[Sabrina Stafford]

I think the best way to differentiate between these two is to describe the difference between a music teacher and a music therapist. Music teachers are focused on helping their students to learn music goals such as how to play the piano. Music therapists are focused on helping their clients reach non-musical goals such as socialization through a therapeutic music environment.
Although music teachers may also meet non-musical goals such as self-esteem, the music teachers overall goal is to teach their student a music goal.

[Sabrina Stafford]

Sprouting Melodies 3
Determined, emotional, supportive, functional, testing boundaries

Gathering/Hello Song- “Sit Down with me”
Bonding Song- Children at this age are more capable of socializing with peers, which is what I want to encourage during this time. The “Swimming Song” incorporating scarves is a great opportunity to encourage this bonding with others.
Songs about me- I think a finger play song such as “Where is Thumpkin?” would work for SM3. It incorporates the identification of their fingers while also incorporating imagination of a “finger family”
Instrument song – I have used “All Night! All Day!” in my current practice and I can see how this would work for a SM3 group by passing out hand drums for each dyad to use.
Movement Song – I have a few songs in my current practice that incorporate moving like different animals. I think this is a great opportunity for children to move around as they please or to join the group in moving like specific animals such as getting low to the ground like a snake or jumping like a kangaroo.
Goodbye- I use a song called “Music is Over” in my current practice. The lyrics are: “Music is over, music is over, thank you for the music, we’re done.” Staff often sign along while I sing which I think is a great tool to promote language. Especially since Beth and Meredith touched on how using signs aids children in communication.

Family Sprouts

Inclusive, assistive, malleable, community, flexible

Hello/Gathering- I had a past supervisor who would rewrite current pop songs to be hello songs. I think family sprouts is a good setting to bring in pop-song rewrites for hello songs because it can engage the adults and older children. One song my supervisor rewrote was “Welcome to my house” instead singing “Welcome to music”
Bonding- I have a song I use in which I pass around a drum to take turns playing in the similar fashion showed to us in the video. It goes “when we take turns we go in a circle, when we take turns it’s one by one, everybody here is part of the circle, first you take your turn and then your done” and it can even be sung to provide an individual turn for kids who are interested. “Sabrina takes a turn cause she’s part of the circle, Sabrina takes a turn and then she’s done”
Songs about me- Although I don’t have a book currently in mind, I think I would be most comfortable reading a book and adding musical elements to it in family sprouts. I could even ask assistance from some of the older kids to help hold the book or suggest different things such as “what do you think the gorilla sounds like?”
Instrument Play- I really enjoyed watching Beth and Meredith play together on different types of instruments. I think going back to a less structured instrument song such as “I Need Music” which is from Beth’s song book, would be great for sprouting melodies. I think there’s room for all levels to participate in this song. Younger kids can listen or move their bodies while older kids/adults can play more difficult instruments such as melodic ones.
Movement- I have a freeze dance style movement song that I currently use in my practice. It’s from the tv show, “Yo Gabba Gabba” called “hold still”
Bye- Similar to the hello song, I think a pop song re-write for a goodbye song could work for family sprouts.

[Sabrina Stafford]

I’d like to think that I have a good amount of experience working with multi-age groupings due to my current work with a classroom of IEP children and children without IEPs. Because of their different levels of engagement, I have learned to be creative in ways to involve all members of the group.

The main challenge, I think, is to keep everyone engaged. The easiest way to combat this is to have a song that is flexible enough for all members to participate in different ways. For example, a song that starts off by having therapist given movements but then evolves into the older kids being asked which movements to do. A song like that provides space for the younger children to participate and also provides room for creativity and imagination for the older kids to participate.

[Sabrina Stafford]

I currently order most of my instruments through West Music, I think they have a good selection of different sizes and types of instruments. I order plastic shakers because they are easiest to clean. The plastic ones also come in a variety of colors which can be enticing for kids. I’ve had experiences with more textures shakers, such as ones with wood and fabric, and I’ve found them to get ruined easily. Although the sound may not be as great from plastic shakers, it’s more feasible to have ones that can easily be cleaned.

I also enjoy remo drums. They sell a small drum that children can easily use a mallet to hit or can just use their hands.

[Sabrina Stafford]

structured, anticipatory, rhythmic, exploratory, energetic

“It may take a while for your child to fully learn how to shake a maraca. You can help them learn by showing them how to do it”

“Some children need more time to become used to the environment before exploring the room outside of your lap”

“You can help assist your child in your exploring the room by first providing them with a safe and trusting spot on your lap”

“It’s okay for your child to wander around the room; the room is set up so we can keep a safe eye on them”

“It’s normal for children at this age to ease in and out of activities. It’s a lot for them to stay fully focused during the whole group!”

