[Meredith Pizzi]

Hi Keeley,
I’m so glad you caught that! We will replace that pdf with the right one. It’s very strange! Anyway, the pages to read are 16-28. Thanks for bringing that up right away!
Meredith

[Meredith Pizzi]

Hi Everyone! I love reading the introductions! It’s so wonderful to get to know all of you and hear about your experience and what brings you to this course. I have been stopping in to read your introductions, but realized last night that although I had started this thread, I never actually posted my own introduction! So, I am Meredith Roman Pizzi. I have a few titles, all of them fun! Founder, Owner and Executive Director of Roman Music Therapy Services, the only independent community music therapy agency in Massachusetts, serving young children, children and adults with disabilities and seniors. I am also the Creator of Sprouting Melodies 🙂 The Chief Idea Generator and since 2012, The Co-Founder and CEO of Raising Harmony. Basically, I started Sprouting Melodies to meet the obvious need in my community and to solve my private practice cash flow issues. Since then, Sprouting Melodies has grown to represent 20-25% of my business and more than $40,000 in annual revenue – all prepaid, and year round which makes a big difference when most of our contracts are school based. I have had such a great response from my community here that I really wanted to share this early childhood music therapy-based model with others. That’s when Beth, who was my internship director way back when, and I joined forces to create Raising Harmony! In the past year and half we have trained over 60 music therapists in Sprouting Melodies and have Sprouting Melodies Providers in a growing number of states! You’ll hear about more of them soon! We are thrilled to have you in this course, and I assure you – if you invest your time and energy into the videos, the assignments and the conversations on this forum, you will get an incredible training that will flow directly into your clinical work each and every day and if you chose to become a provider, it will prepare you to add this new program to your services in a way that values your work, supports your community and increases your income. So dig in, enjoy the videos, the conversations and feel free to reach out to me, Beth or Erika at any time via the forums, or by email.

[Meredith Pizzi]

Just to add to the comments here, with the example of songs about body parts, it is also good to point out how many areas of development we are addressing through the music.  I always like to try to give parents a few ways that we are addressing overall development by addressing how what we are doing impacts overall development and development in specific areas like communication, awareness of self and others, emotional bonding,  etc. so that we can all think broadly about how the music experiences support overall development.  Kristin, I liked your wording here -“music for development is more about supporting the child in their developmental process.” and Emily, I liked your way of including “All areas of Development.”  Great conversation, ladies!

[Meredith Pizzi]

We are working on making posters with all of the words to describe these groups! I think it is such a fun way to think about the classes!

[Meredith Pizzi]

I like the way Megan described it as “Anticipated Surprise.” Especially with the younger babies in this group, surprise can be frightening as we are mostly working in the developmental level of Trust. Be sure that the surprises are measured and tempered by the little ones in the group. They will let you know when it is too much. I have certainly had that experience of frightening one of the babies in the grou and having to backtrack and then be more cautious moving forward. So yes, let’s focus on the anticipated surprises – by providing developmentally appropriate music and repeating it enough times so that they can predict what is coming next and feel comfortable with carefully planned surprises.  Does this make sense?

[Meredith Pizzi]

Having done one of my library programs this morning, I was just talking with a parent about how we constantly monitor and change the music to be sure that it is meeting the needs of the kids and responding to them! Leading and following, using your skills to read them. I assure you, Kristen, that with your clinically trained eyes and ears, and now this training, you will quickly get a sense of what works and doesn’t work with this population! Have you watched the video on the SproutingMelodies.com site yet? There is a video from a Sprouting Melodies 2 class. Please feel free to check it out!

 

[Meredith Pizzi]

Great Ideas everybody, and Lauren, I love the title “Opportunity Creator!”

About signing, we do incorporate it a lot into our sessions, especially just the very important basics of educating the parents about what a helpful tool sign language is in aiding their communication skills.

