[Meghan Hanley]

That’s great that the siblings could interact with each other through music! I know it can be difficult for some older children to know how to interact with a young infant. Music therapy is a wonderful opportunity for bonding and play.

[Meghan Hanley]

When working with parents and 6-9 -month year olds, I worked a lot on encouraging new parents to speak and sing to their babies. At first, the children just stared around them. But as they grew to trust the environment, they responded by smiling, looking and moving towards their parents.

[Meghan Hanley]

Gentle, bonding, touch, cuddling, slower pace

It’s okay to Slow down and just focus on being present with your baby at whatever musical response they are doing that day.
The timber of your voice is most important for your baby.
Some babies are ready for (skill) and some aren’t, and that’s okay too.
Try to move scarves slowly so that your baby can follow the movement.
12-18 inches is a good distance so that your baby can see you and bond.
Babies are attracted to higher melodies.

Good morning, Hold on Tight, I like this song, Pick your hands up high, just like me, Goodbye

[Meghan Hanley]

I really agree with what you say about parents being able to apply what they experience and learn outside of music therapy sessions!

[Meghan Hanley]

Music therapists can provide opportunities for families to practice motor and speech goals with the non-threatening form of music. Some young families may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with using live music playing or singing. Music therapists can encourage bonding and interaction with children through exciting and fun music and encouragement.

[Meghan Hanley]

Many of the families that I work with have difficulty with transferring learned skills to other settings. Music can allow children to work on social, speech, and motor skills with family members outside of a traditional therapy room as well as practice skills at home. In my community, one need that I see is finding social outlets outside of school and work. People can come together through music with dancing, playing instruments, and attending concerts. I have seen the joy from making music with others in the handbell groups that I lead for autistic adults.

[Meghan Hanley]

It’s amazing how many experiences we can combine in one song. For transitioning, I have been harnessing the energy from a movement experience to calmer movement completed while sitting down, such as stretching, waving up high, or pretending to imitate playing instruments. They really like pretending to play drums on the ground or playing the “piano” in the air!

[Meghan Hanley]

Singing

Awareness: vocalizing nonspecific pitches
Trust: sing descending intervals
Independence: imitate animals sounds and pitches
Control: imitates words in songs
Responsibility: sings with pulse and meter

Listening

Awareness: children can tell the difference between pitches
Trust: turn towards instruments played at a distance
Independence: respond to changes in tempo, timbre, and dynamics by changing facial affect
Control: make choices for instruments from a field of three
Responsibility: can labels music by emotional quality, e.g. happy or scary

Movement

Awareness: movements are repetitive, involve the entire body
Trust: movements are more rhythmic
Independence: isolates body parts, e.g. clapping hands
Control: combine movements in a repeating pattern
Responsibility: use movements to reflect the timbre, dynamics, and lyrics

Instrument

Awareness: reach arms towards played instruments
Trust: play with a rhythmic beat
Independence: transfer instrument from hand to hand
Control: play with different dynamics
Responsibility: repeats rhythmic patterns

[Meghan Hanley]

I have used singing to encourage vocalizing with children in a mixed-abilities school setting. Since starting the course, I have made some changes to my melodies and rhythms to allow more opportunities for matching pitches. For children who are closer the responsibility stage, I encourage them to high and low with more advanced rhythms.
For instrument play, I like to incorporate the opportunity for sensory input. Many of the children enjoy reaching towards the guitar to place their hands on the body of the instrument to feel the vibrations. For some of the children, I encourage them to make choices to play fast or slow.

For movement experiences, I have used lyrics about sleeping and swimming goldfish with matching accompaniment patterns to encourage repetitive movements such as moving to fast music and instinctual movements, like relaxed body to slow music.

For listening experiences, last week, I had a new child in my classroom. I played familiar songs, such as “You are my Sunshine,” to help with acclimating to the setting and encouraging trust.

[Meghan Hanley]

In my early childhood music therapy programs, I can create an environment that encourages children to explore, such as searching for hidden objects, tracking music visually and aurally, and experimenting with ways to hold and manipulate instruments.

[Meghan Hanley]

My most valuable take away was all of the small steps necessary to explore and understand one’s environment as an infant and toddler. By playing instruments, toddlers can be working on picking up and holding objects and sitting up straight.

[Meghan Hanley]

I’m from Florida and I’m always amazed by how many people know Cielito Lindo! My favorite kid Spanish song is definitely De Colores.

[Meghan Hanley]

I have seen a lot of children in the independence level at my school setting. When singing a song about a train arriving at the station, I used a crescendo to match the lyrics about the train moving closer and closer. The children in the room responded by increasing eye contact with me, matching the intensity of the song by moving arms with increased speed, and imitating the dynamics of the song with vocalizing.

[Meghan Hanley]

I especially enjoyed using the song, “A car on my knee” but I substituted the car for an elephant puppet. I then varied the lyrics depending on where the child placed the elephant, e.g. on her head or foot. The child that I was working with enjoyed placing the toy on my shoes and laughed every time that I ended the song with a silly elephant trumpet sound.

[Meghan Hanley]

I work primarily with children and adults within the Jewish community. They are familiar with songs in Hebrew and Yiddish. A lot of the songs, such as Hava Nagila, Tumbalaika, and Tu Bishvat Higia, involve minor keys and varying dynamics. They are also associated with dancing and moving to music instead of just singing.

[Author]

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