabbing and pinching his throat. But with a little redirection and teaching about gentle hands, she and I managed to get his diaper changed! Success!
ParticipantHi Maggie,
You’re clinical experience is so diverse. Its wonderful, especially the work you did at the hospital near the airport. I think I may understand the challenges of keeping up with repertoire for such a culturally/ethnically diverse population group. I did my internship in NYC at a big hospital and it was absolutely nerve-wracking trying to learn and then use songs that would be most clinically indicated for the patients there. I remember there being song sheets from all different languages always strewn about in our intern office. We were all doing the same. Lol. Anyways, its so worth the effort, because not only does it keep your repertoire fresh, you are able to really provide meaningful experiences for the clients. And as a clinician its a good reminder that your therapeutic presence, the therapeutic relationship, and your therapeutic improvisational skills (is that a clinical term?) counts for so much.
ParticipantThe community/population that I worked with after I finished my degree was mostly older adults with some form of dementia, and/or chronic illness, or in palliative care. The majority of my clients are of Caucasian descent, but sometimes I work with older adults of Latin American ethnicity. Most of the music that I used were those familiar to this population – American popular music from the 30’s up until the 50’s. If I knew that a client had immigrated to the United States at an older age, I made sure to have at least two songs learned that they would find familiar. In the past that would have meant that I learned a few famous Italian, Brazilian, (general)Latin American, songs.
ParticipantMy daughter is now 3 years and 4 months old and her ability to create spontaneously improvised songs has really taken off. She has been spontaneously singing for many months now, but a lot of it was using familiar songs, their melodies, and substituting her own words. But now I hear her creating her own melodies using multiple sentences. The song doesn’t have a clear tonal center, but there is a definite meaningfulness to the melodic contour and rhythms that she uses. Most often she’s singing about what she did that day, what she’s doing at that moment, and often retelling her favorite My Little Pony tv show stories. I may be wrong but I think this may be the musical developmental level of Control.
ParticipantResponses to Music
Awareness: Babies can discriminate between different timbres, and particularly prefer their mother’s voice because they are familiar with their mother’s timbre. They will turn towards their mother in response to her voice. Rhythmic structure and repetitiveness in movement and music can also encourage babies to suck in a regular pattern which is so important in the early days of feeding. Research has also shown that babies prefer consonance as opposed to dissonance and baby may turn away from discordant pitches and/or sounds, which doesn’t always imply that it is distressing to the baby.
Trust: Children in this developmental level can match pitches half of the time. They can also move to the music, but won’t necessarily be synchronous with the given musical rhythm. They will also begin to use their senses to reach out to explore musical instruments, touching, holding, shaking, and mouthing them. The exploration may be transitory but that is normal.
Independence: Children in this developmental level are much more in control of their body and can use their whole body, or even isolate parts of their body to move with the music/movement. They may match movements demonstrated to them. They are also at the beginning stages of being able to create their own music vocally. You will hear them repeating different sounds in a singsongy manner, using different melodic contour, pitches, and rhythm. Children at this level can also respond with enjoyment to different musical elements, such as fermatas, glissando, and silences.
Control: Children at this level can generally match and sing discrete pitches in a more accurate way. During this stage children love to dance to music, being very spontaneous and creative, as well as imitative of demonstrated movements. They can respond to musical choices by much more cognitively choosing for themselves what they prefer in regards to all aspects of the musical experience: to sing or not to sing, song choice, instrumental choice, stay within structure or to improvise.
Responsibility: Children at this level are able to maintain a steady beat, which means that they not only have the physical control to play a steady beat, but are also able to understand the musical structure (when the music starts and stops) as well as the desire to follow along with the presenting music. They can also understand that it’s okay for their musical role to be different from another’s in the group. They are now able, for the first time, to inhibit their own responses in order to truly listen to, and value, the play of others.
ParticipantHello, I was wondering if everyone had received their book? I haven’t received mine yet. Thank you for your help.
ParticipantGreta, I second Maggie’s thoughts and i hope to remember this point, not to assume during your initial assessments but to stay observant while establishing that rapport Maggie talks about. And also, take advantage of gaining more insight through interviewing their caregivers.
ParticipantThat’s a great point and that embracing that flexibility is sometimes the scariest part, for me at least. And yet it can be so profound. When you trust yourself to let go of the control and let the child lead. It often ends up being an amazingly powerful therapeutic moment.
ParticipantHi Maggie,
Thanks for asking! The group was led by an older female volunteer who didn’t really sing or play any instruments. She used well-known children’s songs with movement, and basically chanted them very fast without any improvisation. There wasn’t any interactional element between her and the group members. She never really addressed the caregivers and never really interacted with the children either. But she was present and kind. Then she would blow bubbles for a little while and then put out some toys for the children. It was an hour long in the small library in my neighborhood. A lot of caregivers came. Including children I’d say about 20, approximately. Not to speak poorly of her, but I just kept thinking to myself, how much more engaging, interactive, connecting, developmentally appropriate and supportive, it would be if a music therapist was running the group.
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