[Katy Hutchings]

I feel like I am faced with this question every day! At my job, my official title is Music Therapist but most of the parents of the children I work with see me as a preschool teacher and don’t necessarily know the extent of my training. Every day I am reminding myself that being a music therapist makes me a unique preschool teacher because of my clinical experience and educational training. I am proud of my music therapy skills and how I have been able to implement them throughout the day at the preschool, from circle time to transitions, to nap time.

I am really looking forward to starting my own Sprouting Melodies groups outside of my current job because I love the unique model and support system. This is the only early childhood community music program that is run by a music therapist. As a music therapist, I have the training and the education to support young children at all developmental levels. Plus I have the music skills and training to support parents and children as they create music together. I love creating relationships and building community wherever I am. My group would provide a chance to come together to make music with other parents and caregivers in a creative fun way, not just another play date. I know that I have the skills (and personality!) to create environment that families would appreciate.

[Katy Hutchings]

The children at the preschool where I work get music at least twice a day and are so exposed to it, that I often take for granted how quickly they move through the stages. I expect them to be able to be in the “Control” category most of the time and I feel like most of the other music therapists at the school also gear their interventions to this level of development, even the youngest children. This helped me to remember that children all develop at their own pace and while some children might be able to start and stop with the music or follow a melodic contour or pulse, most children will not be able to do this until they’ve reached a certain stage.

As several others have mentioned, I think the “Listening” component was the most eye opening for me. I often forget how important listening is in development as it is the most passive of the categories. Yet, we expect children to become “good listeners” and follow directions all the time. I have definitely started to value interventions that focus on listening instead of just creating or imitating sounds.

[Katy Hutchings]

Singing: Awareness – makes audible sounds with pitch, Trust – starts to match pitch, Independence – babbles on various pitches, Control – begins to match the rise and fall of notes in a familiar song, Responsibility – keeps a beat along with the melodic contour of the song

Playing Instruments: Awareness – responds to different types of music in different ways, Trust – briefly keeps a beat, Independence – tries out various instruments with curiosity and purpose, Control – follows musical cues to start and stop, Responsibility – able to keep a steady beat

Moving: Awareness – Instinctively moves with the rhythm, Trust – uses repetitive movements to respond to the music, Independence – Able to isolate body parts in response to rhythm, Control – starts to repeat and imitate movements in response to the music, Responsibility – able to put musical movements in a sequence

Listening: Awareness – Responds to vocal changes, Trust – Can recognize familiar tunes, Independence – when music intensity changes, movement intensity changes, Control – stops to listen to music, Responsibility – listens to singing/playing of others

[Katy Hutchings]

When I think of home community, I still think of my family and my community where I grew up. As the daughter of a Boy Scout and Girl Scout leader, I grew up singing all the campfire songs and that was my first exposure to community singing. I sang in elite children’s choirs and community musical theater as well but campfire songs were always a great hit with my family and peers. Now as an adult, my “home” music mostly consists of musical theater tunes, guilty pleasures of top pop hits, and favorite sing/songwriters from my college days. I always love that people tend to continue to listen to the music from their high school/college age years; that is the music that sticks with us because we tie in music with our identity at that age. I played Backstreet Boys for my preschoolers this week for just that reason (and because who doesn’t love dancing to Quit Playing Games with My Heart?)

My community that I work in is urban but fairly middle upperclass and caucasian. Beatles are always popular, Disney songs (old and new), and pop songs as well. One of my goals of my work is to explore more of the music from my students’ communities and to ask the parents to bring in songs that they love in order to include everyone as much as possible.

[Katy Hutchings]

Belinda, I also used “Will you Come?” today with my preschool groups. I found that the adults in the room caught on quickly since it was a familiar tune and that helped the adults be more engaged. With my preschool groups, there are always a few teacher assistants in the room and I find that the children are always more engaged and involved in the music if the teachers are as well. I have been looking for a new movement song and this one was a great success as it got everyone in the rooms, adults and children, up on their feet. Not only that, but everyone was in sync rhythmically and as we traipsed around the room in a line, marching and singing, there was such a great sense of community. We were all one marching band, using our bodies as the instruments. I also varied it after we marched around the room once to “tiptoe” instead of “march” which helped transition us into the next song and bring us back to our sitting positions.

