[Kristen Crouch]

My community has many needs. There is a large population of Spanish, Haitian, and low income families who I suspect spend a great deal of time at home with their children. Some naturally are involved with their children, others seems to need encouragement and education on how to be involved with their child, to play, to encourage development, to get to know their children (and why its important). There are also those families where parents are both working full time and have limited time with their children. Many of these parents are looking for how they can make the little time they have with their children the most valuable. I think the type of program that SM offers would really meet the needs of both populations, teaching, encouraging, modeling, and offering a richly packed 1 hour session with their child. I’m curious what other SM providers have found as far as group times. Many moms are home during the week and looking for morning activities. Many moms are working and need Saturday or evening groups. What is the best way to go about finding out the needs of the parents in our area?

[Kristen Crouch]

Music therapists have extensive education and training in working with a variety of abilities and types of people. MTs have the education and knowledge as well as the clinical experience to work with children of varying needs and abilities. MTs also have the ability to educate parents and model for them how to interact with and encourage development of their child. I’m sure that parents attending a SM class will find that that one hour is the most valuable time spend with their child all week.

[Kristen Crouch]

Singing: Singing familiar tunes like Twinkle Twinkle always grabs the attention of my little ones with ASD. They usually stop and focus attention to my face and voice. When I leave blanks in the song they are able to fill in the blanks.
Playing and Listening: I do a lot of instrument play to songs that have start/stop, directions up/down/side to side, and tempo fast/slow, usually with maracas or bells. Little ones are able to follow along after repetition of the song over several sessions.
Movement: Most of the movement songs are listening to direction and imitation of simple movements like clapping, stomping, jumping, etc. After many sessions they start to follow the sequence.

I haven’t had a chance to make any changes as I’m not working with any clients in this age range right now. I will be more aware in the future to the developmental sequences as I am working with the little ones.

[Kristen Crouch]

Singing: (Awareness) Recognizes and calms to a familiar melody. (Trust) Recognizes familiar melody and vocalizes during song simple intervals or in tonality of song. (Independence) Vocalizes simple words sounds during familiar melody. (Control) Sings most of familiar melody but perhaps not all. (Responsibility) Sing familiar melody independently using melodic contour and rhythm

Playing: (Awareness) Reaches out to maraca which has been shaken to grabv and explore with mouth. (Trust) Watches as maraca is played on his different body parts. (Independence) Picks up maraca and shakes it during music. (Control) Starts and stops maraca as cued by music. (Responsibility) Plays maraca to the beat of the music with group

Moving: (Awareness) Tolerates being rocked or bounced during music (Trust) Allows Mom to move his legs/arms to beat of music (Independence) Moves legs and arms during music (Control) Imitates and follows movement of individual body parts (Responsibility) Follows learned sequence of movements to music

Listening: (Awareness) Turns toward source of live music (Trust) Stops and focuses attention when he hears father’s voice sing his name (Independence) Screeches with excitement during dynamic and tempo changes in music (Control) Anticipates and recognizes parts of songs where silence will occur (Responsibility) Listens while another takes their turn, then takes their turn at appropriate time.

[Kristen Crouch]

I’m not sure where we are supposed to put general questions or comments about the material we are learning so I’m posting it here.

I loved the idea of a transition song being a question as opposed to a statement of action!

Question about writing songs for each developmental stage (and perhaps this will be covered later): Will we review the appropriate vocal ranges for each age/dev level of chidren? The octave jump in the Good Morning To You made me think about this. As well as singing in Major vs Minor keys. Elizabeth touched on this and I found it very interesting. I have always enjoyed songs in minor but shied away from them because I thought that maybe they weren’t always the best for little ones. (Although now that I think about it many of my favorite lullabies are in minor.) I’m sure we will be getting to this info eventually but those were my thoughts this week. Thanks!