Affordable options are a concern. We have a scholarship program here at Roman Music Therapy Services where we take some of the money we bring in by doing community events, concerts, library programs, etc and then can offer sliding scale scholarships to families who need it. It makes a big difference. (And we offer a twin discount!)   🙂  We don’t lower our overall cost because honestly, when I tried that, I didn’t get more families and couldn’t keep it going at that price. We’ll talk more about the business aspects in the coming weeks, but pricing your classes based on value and quality and community markets and what families can afford is an important piece of the puzzle!

I love all the comments about groups specifically for, or at least open to, children with disabilities. That is a great opportunity for a Special Sprouts Class with a group just for them!!

 

[Meredith Pizzi]

Great Ideas everybody, and Lauren, I love the title “Opportunity Creator!”

About signing, we do incorporate it a lot into our sessions, especially just the very important basics of educating the parents about what a helpful tool sign language is in aiding their communication skills.

Affordable options are a concern. We have a scholarship program here at Roman Music Therapy Services where we take some of the money we bring in by doing community events, concerts, library programs, etc and then can offer sliding scale scholarships to families who need it. It makes a big difference. (And we offer a twin discount!)   🙂  We don’t lower our overall cost because honestly, when I tried that, I didn’t get more families and couldn’t keep it going at that price. We’ll talk more about the business aspects in the coming weeks, but pricing your classes based on value and quality and community markets and what families can afford is an important piece of the puzzle!

I love all the comments about groups specifically for, or at least open to, children with disabilities. That is a great opportunity for a Special Sprouts Class with a group just for them!!

 

[Meredith Pizzi]

Lisa, I’m not sure why the bullets aren’t working. They should be… I’ll look into that.

And yes, we are uniquely trained and skilled!  Take some time to print out your own answer, or the answers of others in this thread and memorize your Music Therapist Pitch so that it rolls off your tongue whenever it comes up in coversation!

Great work everyone!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Channing and Michelle, Thanks for posting your developmental sequences. The musical examples make great sense, Michelle and really help to “see” how these stages of development unfold!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Great work, everyone!! So glad these ideas are coming together for everyone!

[Meredith Pizzi]

It’s great to see how everyone is putting these song categories into your toolboxes! And I really enjoy the conversation about bonding songs. At an event I did for seniors last week, we were talking about music for bonding and how many new parents don’t know any lap rides. As music therapists, it comes naturally for us, but not everyone!  It’s a basic that really does need to be taught.

I have to throw in here that my own kids are obviously kids who have grown up with Sprouting Melodies. Our oldest helped me write some of the songs and learn a great deal about child development, our second child participated in Sprouting Melodies with my husband on Saturdays from 2-4 years of age, and our youngest has been going to classes weekly since he was born. He will be 3 in June. What amazes me is that our kids bring home these bonding songs and sing them together and with each other, often without any prompting! There are times when we are all getting ready in the morning and they will be on each other’s laps singing Row Your Boat, Wiggly Jiggly Car or Little Red Wagon. It’s a wonderful opportunity for sibling bonding as well!

Keep the great comments coming!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Hi Everyone,
You are doing great! Here are two more examples to hopefully clear up any confusion. These are from previous course participants.

Example 1

Singing:
Awareness: localizing and paying attention to sound, mouthing and breathing along
Trust: humming or brief vocalizing in response to or imitation of singing
Independence: exploring voice, creating own melodic and rhythmic structures and even unique sound combinations
Control: singing along with familiar portions of songs/phrases, following familiar melodic line
Responsibility: singing along with entire songs, initiating familiar songs

Playing:
Awareness: localizing sound source, attending to instrument
Trust: reaching for, exploring, and playing instruments for brief times (1-2 beats at first), mouthing instruments
Independence: continued exploration on own terms, using instruments in new ways (such as using maracas as drumsticks, etc.)
Control: imitation and turn-taking within instrument play, responding to and providing musical cues
Responsibility: playing with a steady beat, adding creative and expressive elements

