[Laura-Maria Chami]

Hilary: I like your idea of using “When the Saints go Marching in” or gross motor! it’s a great idea because most families already know it, which allows them to relax and focus on just enjoying themselves and following the gross motor directions.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

Amanda- I like how you pointed out how music can feel exclusive when we want to do the opposite of that with music; we want to include everyone as much as possible. The goal of music is to unite everyone in one common thing, not make them feel like they don’t belong or aren’t good enough.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

I plan to share this information with my colleagues who work with early childhood development in music therapy but haven’t had this training. There is valuable information in this training that you can’t just find online or at school. It really is a culmination of everything we learned in school and in practice, but more concise, more creative and just simpler to understand and share with colleagues.

Jeanelle- You say it perfectly: this is all coming full circle.

With families we share and educate the benefits and importance of what SM offers and how it can be incorporated at home.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

From here, I hope to incorporate a Sprouting Melodies program into my new practice. Not only do I hope to be a SM provider, I know that whatever I learned from SM can be utilized and transferred into individual private sessions with patients. Also the information I’ve learned and gained regarding early childhood development milestones is going to help me grow in my practice and as a music therapist.

Rebekah: Agreed, this training definitely gives you a whole new outlook at early childhood development and how music therapy works with it!

[Laura-Maria Chami]

As mentioned in the videos and above, it’s so important to let children know they are successful in however way they participate in a session. I love some of the strategies offered in the “Opportunities for Success” document such as redirecting children who might not be engaged through eye contact and verbal narrating.

What’s great is teaching parents the strategies. Sometimes a parent might feel their child is not engaged, when in fact they are! So letting them know the tips and skills to keep an eye out on.

I personally love how we consistently use music as a tool to redirect and engage a child. That’s how powerful music is!

Important strategies for success is to always make sure every kid is involved, even if it is not in the same way. But to e successful, it is important to set clear rules and guidelines that are simple for children and families to follow, but that don’t interfere with the music making and development.

Jeannelle: LOVE your sentence of just letting kids be! If we can’t allow the children to be free in their music making and creativity, then we are hindering them from developing appropriately.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

Penny: I’m in the same boat as you! Working in hospice doesn’t always give us the opportunity to work with children and families together, but there are so many ideas, skills, and interventions that can be adapted to strengthen “bonding” as you said. Specifically when I run bereavement camps for children, there are so many songs and activities that can be used to further development and increase the connection between a child and a family member.

As I plan to open my own practice in January of 2018 in Naples, I’m really excited t hopefully become a SM provider. I believe SM can provide essential building blocks and milestones for families and children. I’m even more excited to provide early childhood music therapy interventions for the families in Naples, FL. That community is just ripe and ready to learn and be provided with hose services, and I can’t wait to hopefully be a provider so I can help the community grow in that aspect.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

I agree with all the above ladies! The importance of “all-ages” groups is that the interventions and music activities all be adapted to be used for all ages. As Jeanelle said, it is important to not leave anyone out when conducting these groups, otherwise a child will not be able to get the most of the session, and could begin to feel left out, consider negative thoughts towards music and others around him, and not want to participate/attend in group any longer. So it is challenging, but important to come up with interventions that can engage and challenge each child at their developmental level.

Hilary: i agree that it can be so complicated to give each child the opportunity to be independent or provide them with solo attention. It’s a challenge that will continuously keep us on our toes.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

Share how you can explain to parents the difference between music for development and music for skill building.

Music for development is when you use music to encourage a child’s growth. Now a child may develop at their own speed, and music is the engine. Music for development promotes using music to creating a safe creative and fun environment where the child can grow and develop at their own speed, and parents can observe and aid in that process. Music connects with all parts of the brain and engages children in a way that other tools do not. Music is used to achieve and succeed at specific developmental goals.

Now music for skill building is different because we can use music to achieve different skills. At this point, we have already assessed the child’s developmental level and we cater the music and interventions to that developmental level to achieve the skill. For example, a parent wants their child to achieve speaking their abcs clearly and without hesitation. The music therapist would assess where the child is at developmentally and create a plan to achieve that skill.

