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Session plan:
Have music playing as the families come in and get settled.Hello song : welcoming everybody, as a group and individually
Bonding song:-Russian Children’s folksong:
May there Always Be Sunshine
May there Always Be Blue Sky
May there Always Be Mama
May there Always Be meMovement song: starting with a familiar song:
changing tempo slow – medium and slow way down
Row, Row Row Your Boat or teach Bumping Up and Down In My Little Red Wagon.Just like me
instrument play-a-long
Singing She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the MountainGoodbye song
ParticipantSentences for parents:
There are no right/wrong or good/bad responses. Please participate, even if you are not comfortable singing. The sound of your voice is the one the child wants to connect with. We’ll notice how your child responds, perhaps by turning their head towards a musical sound or reaching out for an instrument. You will be able to take home special connected moments with your child to use in your daily life. A baby’s hearing is very sensitive. If your baby seems startled, that is a cue for us to sing or play instruments a little softer and maybe a little slower and steady. You may want to be more aware of what volume you play the radio/cd in your car or music at home.
ParticipantI don’t know if my intentions were clear in my last post. I intend to develop music therapy/wellness groups using the Sprouting Melodies model and have an additional focus of working with young families with caregivers that might have moderate depression.
ParticipantAn early intervention provider has a music therapist on staff, and I thnk they bill through developmental play/social groups.
A professor from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing spoke to our staff meeting last Friday about a new grant-funded research study she wants the Raleigh Children’s Developmental Center, CDSA (state early intervention agency where I work doing office support) to help implement. The title of the project is “Exploration of Depressive Symptoms in Mothers of Infants or Toddlers at Risk for or with Developmental Delays or disabilities.”
They want to see if interventions to reduce maternal depressive symptoms and enhancing parenting skills will improve outcomes of best-practice environment; federally required home-based intervention such as what the CDSA provides.
They believe that mild to moderate depressive symptoms in the mother compromise the mothering of very young children with delays or disabilities because these children are so dependent on parenting for their well-being. The depressed parent may not have the energy or focus to apply daily routine-based developmental support and not seek out specialized community-based services.
They have found that treatment for depressive symptoms using in-home delivery along with child-focused enrichment and disability services has reduced the stigma associated with mental health services.
The first week of this training we were asked to say why we are taking this course. I didn’t have a clear idea what specifically I would do with this course then, although I knew it would add to my music therapy skills with the birth-5 population. My work as a music therapist and a Suzuki piano teacher has always included parent education to help generalize positive parenting skills into the daily life of the families. This particular research area I mentioned above is “calling to me!”
I will keep you posted as this study progresses the next couple of months. The speaker seemed to think there will be continued grant funding for this area of practice through public health.ParticipantHello everyone, I’m really enjoying all the comments…. here are a few of my reflections on some of the comments
ALYSSA: “how music therapists can work with a group yet individualize for each child and adapt in the moment to meet the needs of an individaul and or group” HOW TRUE! I REMEMBER during my practicums and internship how my supervisors always had us prepare at least 3 different session plans, so we would be able to adapt more easily to where the client was that day. Of course over time you build a rich data-bank of ideas to spontaneouly implement.
MING: “positive energy that we bring that can allow parents to relax and explore music with their child”. SUCH IMPORTANT modeling we do to help parents bring positive, in-tuned (no pun intended!)interactions with their children so they can carry this into all areas of thier daily lives.
LISA: “anyone can learn a song list or play a CD, but they don’t know the foundations behind each song, each lyric, and each musical nuance that truly enhance the experience and provide more developmental benefits” HOW WONDERFULLY that was demonstrated when Beth brought to life the songs in our earlier session!