Moving:
Awareness: moves instinctually or with hand-over-hand assistance from caregiver/MT
Trust: bouncing or swaying whole body with beat of music
Independence: moves specific parts of the body, maintains movement without assistance from caregiver/MT
Control: imitates learned movements following pulse
Responsibility: anticipating familiar movements within sequence, asking for particular movements

Listening:
Awareness: recognizes and respond to timbre (loud/dissonant causes startle, soothes with lullaby)
Trust: increases attending to familiar songs
Independence: increasing sensitivity to change in familiar music, choosing when to engage and for how long
Control: requesting particular songs and participating in own way
Responsibility: attention given to music of others, social development apparent in turn-taking and self-confidence able to stop, wait, and listen to others/developing turn-taking skills

Example 2
Singing: Awareness- vocalizes pitch independently, may match pitches from outside source (i.e. Therapist), it’s important to point out to parents that their little one is vocalizing a pitch, also look for audible breath and oral motor movements.
Trust- vocalizes pitches in phrases called melodic babble, will match outside pitch and respond to their pitch being matched.
Independence- vocalizes and recognizes familiar melodies, melodic babble is explored independently, it’s important to encourage parents to allow their little ones the freedom to explore their voices independently and play together by matching pitches and introducing varied pitch from very low to very high.
Control- begin to sing familiar song lyrics and/or phrases which may or may not be exactly melodically/rhythmically accurate, it is important to point out what the child is singing to parents and encourage them to sing with their child.
Responsibility- begins to sing entire familiar songs with melodic and rhythmic accuracy.

Playing: Awareness- look towards source of sound, reach out to touch and explore instruments, may hold a small instrument such as a maraca for a short period of time, may explore instruments with their mouths.
Trust- begins to play instruments within the structure of the song for very brief periods, continues to explore the instruments with their mouths, it’s important to assure parents that this is ok and make sure instruments are always clean for children.
Independence- plays instruments independently and looks for new instruments to play, it’s important to encourage exploring new instruments and assure parents that’s why the instruments are out! For everyone to explore and play!
Control- will engage in starting and stopping the music.
Responsibility- maintains a steady beat, creative with how they play their instrument, again it’s important to assure parents that we are creating a safe environment in which their child can create and explore freely.

Moving: Awareness- instinctual/natural movements in response to the music.
Trust- independent repetitive movement such as kicking legs or bouncing in response to music.
Independence- begins to move selected body parts independently (i.e. pat knees, stamp feet).
Control- can move each body part independently and in rhythm with the song.
Responsibility- can request a body movement such as jumping or running, engages in sequential body movements such as “head, shoulders, knees, and toes”.

Listening: Awareness- looks toward sound, may be easily startled by loud or abrupt sounds.
Trust- likes familiarity in song structure, important to share with families the importance of using the songs learned in class at home.
Independence- facial and physical responses to the music, children may turn away from sounds or move towards sounds and this is an opportunity to let the parents know that their child is making a choice not to listen or to listen.
Control- requests preferred songs.
Responsibility- children begin to understand and appreciate others music, they can listen to another child play/sing and they can engage in musical play together with the understanding that “it’s not all about me”.

I hope this helps make the assignment a little more clear. There are so many things we can be looking for as a musical developmental progression, so pick a musical response to start with and see how it will develop through the levels. Thanks for all of your work and effort here everyone! Keep it up! You’re doing great!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Great comments, everyone! What I am taking away from your comments is that we all need to value what we have to offer and contribute when providing early childhood music experiences. Our personal experiences, training and clinical experience all bring a tremendous resource to the children and parents we work with and we need to be wiling to share it!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Thanks for your insights and responses everyone! This foundation is so important and will carry us all forward for the rest of the training! Get ready for a great and time intensive week 3! You’ll love the depth of content in week 3! So block out a solid chunk of time, and please come back to read other participants comments and continue the conversation on the board.

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