[Kate Jihye Choi]

*Singing
-Awareness: Physical reaction to the person who is singing.
-Trust: Making sound in response to singing, trying to match the pitch.
-Independence: Imitating back to the singing when MT imitates the child’s sound.
-Control: Singing or humming small parts of the familiar song with a similar pitch.
-Responsibility: Singing a familiar song.

*Instrument
-Awareness: React to the different sources of the sound.
-Trust: Reaching out to, grabbing, or putting the instruments in the mouth.
-Independence: Watching others play the instruments and imitating to play them.
-Control: Choose the instrument and be able to follow simple directions in the song, such as stop/go.
-Responsibility: Imitating more complex rhythms and following directions in the song, such as fast/slow, loud/soft, etc.

*Movement
-Awareness: Moving their body in response to music.
-Trust: Intentionally moving their body in response to music.
-Independence: Bouncing or waving their body spontaneously to the rhythm.
-Control: Initiating different movements to the change of the music.
-Responsibility: Imitating movement patterns.

*Listening
-Awareness: Looking for the source of the sound.
-Trust: Reacting differently toward familiar songs and unfamiliar songs.
-Independence: will recognize the changes in the music. Catching the child’s attention with music.
-Control: Song choice.
-Responsibility: being able to fill-in-the-blank when the music stops.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

As I work with children between 0-3 years old, I often find that every child has different preferences for music experience. For example, I have a kid with mild cognition delay. He loves moving to music more than any other music experience. Arousal through the big movement makes him attend to the music better. Sometimes, I found that giving him directions like playing instruments or placing many props on the floor gets him frustrated and overwhelmed due to not knowing what to do. Understanding these four music experiences helped me approach children who have a strong preference for specific music experiences with different strategies. I am now able to divide my sessions into different music experiences and make clinical choices about how long I stay in one activity or song and when to move to the next one. I have more evidence to make clinical decisions in the session, which prepared me to answer the questions from my co-workers and the parents.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

I strongly agree with you all above. In addition, I would say Music Therapists can allow families to build a relationship between the children and parents/caregivers. I see various types of families, and sometimes, it is not just the form of the mother, father, and child. It could be legal guardians, foster parents, and other family members. Music can bring a playful atmosphere to get along with each other spontaneously, interact naturally, and share the exact moment of being present. Through that moment, the parents/caregivers could learn about their children and how to interact with them.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

I have been working with this child, “B.” A few days ago, his mom asked me about the song to help him understand the preposition ‘My,’ ‘Your,’ Mine,’ and ‘Yours.’ So, I used another embedded song in Elizabeth’s book, ‘Your head, hands, knees, and toes.’ This was good to get his attention, to learn the body parts, and to introduce to him the concept that I have my body parts, and you have your own. And I tried ‘Just Like Me’ today for the first time. It was also good to get his attention another way, using the new song, as he is now in the independence and control stage. He looked at me and laughed when I touched his nose, singing, ‘Just like me.’ I liked the phrase ‘Just lime me,’ embracing that we have common things. I also tried with different lyrics, ‘I have two eyes, just like you’ and ‘You have two eyes, just like mom.’ We all enjoyed this song with different variations.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

Wow I never thought about asking parents/caregivers what their own preferences for music are. I’ve only asked about their child’s preferences. That would be so helpful to understand their cultural background, too! Most of the time, a child’s preferences keep changing, and it is sometimes hard for parents/caregivers to define them as ‘preferred’ with just external components. Now I know how to rearrange my questions for the MT consult! Thanks, Camryn!

[Kate Jihye Choi]

I have been working with a child with ASD since last January, and I had the last visit with him today. Since I took this course, I have had a chance to discuss with his mom how he has musically developed. In the beginning, he was in the stage of awareness. He showed awareness of music and sounds but could not turn away from music when it was too much for him. He sat before the guitar for 30 minutes unless I redirected him to other activities. Firsthand, I thought he loved music, and he stayed there because he was so fascinated by music. However, looking back at those moments and thinking about the afterword of music, he always became exhausted and sought his mom’s breastfeeding. Now I can tell he was not ready for music for that long. As he develops physically and cognitively, moving to the stage of trust, he can turn away from music whenever he gets tired of sound and other stimuli. He can walk away and return when he is ready to move on. He can choose how to explore drums, shakers, and guitar, whether by hands, sticks, or sometimes just throwing. It may seem like he hasn’t made much progress in his development. However, I was glad I could share his improvement in musical development with his mom.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

*Awareness – 1. Turn their head toward the familiar pitch, 2. Change position, 3. Make sounds when the music stops

*Trust – 1. Choose how to explore the instruments (put them into the mouth, play with hands or mallet) 2. Respond differently toward the familiar song (make eye contact, stop moving, turn toward the music). 3. Anticipate the song ends

*Independence – 1. Imitate movement 2. Make a choice of which instrument/toys they want to play with. 3. Decide where they want to be, either on the floor, on the couch, in front of the door, or in the center.

*Control – 1. Make musical choices (sing or not to sing) 2. Take turns with peers 3. Request a song by using gestures or words.

*Responsibility – 1. Follow directions in the song (stop/play/loud/soft/fast/slow) 2. Groups rhythm patterns into a sequence 3. Decide to sing, listen, or play.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

My most valuable takeaway from this week was that we should focus more on their developmental age than chronological age, especially when I have premature children or children with developmental delays. Most of the breakdown of ages and milestones were familiar to me as I see them daily in the assessment. But it was interesting that you broke down their ages/milestones by how they explore the world differently. In terms of exploring the world, as children grow physically, psychologically, and spiritually, they will expand their boundaries by interacting with the world within their capability. The breakdown helped me understand the process of children’s growth.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

Hello,

As an EI worker, this chapter gave a lot of thought about ‘development.’ Yes, Development is musical, and music is developmental. I have tried to find out the musical factors working on children’s development while I saw them this week. I have a twin brother case. They are 4 months old, and the one is always behind the other. Mom expressed concern about the one, saying ‘He is always a week behind.’ However, For this week’s session, I found out he has a nice cooing harmonized by his twin brother. And he cooed back to me when I imitated his sound, adding rhythm and expression. Their mom seemed happy and satisfied when I brought up the discussion about his musicality. Finding music out of development as a music therapist/service coordinator is so meaningful to me.

[Kate Jihye Choi]

Hi everyone! My name is Kate, and I live in Boston with my husband and 5 yr old daughter. I received a bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy from Berklee College of Music last year and obtained MT-BC right after graduation. And I’ve been working in Early Intervention at East Boston for about a year after finishing my internship with elderly adults with dementia.

When I started to work with early childhood, unfortunately, I couldn’t get any training or resources about music therapy for early childhood. I have been seeking resources and training ever since I started working here. Then, I met Roman Music Therapy at the Massachusetts Early Intervention Conference. Meeting other EI music therapists and sharing their thoughts and knowledge was a great opportunity. I’m planning to design a music group at my site. I hope I can use music in a variety of ways for the children and the parents to build a community here in East Boston.

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