[Meredith Pizzi]

Thank you to all for sharing your stories and your expertise and for supporting one another. A number of you have spoken about difficulties with getting music therapy approved in public schools. In a few weeks Meredith and I will be traveling down to Kansas City for the AMTA annual conference. On that Thursday, we will be providing a 5 hour CMTE on IDEA law and regulations as it pertains to music therapy. There is considerable support for music therapy as a related service under IDEA, but it often takes personal contact with a school district to bring this to their attention. I have compiled the important documents in a PDF file and would be happy to send you the link after the conference. Just email me at Elizabeth@RaisingHarmony.com.

[Meredith Pizzi]

And thank you, Kathy, for believing in Sprouting Melodies and Raising Harmony!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Great conversation, everyone. Thanks for sharing. Another thought is to share fact sheets from other organizations. You can find some of my favorites on the Zero to Three website.

[Meredith Pizzi]

I am glad that the discussion of red flags is helpful. You might be interested in this podcast on the topic of when and how to talk to families about developmental concerns that I recorded for imagine, the early childhood music therapy on-line magazine. The link is below.
http://imagine.musictherapy.biz/Imagine/podcasts/Entries/2014/9/15_stopping_the_music__why,_when,_and_how_to_discuss_developmental_concerns_with_families.html

[Meredith Pizzi]

Hi, Megan. Meredith has done a lot of research lately in infant mental health, and I have written about it some. She and I will be presenting on the topic at the upcoming AMTA conference, and can share some of that information with you. On a different level, music therapy can be approved under Part C of IDEA (early intervention) but this information has been slow to trickle down to the states. Judy Simpson at the AMTA office has posted a number of updates in the AMTA newsletters over the years and there was an article with information on MT and EI regulations in the early childhood music therapy magazine imagine. We can talk more if you have any more questions. Erika is also in New Jersey and so she might have more information and contacts.

[Meredith Pizzi]

A belated welcome to everyone! I am always amazed at the diversity in our training groups and in how much we all have to share with each other. You are getting to know me well through the videos, but here are a few more details. In addition to my music therapy work, I am the mother to three grown children. We had our first wedding this summer, and I am still basking in the glow of that glorious day. One thing that a long range view has taught me, is that all the hard work and effort you put in to a child’s early development is worth it! We are here to support you, whether it is through information about young children or in creating and sustaining career opportunities while still having enough time to nurture your own little ones.

[Meredith Pizzi]

Great comments, everyone. There has been a lot of new research in the last few years on the value of early interaction and bonding between grownup and child on later competence and growth. I often post links to these studies on the Sprouting Melodies and Raising Harmony FaceBook pages. Take a look and join these pages if you are on FaceBook!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Well said,Kristina. Early childhood work can really blur the lines of understanding our practice, roles and responsibilities as music therapists. As the course continues, we will spend more time discussing how community based early childhood groups such as Sprouting Melodies fit into your music therapy practice.

[Meredith Pizzi]

Welcome all! It is so exciting for me to read through the introductions in each new Sprouting Melodies course. I am constantly impressed by the vast experience that all of you bring to the training, and your passion for the field and for children and their families.
You will get to know me well throughout the weeks, but here are a few more personal details. In addition to Raising Harmony, I work several days a week as the senior music therapist at a therapeutic preschool called Alternatives for Children on Long Island, New York. On Thursdays, I work as an adjunct instructor in music therapy at Molloy College, and the experience of teaching is one I really treasure.
I have a wonderful family with three grown children and I can assure those of you that are parents that all of the work is worth it!
You have a wonderful team of forum moderators with Erika and Kristina, but please feel free to contact either Meredith or myself at any time.

[Meredith Pizzi]

One more thought here about maintaining clear boundaries in our work between providing music therapy and providing community based music experiences using our skills as music therapists. In previous posts, many of you have explored this topic. One way I try and keep things clear in my mind is to think about my services to a child and family in terms of our mutual contract. In music therapy, there should be a clear contract on the purpose of participation whether group or individual. This often means specific and individualized goals and objectives as well as interventions targeted at specific (and agreed upon) needs. It is critical that the child, parent and the music therapist have given consent to the stated services. Expected outcomes should be discussed along with a system of accountability for progress.
In a community based music experience run by a music therapist, the therapist needs to be very transparent that they are using their skill and knowledge base to provide quality programs, but the purpose of participation is not therapy. In Sprouting Melodies, we use our skills to provide high quality, developmentally focused music experiences in which the child/grownup can participate in a way that is beneficial and meaningful to them. In the contract between the Sprouting Melodies Provider and the grownup, the music therapist agrees to provide these types of experiences, but it is the grownup who determines how to engage in the group in a way that will be most supportive for them and their child. The purpose (or goal) of the program is universal and not individualized. Any other thoughts??