[Katy Hutchings]

In December, an 18-month old and her 3 year old sister were in one of my music groups. We were singing Jingle Bells, a song we had sung a lot and that the 3 year old had clearly mastered. I had only heard the younger sister say a few words, always just single word responses, but never vocalize much during music. All of the sudden, the younger sister started singing all of Jingle Bells with her sister. When her sister dropped out, she continued, imitating the basic vocalizations in terms of rhythm and basic vowel shape. It was an incredible moment of independence for her. She got the basic melodic intonation and speech inflection, learned from her sister and from hearing the song repeatedly in music groups. I love when children who don’t speak much completely take me by surprise and sing entire phrases or even songs unexpectedly!

[Katy Hutchings]

While listening to all the different stages, I kept being struck with how much we expect of children. Although I don’t have children of my own yet, my peers who do have children are constantly worrying whether their children are doing what they are supposed to be doing at the right time. I just finished parent/teacher conferences for the 2.5 year olds that I work with and I made sure to start each conference off by stating “Your child is doing great and making all their developmentally appropriate milestones.” The look of relief on every parent’s face was clearly there!

One expectation that jumped out at me was the concept of sharing and I love how Beth suggested using the word “trade” instead of share. I always want to encourage my students to share when, in reality, they just won’t understand the concept yet, and probably shouldn’t. Two year olds are still in the ownership phase. Sometimes developmentally appropriate behavior is not “ideal” behavior and I need to remember that!

[Katy Hutchings]

I just wanted to add that I am also very excited to be part of a program that encourages creativity, flexibility, and new material! I love that as music therapists we are such creative people and I love being encouraged to write our own music and find new ways of using already loved music.

[Katy Hutchings]

As a music therapist, I value creating meaningful relationships as the core of my work. With young children, learning to trust and respect an adult other than a parent is such a key part of healthy development and attachment. I take pride in building these relationships with the children through approachability, humor, patience, and of course music. In group settings, I think this can be a bit more of a challenge, making sure to connect with all the children (and adults too!). In my current work, parents and caregivers are not present during our sessions but we are hoping to expand and offer such classes. I’m excited to learn more about how to help parents learn to make music with their children.

For me, I need to remember to trust my instincts when it comes to building relationships and know that creating strong relationships is usually one of my strengths. If I am ever doubting myself on my capabilities as a music therapist, reminding myself of my strengths helps me to refocus and reenergize my practice. Building relationships is the first step to building community and I think one of my long term professional goals is to build community using music therapy.

[Katy Hutchings]

Hello everyone! My apologies to being late to this whole thing. Somehow I had it in my head that the training started Jan. 31 not 13! Well better late than never! I loved reading all of your bios. My name is Katy Hutchings and I live in Audubon, New Jersey. I work just across the river in South Philadelphia at Young Children’s Center for the Arts, an early childhood center that was founded by a music therapist. It’s s typical daycare/preschool but with an emphasis on the arts and the children participate in group music at least twice a day. I work with children ages 6 months to 4 year olds. We do have some children with some developmental delays. I started the job in Setember of 2015 and so far I love it.

My life story is that I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, moved to the east coast to attend Haverford College just outside of Philly. I graduated in 2005 with a liberal arts music degree, determined I would become an opera singer. I then got my masters in Voice at Temple University and tried the whole starving artist/juggling many jobs at once for several years before realizing it just wasn’t making me happy. I had vaguely heard of music therapy and once I investigated more I was hooked. I just finished my masters at Drexel University in 2015 and got certified this summer. My internship was at The Center for Neurological and Neurodevelopmental Health (CNNH) in Voorhees, NJ working with mostly children with various neurological issues. I also completed the Music Together Teacher training in 2015 and led some Music Together within Therapy groups at my internship.

I joined this group to learn more about the population and for new inspiration for my work. But mostly I’m so excited to find a community of amazing women who are balancing motherhood and their careers. My husband and I hope to start a family in the next few years.

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