Jeanelle: I like how you explained music for development. Music is a great way to achieve specific milestones and it can be tailored towards the specific child. Love those keywords, and your example as well.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

Five words for Sprouting Melodies 3 – 1. Engaging 2. Social 3. Creative 4. Fun 5. Trust

Session Plan for Sprouting Melodies 3 – 1. Hello Song “Welcome to Music”– engage group and greet each child by name. 2. Body Percussion/Body Movement “Shake Shake – Instruct child an family to shake certain part of body when body part is called out. Encourage parents to be engaged. If children are listening intently, allow them to be the leader and decide the body part to shake. 3. Bonding Song “Swimming together” – Incorporate everybody, allow child to lead parent to encourage trust and independence. 4. Instrument songs “We are all part of the band” – Each child gets their own different rhythm instrument. Each child will get the opportunity to solo and be creative with their instrument. 5. Movement Song “Watch me Dance” – Encourage each child to stand with their parents and dance a certain way, tempo, and rhythm to the music. Facilitate freestyle session to encourage confidence and creativity. 6. Goodbye Song “Goodbye my friends”- say goodbye to each child by their name. encourage waving and sitting in a circle for closure.

5 Words for Family Sprouts – 1. Sharing 2. Acceptance 3. Helpful 4. Team Work 5. Supportive

Family Sprouts Session Plan –

1. Hello Song “Good Day to the Sun” – encourage each child and parent to follow hand motions, and greet each child by name. 2.Bonding Song “Wiggly Jiggly Car”– Each family will be their own car and each child will have the opportunity to be the driver. 3. Songs about Me “Can you see me”- allow each child to be seen by their family members. Encourage parents to have same level of energy of engagement with each child. 4. Instrument songs “We are all part of the band” – Each family will be their own band. Each child will have different rhythm instruments. Each family will get to solo out. 5. Movement songs “I really got to jump” – gross motor movement, opportunity for each child to get their energy out and be the star in the family. 6. Goodbye Song “Goodbye Everybody”- encourage children to wave goodbye and call each child by name.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

5 words to describe the music experience in Sprouting Melodies 2: 1. Creative 2. Experimentation 3. Engaging 4. Opportunistic 5. Social

5 sentences for parents about musical responses: 1. It’s ok that your kid is exploring the room! They are learning the environment and taking things at their own pace! 2. If your child is throwing around instrument or mouthing at them, that is ok! They are exploring the instruments and what they can do, and how they sound! 3. Don’t worry about your child getting everything exactly right during the group. Whatever they play, sing, move is a success! They are learning at their own pace, and still making music! 4. Pay attention to what your child is predicting is about to happen and what they deem a surprise. It’ll be a great tool for noticing what they are learning! 5. When marching with your child, hold them their back to your stomach, and lift their feet to the rhythm of the music as you are marching as well . It’ll give them a sense of rhythm!

Sprouting Melodies 2 Session Plan: “Hello”: engaging the child and parent, and introducing yourself and naming each child one by one. Movement: “Pick your hands up high”: encourage parents and children to follow movement instructions. Gently repeat song 3 times so that repetition works with the children. Bonding Song: “Hold on Tight”-encourage parents to engage with child, prticiapte in the song, and learn it so they can practice it at home. The more comfortable the child is with the song, the safer they will feel during it. Songs About Me: “Just like Me”- get parents to engage and be silly in this song. Children should want to feel comfortable to be curious during this song. Instrument song: “This is my drumming song”- give each family a drum and encourage them to take childs hands and play on the drum and fast or as slow as they want. Song will give directions about tempo, dynamics, and how to play. Goodbye: “Music time is over”- use all done sign as well as say goodbye to each child using them by name.

Jeannelle: I like the words you used: Authentic. I hadn’t thought of it before, and it applies so much to what Sprouting Melodies stands for! Without authenticity in the interventions and activities, the children and families will not get the most out the sessions.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

I like Rylie do not have any equipment other than my guitar and keyboard!