[Meredith Pizzi]

Several of you mentioned the need to have the grownups fully engaged in the music. In my experience, children of all ages look to their parents (or caregiver) for clues on how to respond. Sometimes, the grownup forgets that even older children need lots of positive engagement and attention. In multi-age groups, there is sometimes a tendency for the grownup to focus on the smaller ones and assume that the older one will take care of themselves. I think it is often just the opposite, where the older child needs Mom or Dad or Sitter to pay attention to them and to celebrate their music making. Sometimes once the younger one is comfortable with me, I offer to have them sit with me, and suggest that this could be a ‘special time’ just for the big kid.

[Meredith Pizzi]

Wow! I am glad that this question provided such food for thought! The more we try and articulate what we do, the more people will be able to understand and appreciate who we are as music therapists and what we do as music therapists. Understanding developmental focus vs skill building differences ourselves, then, becomes crucial.
To make things clear to parents, I often choose to use examples. If music is being used to develop skills, you might see experiences that focus exclusively on something like identifying body parts and patting or tapping that part to the music. The song might name the body part (Gather round everybody, clap your hands) and in a skill building focus, the response that the parent might expect is for their child to clap hands when the music says to do it. The parent (and perhaps the music facilitator) might correct the child if this specific skill is not demonstrated. This also happens in music skill building programs which might focus on a skill such as rhythmic pattern imitation. This is a very common use of music experiences, but not our way of thinking of music in Sprouting Melodies.
In using music for development (our focus) the experience might be exactly the same (Gather Round everybody, clap your hands) but the response that we are looking for is very different. The purpose of the music experience is to provide an opportunity for every child and grownup to experience and join in synchronous movement, which we know supports self-regulation, bonding and awareness of self and others. So it doesn’t matter if the child is clapping, patting, rocking or just intently watching as long as we can see their engagement in the group and in the music experience.
Yes, this distinction gets a bit fuzzy! It might be helpful if others can share some more examples that can be used to explain the difference to families. Thanks again for all your thoughts.

[Meredith Pizzi]

Hi, Mary and others. It is great to have such a full and varied group of participants in this course. I know that some of you have started late, so I have been going back through the forum to try and answer some questions and provide some comments. Mary, we really support each Sprouting Melodies Provider in giving each of their groups the individual experiences that they need at the time, therefore we don’t don’t talk about ‘rules’ but rather developmentally appropriate practices. The infants and babies in Sprouting Melodies 1 are generally in the Awareness and Trust levels. Experiences are focused on bonding with their parent or caregiver and then feeling safe enough to reach out to explore their immediate environment. This is sometimes done sitting and sometimes done standing and moving. The examples from the video showed some specific songs encouraging synchronous movement with their grownup. This can be done sitting or standing, but always includes close contact. It has been my experience that this grownup/child dyad needs to be firmly established before the babies get to the point of peer to peer socialization.

[Meredith Pizzi]

Your answers really support our belief that the very best people to work with music and young children are music therapists!!!

[Meredith Pizzi]

It is so exciting for me to see and hear how all of you are standing loud and proud as music therapists. Our sense of value is then shared with our families, and they share it with their children.
Some of you might have seen this from our latest “Raising Harmony” newsletter, but I it fits right in with all of your responses.

“Who are you? As a supporter of Raising Harmony you are in the forefront of new thinking in music therapy! How do I know? Well, over the past six weeks I’ve been traveling hundreds of miles to four big music therapy conferences in as many different states. What I learned was that music therapy is growing fast in diverse and varied ways. Again and again I heard about a new respect for client empowerment and a focus on client strengths. Health and wellness was as much mentioned as disability. The whole scope of music therapy seems to be expanding as more and more as people learn about the value that music and music therapy can bring to their lives. All of these big thoughts certainly challenge old views of ourselves as music therapists and of the practice of music therapy.”

[Author]

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