[Reagan Rademacher]

Music Therapists provide opportunities to explore and play in a safe, supportive environment. They can allow for flexibility and exploration in instruments, movements, and songs to help foster the children’s creativity and natural musicality. Music Therapists also provide a wonderful opportunity for children and caregivers to bond through silly and playful fun! Music Therapists can also provide parents with musical tools to use outside of sessions and information on their child’s developmental level.

[Reagan Rademacher]

I try to use these experiences as the basis for each of my group sessions with early childhood! The children listen or sing during the hello song, and are also provided opportunities throughout the session to listen to the other children as well. I always try to incorporate instrument play in some way, including drum conversations among the class and individual small instrument improvisation. Each session usually has a fine/small motor activity and a gross motor activity for movement as well.

[Reagan Rademacher]

Singing: (A) calms to pleasant, familiar singing (T) vocalizes in response to singing (I) imitates vocal singing (C) sings along to familiar songs (R) sings familiar songs independently.

Playing: (A) looks toward instrument being played (T) explores instruments with hands/mouth (I) imitates modeled instrument playing (i.e. shaking maraca, hitting drum) (C) alter dynamics/tempo of playing (R) maintains steady beat while playing.

Moving: (A) moves entire body to music (T) rhythmically moving body along with music (I) moves isolated body parts rhythmically (C) follows musical cues to move body (R) recalls and reproduces movement patterns.

Listening: (A) looks toward source of sound (T) vocalizes in response to silence (I) enjoys dynamic/tempo changes in music (C) chooses music to listen to (R) recognizes song by melody

[Reagan Rademacher]

During my internship at a children’s hospital, I worked with an infant in the NICU who did not tolerate much sensory input. MT was consulted to attempt to organize the auditory input and increase tolerance of stimulation. My supervisor and I started by humming softly. At the beginning, the infant only tolerated sound for ~1 minute or less, but slowly increased tolerance. Once tolerance was established for ~3 minutes, we began singing the infant’s name to them softly. The second session we did this, the infant looked toward my face as their name was sung! This infant was an excellent example of awareness.

[Reagan Rademacher]

I’ve worked with a lot of Spanish speaking clients, which is not a language I speak. I’ve typically used Latin/Spanish styles of playing with English lyrics or recorded music to bring the client’s culture and preferences into the session. I find that it has encouraged the clients, who have all been children, to engage with myself and the session when the musical material is familiar to them and their culture.

[Reagan Rademacher]

Awareness: Look toward music source, calm to familiar/soothing melodies, change in facial affect

Trust: Repetitive movements in response to music, creates spontaneous melodies, displays rhythmic movement

Independence: Vocalizes in response to music, uses whole body rhythmically, grasps and shakes instruments

Control: Dances spontaneously to music, uses varied dynamics in voice, imitates movements to music

Responsibility: Uses melodic contour, maintains a steady beat, repeats rhythm patterns

[Reagan Rademacher]

This week’s content dug deeper into everything I’ve already learned about development. It’s so important to have reminders of the milestones and developmental stages! I’m thinking about clients I’ve worked with who have developed slower than “typical” and how I could have better helped them push along their development through music.

[Reagan Rademacher]

This is all so important! I especially like what you’ve said about not looking at behaviors as problematic and reinforcing the lack of apologies from parents. It’s so important to advocate for the clients and their development!

[Reagan Rademacher]

I’m going to apply these developmental milestones to my programming by tweaking aspects of activities to make them appropriate for each group. I’m going to watch for the behaviors expected of each group and focus on the goal behind it for each specific age group. I’ll also try to avoid expecting non-developmentally appropriate behaviors from younger kids!

I’m also going to focus on trying to be more childlike in my practice! This will make rapport building much easier because I’ll join them where they are instead of forcing them to come to me.

[Reagan Rademacher]

Hi! I’m excited to hear about your takeaways from this course! Definitely don’t discount yourself because you aren’t in the field 😀 You’ll be able to provide a different perspective, and one that can be valuable for all to hear!

[Reagan Rademacher]

Hi everyone! My name is Reagan Rademacher, and I’m a recent hire of Roman Music Therapy Services! I graduated with my BM in Music Therapy from Colorado State University in December, and completed my internship at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. I’m hoping to learn more about the application of music on a developmentally appropriate level, and deepening my understandings of child development!

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