[Mary Carter]

I think the needs of the families in my community is to have the time to connect with their children and the ability to play and enjoy their child at the child’s developmental level. I live in a very affluent area of New Jersey where in many of the families both parents work high stress, long hour jobs where the children are often in childcare or under the supervision of nannies. The parents in my community are all very dedicated to getting the best education, experiences and advancements for their children and are willing to pay for it. I think the parents in my area endure a great level of stress at their jobs and may have a hard time leaving that stress, or their iphones with the constant messaging and the emails at the door. I am hoping that my courses will provide the parents with a safe haven where they can become so involved that they can ignore the stresses of their career and be truly present for their child and enjoy the playfulness.

[Mary Carter]

Thank you Erika! That is most heartening to hear!

[Mary Carter]

Here are some examples from my last clinical site where I worked with severely medically and developmentally delayed children. I have not put changes into practice yet as I am not currently seeing clients as I build the business side of opening a private practice.

Singing: I worked with various ages in “choirs” where I would start with simply making sounds and matching pitches and intensities (very little ones), to adding consonant sounds, to memorizing words to put at the end of a phrase (elementary school age), to singing a line to finally singing a whole song and performing (high school age).

Playing Instruments: Most of my clients were in the beginning stages of Trust, Awareness and some in Independence. For those in the trust stages we would work to get them to show preference for an instrument or sound by looking towards one of two instruments that made a different sound such as bells or a shaker. For those in Awareness and Independence staff would support the client in grasping (some with independence) and shaking or striking an instrument or exploring how the sounds were made with instruments like chimes or a thunder sheet.

Movement: Again, the majority of my clients had very little purposeful movement so they were in the early stages of Trust and Awareness. I would tie scarves, bells and rattle like shells to parts of the body that could move to encourage movement by giving them an audible or in the case of the colored scarves a visual amplification of their movement.

Listening: My favorite listening exercise I would do with my clients was to create a “rain” storm with the use of different instruments one at a time. I would introduce the ocean drum, then the thunder sheet, then a giant rain stick then wind chimes. It was a very sensory experience and I would turn off the lights so the clients could really focus on the sounds. I found this was the times when my clients were almost able to move into the control stage by really stopping and attending to the sounds.

[Mary Carter]

Singing: Awareness: Variances in pitch, audible breathing. Trust: Imitates pitches, high, low, glissando approx. half of time. Independence: Combining multiple sounds together in melodic form. Starts and stops sounds without prompting. Control: Can sing familiar songs, enjoys and takes pride in performing. Responsibility: Memorizing and singing longer songs. Begins to play with pulse and meter, takes ownership of songs.

Playing Instruments: Awareness: Responds as opposed to playing instruments. Responds differently to different types of songs (play songs, sedative) and different instruments. Trust: Picking up instruments and briefly shaking/ striking to make sounds. Independence: Explores the different ways an instrument can make sounds (shaking, scratching, dropping, banging). Control: Enjoys start and stop instructions and can follow. Plays With music purposefully. Responsibility: Maintains a steady beat, able to play as part of a group, follow directions, take turns, and listen.

Moving: Awareness: Turning towards the sound, moving mouth. Trust: Repetitive movements such as head bop, arm shake, feet kicking. Independence: Intentional response to the music such as knee patting, foot stamping. Control: Ability to control and imitate movements such as arms up, arms down, moving legs one at a time. Responsibility: Using movements in sequence such as “Head and Shoulders”, suggesting new movements.

Listening: Awareness: Recognizes and responds to changes in vocal timbre. Trust: Recognizes familiar melodies, can self-sooth to familiar songs. Independence: Matches intensity of movements/volume/ facial expressions to that of the music. Control: Makes a choice to stop and listen to the music. Learns through listening as well as watching. Responsibility: Enjoys listening to the music of others, able to see beyond self.

[Mary Carter]

The area that I live in in New Jersey is very diverse but I think the most popular “kids” songs seem to be the good ‘ol reliable Twinkle Twinkle, The ABC song, The Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald. I was shocked when I moved here when I would ask parents of young clients what their favorite songs were at home and what they would sing along to in the car thinking I’d get Raffi songs, The Wiggles, Dan Zanes etc. but they would say they love to listen to artists like Pharell, Beyonce, Meghan Trainor and other Billboard artists. At the school I worked at I met very, very few parents who actually played children’s music or traditional music for their children. I think it will require a bit of education to get parents around here to sing age appropriate songs as opposed to just turning on the radio and letting that do the work.

[Mary Carter]

I am not currently working with any clients but after singing through the songs I think the ones I would try out first would be:

“Will You Come” I like that it’s a familiar melody that people would be able to pick up quick and that there are lots of movement opportunities that you can quickly change to suit the movements that the kids are doing.