But I’m enjoying reading people’s threads and writing down different equipment ideas

[Laura-Maria Chami]

Each age group is going to be different when it comes to the age group, the group of specific children,the developmental levels, an even the parents. High energetic stimulation can be too much for some, or not enough for others. Some children are going to want high speed, loud, and energetic stimulation. In those instances, you use the shakers, and the high tempo drumming, fast singing, lots of expression on the face. Other families and kids could be way over stimulated by that, and you’ll need to slow it down with lullabies, scarves, and soft rocking.

It’s important to adapt your session to the different kids in the group; and if feasible at all. group children who have similar stimulation tolerances together for that specific class. But most importantly: adapt! adapt! adapt!

Once again jumping on the band wagon: Hillary- communication with the parents is key! If we cannot communicate with them, we cannot exact appropriate interventions and healthy bonding moments with their children or with them.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

Music therapy can be utilized in the best way for our communities. Our peers and community members all have their own struggles and daily stressors, and we know better than anybody how music therapy can be used to help our communities. The field of music therapy needs to gain as much awareness as possible and what better way than to provide music therapy opportunities to our communities? Drum circles on a friday evening or saturday afternoon at the local community park; or toddler group at the local library; or even providing a music therapy session for the residents of the local homeless shelter. There are so many ideas and possibilities were music therapy can provide wellness in our communities, and we should be able to use our skill set to provide those services.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

My experiences working with children this age and level come from internship and my time contracting for private practice. During internship, I would encounter many children the age of 5, who were in the hospital setting for elongated periods of time. Parents could only be with their child for a certain portion of the day since they had to go to work sometimes, so it was up to our team to engage these children and aid them in making their experience pleasant as well as provide developmental opportunities. As music therapists, we would use different interventions, specifically song singing popular children’s tunes to make the hospital environment familiar, as well as oil up their cognition and speech skills.

In private practice, I had a few clients that were under the age of 5, but they had developmental delays. So it was alot on working on gross motor movements and basic speech skills. So we utilized alot of movement songs and simple songs that provided successful opportunists for the child to speak/sing the right words.

[Laura-Maria Chami]

5 Words to Describe SM1 Music Experiences: Nurturing, Creative, Bonding, Exciting, and Caring

5 Sentences to use when speaking to parents about musical responses of children in SM1: 1. It’s ok that your child wants to mouth the instrument, he is learning all about it! 2. Don’t worry if your child is making different noises that don’t sound like music; it’s their way of communicating and engaging! 3. If your child is shy, don’t feel the need to pressure them to play. Just act engaged and interested yourself and they will eventually follow along! 4. If you are late to class, that’s ok! We are so glad that you could join us and create music with us! 5. Look! Your child is reaching for the instrument! They want to play along!

SM1 Session Plan: 1. Gathering/ Greeting: “Good Morning to the Sun” Encourage parents to hold child and gently engage their arms and legs to the movement of the song. Each child will be greeted by name during the song. 2. Bonding Song: “Going on a Ride” (original composition) Parents will seat their child on their lap as they sing along with MT-BC about going on a car ride. 3. Songs About Me: “Where is my Face” (EKS). Encourage parents to gently tap the head, toes, eyes, mouth, nose, hands, and knees of their baby. 4. Instrument Song: “Shake, Shake” (Original Composition) Provide child-safe shakers for parents to hand to their child. Each child will be given a chance to play their shaker during the song and “solo”. 5. Instrument Song: “Roll the Cabasa” (original composition) Small cabasa will be passed from child to child, parents aiding in the process. Each child will be given the opportunity to discover and play the cabasa. Parents are encouraged to sing along. This promotes instrument playing as well as sharing/social skills. 6. Movement Song: “Scarf Song” (Original Composition) Hand each child/parent a scarf and encourage them to sway softly and gently to the music, following the movement directions and to sing along. 7. Goodbye: “Goodbye Everybody” (Original Composition) Encourage parents to sing along, and encourage child to clap hands/move along to the music.

Rylie: LOVE your comment on when the child is tired, but specifically the part when it comes to the nonjudgmental environment. It is so crucial that parents know that this is a open, welcoming environment and they will never be judged on what they do with their child, that they deem appropriate.

Rebekah: I love how you frankly put the sentence regarding a parent feeding their child. The families are here for their children’s needs, and if the child needs to eat or any other needs, then that need is most important.

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