TAMARA: “knowledge of how to foster all domains of development. As opposed to programs designed to teach music, we do not place expectations of right or wrong” SO TRUE!! “We also build community and create a safe, nonjudgemental space for both the parents and children to explore, experience, learn, and grow through the process of music making.” THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS I LIKE TO HAVE TYPICALLY DEVELOPING FAMILIES IN WITH CHILDREN THAT ARE DELAYED IN SOME AREA, IT THE PARENT AGREES TO THIS ARRANGEMENT. I BELIVE IT IS A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO BREAK DOWN DISABILITY BARRIORS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS. MANY THE PARENTS BECOME FAST FRIENDS WITH OTHERS IN THE GROUP, WHICH CARRIES OVER FOR YEARS PAST THE MUSIC TIME. HOW WONDERFUL FOR TYPICALLY DEVELOPING FAMILIES TO THINK WHAT IS DELAYED FOR A CHILD IS QUITE “NORMAL” FOR THEM AND ACCEPT AND EMBRACE WHO THEY ARE. ONCE IN A SOCIAL/CHORUS SESSION (VOICESTOGETHER.NET) WITH PEOPLE WHO HAD AUTISM, ON THE SPECTRUM OR DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITES A PARENT CAME UP TO ME AFTERWARDS (WHO WAS A MUSICIAN HERSELF) TO THANK ME FOR ALLOWING HER CHILD TO HAVE THIS MUSIC EXPERIENCE AND HOW IT MEANS SO MUCH TO THE PARENTS BECAUSE THEY VERY RARELY GET TO SEE THEIR CHILD EXPERIENCING SOMETHING LIKE THIS. THIS WAS WITHIN THE LAST 5 YEARS AND TRULY, BEFORE THAT I HAD NEVER EVEN THOUGHT HOW MUCH THE PARENT WAS RECIEVING FROM THE MUSIC THERAPY WE OFFERRED!
ParticipantI apologize for my late entry. Important and unique areas that music therapist’s bring to families of young children, and for that matter anyone we work with, is providing a non-threatening, accepting environment that begins where people are socially, emotionally and physically and the ability to provide a fun, successful, engaging environment to help develop the whole-person. Through music-making, I believe clients and parents don’t feel like they “have to do/go to therapy; rather they are enhancing their lives through music. Numerous times, in a variety of settings, throughout the past 30+ years of practicing music therapy I’ve had people respond to me/music experiences when they were either withdrawn, over-active, combative and not willing or unable to connect with others in their environment. Once, I worked with autistic twins for a year before they were to enter kindergarten. The early intervention (EI) services did an evaluation for that transition. At that time I was doing medical transcription part-time for that EI center. When I typed up the psychologist’s report I was flabbergasted. They described children who were totally unresponsive and in their own world. In my music therapy sessions, they would look out the door for me to come in the room, greet “Ms. Robin” with enthusiasm, and look me in the eye. The group consisted of the twins, their parents, one other child and their parent and me. We sat in chairs in a circle and they sat and participated, taking turns, most of the session. When I spoke to the psychologist about this different behavior and invited them to come observe a music therapy session, they said that would be invalid because they were evaluating them in context of a natural environment (which was in the EI office). I wrote a summary of my time with the children and had the parents’ videotape one of our last sessions to share with the new kindergarten teacher so she could see the different ways she might be able to connect with the children and what they were capable of.
ParticipantI also have used all 4 experiences. I feel moving to the music is a wonderful way for them to experience the rhythms and tempos. There is also more flexibility for them to experience the music wherever they are in the developmental stages in their own movements.
ParticipantI had a hard time this week doing this assignment. I didn’t just want to repeat back behaviors/actions that you talked about on the video. I do not have a music therapy practice at the moment, so maybe that too made it a little more difficult for me. As I reflected back on some of my young child music sessions, I realized that I was always observing the many different responses talked about on the training video this week. I didn’t have the understanding of what musical developmental stage the child was at, so I didn’t have a clear idea of what response was to come next or how to structure what I was doing to create the environment for the musical developmental stages to blossom. I noticed any little response, such as turning their heads towards the sounds, matching pitches, etc and shared with the adult(s) in a positive, brief manner during the session. That way not only the parent of the child I was talking about learned something new to look for and reinforce, all the adults could use that information with their children, and/or give positive feedback to other child/parent when they notice “that” happening. Building community…I think your framework for developmental stages is a wonderful tool in assessing and planning future sessions. It will also help me be more specific about what I see in class and what kinds of things they can do to generalize this into their day to day life.