[Kristen Crouch]

So my 4 month old has obviously been in the awareness stage. He clearly knows and prefers my voice over others. But I have always found it interesting that he responds very well to my mother’s voice because our timbres are so close. Also, he has a preference for a specific lullaby that if I hum to him soothes him to sleep. Not sure why he chose that one but its familiar to him and always seems to work. Its also been neat to see him explore his voice (awareness to trust) from little soft coos to loud screeches. We’ve actually nicknamed it the velociraptor. He is also in the stage where he mouths everything so a maraca at this point is still something to explore with his mouth as opposed to an instrument.

I found it very interesting to learn about the musical development as it compares to other types of development in kids and how this is important in my clinical work with children with ASD. For instance when working with 3-5 year old children with ASD we stress so much the importance of staying seated in the group, holding the instrument properly, not mouthing it, shaking it or hitting appropriately, making sure they clap and not tap or do something other than the appropriate words. Learning the stages of music development makes me think that perhaps we have should been approaching the mt groups differently. I am SO glad I am learning this info – it will make me a much better MT.

[Kristen Crouch]

Here in South Florida we have quite a mix. There is a lot of Hispanic families here and one of my goals has been to learn more Spanish songs. There is also a Haitian presence. I haven’t personally had clients who are Haitian but I have done workshops for professionals here who requested songs in French. Also, there is a very large Jewish population so whether working in Hospice or with young children Jewish songs have been in my repertoire. I grew up with traditional American folksongs and have been surprised how many children have never heard them. I made it a point to teach them when I taught general music ed, but perhaps its not a priority any more to music teachers and parents. At least its not as common.

I’m curious when it is best to introduce multicultural music to babies. I have created playlists of different types of world music to play for my baby so that he is at least exposed to them. In the power point I think it mentioned multicultural music at the Responsibility level. Would like input on this.

[Kristen Crouch]

I’m currently coming off of maternity leave so I’m only seeing one client a week while running my business. However, I have an almost 5 month old and have been trying little songs to sing to him throughout our day. I really liked singing Good Morning To You to him in the mornings as a nice wake up song! The songs Just Like Me and All Of This Is Me have been good as I’m trying to teach him about his body. I enjoyed the Hold On Tight and Wiggly Jiggly Car because he can bounce on my lap and sway on the fermatas – which he thinks is fun!

[Kristen Crouch]

I appreciated the “red flags” for each age as something to watch for and the important educational points for parents. I didn’t know that 6-9 mos respond to your negative emotions and may even imitate but that they don’t necessarily feel what you are feeling. You offered a lot of clarity about different milestones and what kids actually understand (I’m sorry; share; trade; make-believe vs reality).

[Kristen Crouch]

Having grown up around children from an early age, I was a natural teacher and care giver. I think this also has aided in my work as a therapist. I have always enjoyed working with young children especially with music. I appreciated the detailed information that this lesson offered and think it will help me moving forward to be sure I’m creating developmentally appropriate interventions.

[Kristen Crouch]

Hi everyone! So excited about this training! I am currently living in West Palm Beach, FL but my journey started in MA. Before being a music therapist I was a music educator (general music ed in Pembroke, MA) and completed a Master of Education from Endicott College. I pursued a Masters in Music Therapy at Florida State after seeing how children with Autism responded to music. I started practicing as a MT in 2007 and in 2009 formed my private practice, Rhythms For Living, LLC. My focus has been on early childhood and autism/special needs. We provide services in Palm Beach and Broward County and I have 4 independent contractors serving families in our communities.

My reason for being here is three fold. 1) As a music therapist and educator I’m always looking to continue my education especially in my niche. 2) I’m looking for ways to offer more services to more clients and think that Sprouting Melodies is such a great program – I want to offer this to our community. Plus, family/child groups has been an important part of the services we offer. 3) I have a new baby (my first) and so I’m watching him grow and develop and am using music in his everyday life. I think this curriculum has come along at the perfect time.

Thanks!

[Kristen Crouch]

Hi Everyone!

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