[Johanna Horn]

I agree with what has been said in the previous posts. Over-stimulation varies from child to child and group to group. I try to design early childhood music plans to start off a little less ‘stimulated’ and gradually get more active, and then bring it down before goodbye. This helps the children transition to and from music class smoothly. However, there are some classes where there is very little “warming up” needed because the energy is already up for whatever reason. You need to meet them where they are at times.

[Johanna Horn]

At my school, I have the following: Lollipop drums, tom-tom floor drums, egg shakers, resonator bells, velcro jingle bells, shape drums, rhythm sticks/claves, tambourines, glockenspiels, and scarves.

Personal collection: Egg shakers, lollipop drums, rhythm sticks, and jingle bells.

[Johanna Horn]

Five Words:
Exploration, Energy, Spontaneity, Variety, Surprise!

Sentences: “This is the work of children, be playful!”, “Choose instruments that can easily be grasped by children”, “Allow your children to be free in the space and explore the instruments!”, “Your child is still exploring, so it is okay if the instrument goes in their mouth!” “Don’t worry if your child isn’t playing–as long as you keep playing and making music, your child is observing it”.
Sprouting Melodies 2 Plan:
1) Hello/Gathering: Again, before the actual “Hello Song” is sung, I have music playing or I will strum/hum with my ukulele or guitar.
2) Wiggly Jiggly Car: In SM2, there will be more dynamics. The first time it is sung, it can be sung at a mezzo dynamic level. The second time, increase the volume and decrease it quickly–allowing for surprise.
3) “Can You See Me”–allowing for a variety of dynamics and pitch matching.
4) “Sit With me and Shake”- Have several instruments in the middle and allow the children to grab anything they can shake! Stop and change tempo and volume!
5) “Dancing in the Middle”
6) “March with My Baby”
7) Cool Down/Scarves–Move slowly to the music, parents can rock and sway to the music.
8) Goodbye

[Johanna Horn]

5 Words: Bonding, Trust, Awareness, Exploration and Flexibility!

Sentences to Parents: “Welcome everyone! Please come sit down and make yourself comfortable with your child”, “Don’t worry if your child isn’t playing right now, they are observing and learning from you!”, “Parents, your children want to hear you sing–they love your voice and they are learning from the music you are making!”, “It is okay if the instrument goes into your child’s mouth–they are exploring!”, and “Sprouting Melodies 1 is here to meet the needs of your children and we will adapt to the needs of your child”

Sample Session Plan:
(Prior to a hello song, I like to have music playing or I have my guitar/ukulele with me and I am singing/humming as children come to class) 1) Hello/Gathering Song: During the “Hello Song”, I will encourage parents and caregivers to sing, and I will offer a chance for the children to strum my guitar/ukulele (with guidance or without, depending on age).
2) “Wiggly Jiggly Car”– a lap activity that provides bonding. Children can sit in parents laps and the children can feel and experience the movement and rhythms that their parents are making.
3) “Where is My Face”
4) “Sit with me and Shake”–instrument playing activity. Instruments will be placed in the circle and children and parents can choose which instruments they want.
5) “Let’s All Move Our Bodies”–This song was written by me and I use it to move certain parts of the body and I choose individual movements from the group (Let’s move like Sally, she’s wiggling her arm, etc) The parents will guide these movements.
6) Cool Down/Scarves/Singing
7) “Goodbye”

[Johanna Horn]

SINGING:
Awareness: Alter movements in response to the singing voice
Trust: Vocalize in the tonality of the song
Independence: Imitate short vocalizations
Control: Match specific pitches
Responsibility: Discriminates speaking voice versus singing voice

LISTENING:
Awareness: Tolerate live music in the environment
Trust: Look toward the singer
Independence: Use hands, feet, or face to touch instruments
Control:Tolerate singing along with peers
Responsibility: Adjust quality of singing to blend with a group

MOVING:
Awareness: Suck rhythmically
Trust: Move entire body rhythmically in response to music
Independence:Use body to rock or bounce
Control: Pat knees using both hands together
Responsibility: Recall and reproduce simple movement activities

INSTRUMENT PLAYING:
Awareness:Turn eye gaze to source of sound
Trust:Reach out to touch instruments
Independence:Reach or retrieve an instrument
Control:Use familiar instruments functionally
Responsibility: Maintain grasp on mallet to play

[Johanna Horn]

I feel as though my personal experiences (both job related and home related) support my ability to work as an early childhood music therapist. Because my twin daughters are three and a half years old, I believe that direct correlation and experience gives me more understanding on the development of children. Also, I work at a preschool and ‘teach’ music for ages 2-6 and I have experience with that as well. This training has helped refresh and renew my ideas and experiences for developmental appropriate activities.

[Johanna Horn]

I work at a preschool and I see children from 2 years of age to Kindergarten. The infants at my school do not ‘attend’ music, but rather their teachers facilitate music in their ‘curriculum”. I have gone into their “classroom” with my ukulele and have sung songs to the babies and it was wonderful! I sang and played for babes ages 6-9 months. They were not used to the ukulele and they seemed so curious. Some tried to crawl and grab the strings, some were laying down and kicked their feet. Some of them seemed startled by the sounds. There were so many different responses from the babies, and it was truly wonderful to witness! Personally, I have always sung and played music for my daughters. Music has been in their lives and environment since I found out I was pregnant and I never really took a look to see how they were responding to music, but now I try to look and see developmentally where they are and what they may be experiencing during music class.