“All of this is Me” I think this is a great song that parents could take and use at home as they are dressing/ changing their baby.

“Where is the Music” I have not used chants before, but I see how this is a great idea for people who are not yet comfortable using their singing voice.

[Mary Carter]

In addition to being a music therapist I have a side job as a cantor at a Catholic church. When discussing the musical characteristics of the “Trust” stage I could not help thinking about the babies at church who often crack me up as I’m singing the Gospel Acclamation. I had assumed it was just a coincidence that it is this particular song in the mass that the babies all vocalize along to, but when I think about it it’s the song that is consistently the same each week, repeats the word Alleluia over and over and is most often sung in descending melodic pitch. The babies often imitate the AAaahhhhhhhh ooooooooo sounds in descending pitch and show repetitive movement by moving both their arms up imitating what I do to invite the congregation to join in the singing. This has always made me giggle as the babies will try to catch my attention during the mass and when they make eye contact raise up their arms and and sing out their vocalization as if to invite me to sing again with them. This of course typically embarrasses the parent as it’s usually during a time when the priest is speaking and the rest of the congregation is silent. I have always made an effort after the mass to speak to the parent and the child to say to the little one, “thank you for singing with me!” or “I love to hear you sing” so that the parents know that it’s alright for them to be making these joyful noises and that it is not something to be embarrassed about or something that bothers anyone around them.

[Mary Carter]

I did enjoy this weeks refresher on the developmental levels. I had taken this in college but after college have been working as a music therapist with severely developmentally delayed children and as stated in my previous post, I think I developed a skewed sense of what typical developmental levels were. I am not a parent yet but a first time aunt to a beautiful 11 month old girl who I had assumed was the most brilliant, advanced baby in the whole wide world and as I was reading through the book and this weeks videos I saw, wow, Nora is right on track! (I won’t tell my sister…)

I think the greatest takeaways for me from this week was the reinforcement that children need to experience defiance and control as a part of growth and to help parents accept that their child is not doing something “bad” but to positively redirect the experience. I liked the idea to “trade” instruments as opposed to “share” the instrument as it’s not a concept that the child can quite understand.

I think a challenge for my courses will be to get the parents to allow themselves to be childlike with their children. I gave up my self-consciousness years ago and love jumping and playing, making ridiculous noises and getting in touch with my inner child when working with babies and little ones but when I see adults in my area interacting with children they often speak to them as little adults and are very proper. I think it will be difficult for some to let go of their professional adult manner and jump and make funny noises. I’m hoping I can find a way to make them comfortable playing with their children on the children’s level and I think that by being able to explain the real developmental importance of imaginative play and exploration of movement and sound that they will be more willing to let go of their inhibitions.

[Mary Carter]

Hello! My name is Mary Carter and I’m a music therapist living in Montclair, New Jersey. I graduated from Montclair State University a little over two years ago and immediately after graduation began working full time as a music therapist in a private school for children with severe developmental and medical needs ages 3-21. I loved the children and found my work challenging and fulfilling. Unfortunately due to my overwhelming case load (close to 90 students and about 45 sessions a week + concerts/events to plan with no prep time) and a salary I could not live on (not-for-profit) I was completely burnt out in just a year and a half. I made the decision to leave my job to pursue opening my own private practice which I have been developing over the last couple months. I am hoping to launch Enriching Rhythms Music Therapy, LLC in September to provide in home services for children with developmental needs and early intervention clients. Many of the online courses I took through musictherapyed.com (which I would highly recommend) on business and private practice mentioned this program as something to add to your services and I loved the idea. My mother was a music educator in the school system who went on to develop her own parenting with music courses that brought her much joy and she has always pushes me to add something like this to my repertoire.

I’m not sure how personal we can get here or how this will sound (I hope it doesn’t come across strange) but I think adding a service like this to my practice will be something healthy for me. I do love working with special needs populations and think that I am very strong and talented and can provide a valuable service for my clients and their families. I found though working at the school where I was only exposed to children who were a small percentage of the population and who were most often in pain, discomfort or distress that I developed a warped sense of children in general. Eye gaze, switch hitting or head turning was considered a major success and while we rejoiced in these successes they were often few and far between. Joy was not something that was a guaranteed part of my day. I don’t want to sound like I practice music therapy to get something from it, but I think that adding something like this to my practice where you are not always working with sick children and can just have fun with families who are less stressed will be something that may help prevent burnout. A change of pace if you will. (And yes, I do things for myself like going for runs with super fun music in my ears and supervision but I think this is still a great way to diversify my practice.)

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