Singing
Awareness: turn body or face towards singing
Trust: vocalize in the songs tonality/ show pleasure when hearing a familiar song
Independence: vocalize in the key of the music
Control: sing the last word of a song
Responsibility: sing a familiar song while playing an instrumentPlaying
Awareness: reach out toward the sound of the instrument
Trust: explore instruments through their senses
Independence: grasp instruments and shake
Control: play with different dynamics
Responsibility:play a simple sequenceMovement
Awareness: child is comfortable with being bounced, rocked or “dancing”while being held and moving around the room
Trust: move body in rhythm to music (more reflexive/instinctual)
Independence: clap hands
Control: start and stop to music
Responsibility: balance during a freeze gameListening
Awareness: shows increased attention to different timbre – to different voices and sounds
Trust: vocalize in response to silence (similar to call and response)
Independence: respond to changes in rhythm and dynamics
Control: knows the name of an instrument. choose between 2 instruments
Responsibility: take turnsParticipantWhat comes to mind are two different parent education moments. I believe they would fall into the area of control. One new mother was tense because her baby was crying. I noticed, and pointed out to the mother that the sound/pitch of her baby’s cry was in tune with the music we were singing. That it was alright for her baby to cry. That’s one of their means of communication at this point. I suggested she move around the room with the baby quietly humming along with her child’s sounds. That had a calming effect on both the baby and the mother. Another child, a toddler, was moving around the room in various ways. The mother wanted the child to sit down with her in the circle. I noticed, and pointed out to the mother that the child was moving in rhythm to the music we were singing to. That it was fine for him to move around the room himself. That children take in everything through their senses and are always absorbing what is happening in their environment. The child eventually wandered back and sat down with the mother on his own.
ParticipantI am not working with any clients at the moment. I embrace your philosophy of consciously being aware of why you are using the music. Always providing a “functional music” experience that children and families can make their own outside of music time with us. Beth, you make the notes on the page come alive! I’m soaking in how you connect what your doing musically to the different stages of development covered this past week and hope one day to be able to process those ideas in real-time when working with the children.
ParticipantBluegrass, Country (Scotty McCreery, recent American Idol grew up near Raleigh), Appalachian folk music, Celtic and rhythm and blues are all popular and mainstream here. A local non-profit’s mission , Music Maker Relief Foundation, promotes and supports many unknown or forgotten musicians who helped establish the southern rhythm and blues traditions. Carolina Beach Music, is integral to the music culture here. It has it roots in the 50’s and 60’s rock, R&B and pop music. People dance the “Shag” to the music. It’s similar to swing dancing. The North Carolina Symphony has provided education concerts across the state to 3rd through 5th graders each year since 194f6. Teachers are invited to a workshop before school starts which provides a curriculum for them to use in advance of the symphony coming to their school.
ParticipantThe combination of my music therapy education, varied music therapy work experiences, many years of birth-5 family music classes, studying yearly for 10 years with the co-founder of Suzuki Piano basics (Haruko Kataoka) and many years of teaching piano using the Suzuki method has given me a wealth of experience to draw from with so many wonderful people. One of Dr. Kataoka’s teaching was if the child is not learning what you are tyring to teach them, the teacher is the one with the problem not the child. Find a different way to connect/communicate/teach the child. This is when I realized that my teaching style using Suzuki method was a natural extension of my music therapist role.
The other piece I bring with me in my music therapy/teacher role is that of parent. I have beautiful 26-year-old daughter, Jayme, who began studying violin at the age of three. As others have expressed, having the personal experience of being a parent gave me another valuable perspective for my work.
January 22, 2013 at 10:20 pm
in reply to: What was your most valuable takeaway from this weeks’ content?
ParticipantThe review of developmental milestones was a great refresher! The clearly defined, chronological presentation and continuity of building blocks in regard to physical, sensory, motor, cognitive, emotional/social and language development through the ages helped refocus the way I will be observing where the children are in the developmental continuum. I will be looking through a “wider lens.” Keeping the big picture of the whole-child in mind while also focusing on specific goals.
I have worked mostly with mixed-age groups (birth-five) for a couple reasons. Since the parent/caregiver are one-on-one with the child within the group setting I felt with parent education I could provide a meaningful environment for each parent/child both individually and within the group. I liked that parents and children at all levels would learn from each other and support and accept one another. I mainstreamed children with developmental delays with typically developing children. This is also a carry-over from my Suzuki piano training. However, as I contemplate beginning early family music groups again, I’m thinking about narrowing the age spread for each group and really focusing on each of the specific developmental milestones, as described in the videos this past week.
Meredith and Beth, I’d like to hear more about how you balance the difference in chronological age and developmental abilities when assigning children to a specific group and when you feel the child is ready to move on. As even typically developing children do not develop at the same rate for each area
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