[Johanna Horn]

I think that music therapy in a community based setting is very beneficial! It’s not about individual pieces, it’s the whole puzzle. To sort of piggyback the previous responses, I believe that the group can work together to achieve many non-musical goals–socialization, community building, a sense of togetherness-just to name a few. I’ve taken a group/community music class with my three year old twins and we found such a sense of bonding and friendship building through music making. My daughters loved making music with their peers and my husband and I made friends with the adults. Sure, this can occur in any general group music class. However, I think that as Board Certified Music Therapists, we can dig a little deeper and reach families and individuals on a different level. We are trained to address and assess in each domain and that can give community members comfort that we will not only provide a music session that is developmentally appropriate, but that we will adapt and individualize to meet the needs of the group.

[Johanna Horn]

What value do music therapists bring to families of young children? Post your thoughts and comments to the board. Reply to the contributions of the group.

I think music therapists have such a different take on early childhood development. Not only do we have the skills and understanding of developmental milestones, but we can incorporate that into session planning and music making. We support non musical goals and build upon those milestones. Also, the fact that a music therapist is a credentialed/board certified individual is a plus, as there are many early childhood music programs that do not require any musical license/credentials.
Music education is a wonderful thing, but I feel that that is one tiny piece to the whole musical puzzle. A music teacher can teach a child how to do something, but a music therapist can cater and individualize a lesson and teach a child how to do something while considering several different domains.

[Johanna Horn]

What are the needs of the families you work with? What are the needs of your community? Share with the board how your families and communities might be unique.

I think the needs of the families that I work with differ significantly, but there are some common needs. At my preschool job, the parents/families want a safe, fun and enriching environment. The school I work at is very big on education and challenging children to their full potential. There are so many times when the parents do not read the child’s daily sheet to see exactly what their child is learning in music class, therefore music may appear to be secondary to the education part of their day.

With my clients through Capital Music Therapy Services, the parents want to provide their children with love and support through music. I see one family currently, but I see all three children in the family. Each child is currently demonstrating various challenges and they are seeking assistance with that. For example, one child has recently displayed some learning disabilities and has been assessed as reading on a pre-kindergarten level when he is in second grade. The family has been working with the school and the school’s reading specialist. I use this as one of my goal areas and I incorporate reading into our sessions. The family wants music therapy to be an outlet for expression, as well as support for other therapies/activities the children are enrolled in.

[Johanna Horn]

I try to make sure to include the four experiences; singing, listening, moving and playing, into each music class. I use singing right after our “Hello Song” as a warm up. I also use singing during the “Goodbye Song”. Depending on how energetic the kiddos are, I may combine moving and playing together, like during a marching band activity. If the class appears engaged and focus, I will have a separate activity for each. Some days, movement is the prominent activity (again, if the kiddos are super energetic and I need to meet them where they are). However, there have been times that I will use the djembe or other percussion instruments, and I will “lead” the group in a movement activity and the children can take turns drumming while they move.

[Johanna Horn]

I live in Northern Virginia right outside of DC and there are so many different cultures and communities. At the preschool I work at, I am always trying to expose the children to different genres of music and world instruments/music. One week, I invited the children to engage in a “Show and Share”, and asked the students to bring in instruments or music that is found in their household to reflect their own culture. One student brought in a ukulele from Hawaii, another brought a CD of “pop” music from India. It was fantastic to hear and see the music and cultural influences these children have at home. I think it is important to recognize this in music class.

[Johanna Horn]

I work at a preschool and I am always seeing a variety of developmental stages. When my music classes have extra time before transitioning to the next class, we always sing familiar tunes (ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, etc). I always begin playing the melody/chords on guitar and I have witnessed a few children demonstrating the Trust stage and those children are able to distinguish familiar melodies.

On a personal experience, on of my three year old daughters has been demonstrating the Responsibility stage. She is able to sing her sing familiar melodies and piggyback lyrics for what she is doing. For example, during bath time she may be singing to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, “I am washing my feet. They are stinky and need soap”.

[Johanna Horn]

What was your most valuable take away from this week’s content?
Post to the board a personal reflection of what you personally will bring to early childhood music therapy based programs and how this information will support your work as a music therapist.

I found the breakdown of each stage a very helpful reminder of how children develop. I find there are so many times in music classes that the activities are not age/developmentally appropriate. There are so many times in my music classes that I create an activity that is not age appropriate and then other challenges arise.
Since becoming a parent, it has been eye-opening to create music activities that would be appropriate for my children. I feel since I have a personal understanding of birth-three, it is very helpful in my classes. However, all children are different and I do need the reminders.

[Johanna Horn]

Hello! My name is Johanna Horn. I am a MT-BC from Northern Virginia. I graduated from Shenandoah University in 2007 and I completed my internship with Fairfax County Public Schools. After graduation, I worked at a private daycare ‘teaching’ music to preschoolers ages 2-kindergarten. After one year at the preschool, I worked as a contract music therapist for Frederick County Public Schools in Winchester, VA. Then, I worked at a private elementary school for children that were unable to meet their full potential in public schools due to a variety of challenges (including Autisim and ADD/ADHD). During that time, I became pregnant with my now 3 year old twin daughters and needed to go on hospitalized bed rest. I was bedridden for 15 weeks before my daughters were born. I knew it wouldn’t be the same working at the school I was at, and my interests had changed drastically, I went back to the daycare I started at out of college. I’ve been working there for 3 years now and it is wonderful doing music with the same age groups as my daughters. I still get my music therapy fix as a contract music therapist for a private music therapy company out of Northern Virginia, Capital Music Therapy Services.
Looking forward to learning new approaches to early childhood!

[Author]

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