[Mary Jane Dibble]

I learned a lot in this section that I am going to start implementing more as I work with my clients. For example, I had never thought about why you should not use the song Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes with children who are in the early stages of development. Also, it was interesting to learn that we need to allow the clients more time to start and stop, letting them do it more independently first. And I didn’t realize how important listening is in the developmental process and how much the children are developing by just watching others.

[Mary Jane Dibble]

Sorry for the slow response, I was out of town. Here is my developmental sequence of musical responses, based on what I learned from this chapter.

SINGING:
Awareness: Uses pitches, makes sounds with voice
Trust: Matches some vocalizations but sounds need to feel safe
Independence: Uses pitch to combine sounds, uses inflection, experiments and explores voice in a melodic way
Control: Uses ups and downs in singing, they want to share their song/perform, they’re able to sing more of a complete song while still leaving some parts out
Responsibility: Remembers a lot of the song, uses and plays with pulse and meter

PLAYING:
Awareness: Explores the instrument as they grasp it
Trust: Shakes instruments and briefly uses pulse and meter, intentional but slow use of a maraca
Independence: Purposefully explores instruments, not putting in their mouths so much, can play in their own time and own way
Control: They like starting and stopping with instrument play
Responsibility: Keeps a steady beat, takes part in gathering songs

MOVING:
Awareness: Moving is natural and instinctive and there are some movements in response to the music but it’s more natural
Trust: Responds to music by moving even if it’s not the exact action, but can be repetitive
Independence: Isolates body parts, can move specific body parts more intentionally to the music such as stomping feet
Control: Can figure out how to imitate a movement the same way the leader is, they are internalizing music as part of their own personality
Responsibility: Can connect movements together in a sequence such as Head,Shoulders,Knees and Toes

LISTENING:
Awareness: Able to attend to what’s going on around them, too many unusual vocal changes can startle children at this age
Trust: They recognize familiar songs, this can calm an upset baby
Independence: They lean in or back to the scale or melody, they match rhythm or intensity of music, they can match a facial expression to the intensity of the music
Control: They want to absorb music and listen, studies show that neurons are firing in the same way watching as if they were doing the actions themselves-this is still important to their neural development
Responsibility: They are able to stop their action and listen to others’ music, respect and understand that another person’s music is interesting, it’s no longer all about “me”, they understand that their music can connect with another person’s music.

[Mary Jane Dibble]

I have one client who has made great progress through these developmental levels in music therapy. When I started with him I could not do all of the typical interventions I typically do with kids who are on a higher level, but instead had to start at the awareness stage. His mother and I were excited over things that may appear small to the typical person but were huge steps for him such as looking at us, coming over to where the music was, and then later moving on to the trust stage where he was able to tolerate more and then he began participating, playing instruments, matching vocal sounds and making language approximations and joining in a joint activity with us. It is exciting to watch children make progress through these stages.

[Mary Jane Dibble]

This week I plan to use the songs “In My Little Hand” and “I Can Move Around” with my clients. I love the idea that these songs give both structure and freedom for the child to choose to create movement and music on their own.

[Mary Jane Dibble]

The community I work in, for the most part, tends to be family and religious oriented. The traditional children’s songs are well known such as Wheels on the Bus, ABCs, etc. There is one song that is well known in my community that everyone loves to sing along to. It was written by a lady in the 1950s who is local to Utah and it’s called “Popcorn Popping On the Apricot Tree,” written about the blossoms in springtime. Many children love to follow the actions to this song.

[Mary Jane Dibble]

This week it was very valuable for me to be reminded of many specific behaviors and developmental milestones you can expect from typical children in each age group. This allows me to better plan interventions because I know at which age I can expect them to respond to certain things such as identifying colors or standing on one leg, etc and I can know to be aware if they are not responding to those things. I also like that some red flags were mentioned as things to look out for. I feel like this content is helping me better see things from a child’s perspective so that I can understand where they are at and where they need to be.

[Mary Jane Dibble]

I work with children who have developmental delays so this information is very valuable because it will help me be better aware of the developmental milestones that children should be completing at each age. It will help me set clearer goals and plan specific interventions to help them reach these developmental milestones. I also would love to start working with typical children and this information helps me know how I can work on helping typical kids reach goals as well and what types of responses I can expect from each age group.

[Mary Jane Dibble]

Hello! My name is Mary Jane Dibble. I work as a music therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have been working in private practice for the past year with a variety of populations including children with developmental delays and children with various disabilities. This course was recommended to me by another music therapist who took the course and really enjoyed it. I have been wanting to gain as much knowledge and skills as I can in order to provide the best care for my clients and I am hoping I can work even more with children in the future. I’m looking forward to this course and in getting to know you all.

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