Hello- I enjoyed Meredith’s two world hello song. It’s catchy and easy to learn, with room to grow with the added vocal play.
Bonding Songs- Similar to SM1, I would use the same lap riding song, but with added energy. I think it’s important to increase the opportunities for response from the kids and to play around with different rhythms and dynamics.
Instrument songs- Unlike a more open-ended instrument song in SM1, I think SM2 instrument songs have a lot more structure. This structure meets the need for that anticipated surprise, such as playing “stop” and “go”. I have a very simple instrument song that instructs the groups how to play (fast/slow, quiet/loud) as well as conducting the group to stop and start together.
Movement songs- Similar to the instrument songs, I think movement songs for SM2 should have a lot of structure too such as instructing the group to clap their hands or stomp their feet through the song lyrics and modeling.
Goodbye Song- I think it’s important to close up the session with a calm goodbye song especially after boosting the group up with a movement song. To provide closure, I would use a simple and slow goodbye song.

[Sabrina Stafford]

I think to determine how much stimulation is enough or isn’t enough you have to know the baseline of your group first. If you walk into a group of children who are already energetic, it’s good to match their level of energy and then gradually bring them down to a calmer state. Sometimes you may walk into a group that appears quiet and shy. It would be inappropriate to approach that group with the same level of energy as the energetic group. In that case, I would join them in their quiet environment first before introducing more timbre and sounds to the environment to bring up the energy.

[Sabrina Stafford]

Intimate, flexible, bonding, soothing, gentle

1. “Children at this age are processing so much of the world around them. “
2. It’s perfectly normal for them to simply listen to music at this age”
3. “We are focusing on the bonding relationship between you and your baby during this song”
4. “Swaying together to the song is a great way for you and your baby to actively listen to the song together”
5. “Keep an eye out for small responses from your baby; even something as simple as them blinking, turning their head, or wiggling their toes. These are huge communicative responses for your baby”

Hello song – the current “Hello Song” I use in my practice would work nicely for Sprouting Melodies 1. It incorporates each child’s name and a chance for the group to say “hello” to each child. In my current sessions, I bring the guitar to each child to have a chance to play, but I don’t think this is appropriate for Sprouting Melodies1. I think an acknowledgement of the child’s name and a “hello” from the group is substantial.
Body Percussion/Gathering- I have quite a few gathering songs I like to use after the hello song. For sprouting melodies 1, I think it’s important to focus on body parts because it can bring about awareness for the children. The song I use (acapella) goes like this: “From my head head head, to my toes toes toes, my mouth, my ears, and my nose nose nose. From my head head head to my feet feet feet, and all of this is me me me. And all of this is me me me.” I imagine the parents pointing to these specific body parts on their baby as we sing. I also imagine this song growing and changing to talk about different body parts as well instead of just head and feet/toes.
Lap Riding/Bonding Song- I would definitely use one of the bonding/lap songs from Beth’s book for this part of the session. I don’t have any songs in my current practice that are like this, so I would definitely rely on a Beth song that already has the structure I need to use this type of song.
Instrument Play/ Gross Motor Movement- I decided to combine these two because I think they could be interchangeable during a session. Due to the nature of babies, the previous songs may take up the majority of the session leaving only a short amount of time for instruments or gross motor play. I think both these activities have similar goals of energizing the group and bringing awareness to the children. I think an open-ended song about playing instruments would be useful instead of a structured shake fast/slow, loud/soft to be more useful for SM1. Since we are focusing on awareness, I think just having the children sit in the musical space with their caregivers and listen to the music they are creating and the music of others to be an experience enough for them without the added demands of how to play. I think for Gross Motor Movement I may incorporate a more structured song so the caregivers have a sense of how we are moving. I imagine the song “Bumping up and down in my little red wagon” to be useful for this part of the session. Although, this may also fit into the lap ride/bonding song section.
Cool Down- I enjoy using sensory play during my sessions. I think this would be a good time to incorporate a parachute or scarf song. We could sing twinkle twinkle while waving the parachute up and down. We could sing “somewhere over the rainbow” while swaying the scarves around.
Goodbye/Closing – Similar to the hello song, I would use a goodbye song that incorporates each child’s name and have the group acknowledge them as well.

[Sabrina Stafford]

Everyone: There appears to be a common theme of a lot of here feeling that we are not experienced with babies this young. I’ve had some time to sit on this topic and have noticed that my awareness of babies has become so much stronger over this past week. I’ve seen so many babies around! I’ve noticed that when I see a baby, I find it easy to interact with them to make them smile or even just gaze in my direction. I’m not sure if hearing that others feel similarly inexperienced as me helped me to boost my confidence with babies that would be potentially attending SM1.

Erika: Thank you again for your input! I have been a member of a few different choirs so that’s a helpful example for me on how to blend my voice to meet the needs of the choir (in this case, needs of the SM1 class).

[Sabrina Stafford]

Erika- Thank you for reminding me that there are music therapists that specialize in these issues which would mean that treating mothers with postpartum would actually be in their scope of practice. Sadly, I sometimes forget that music therapists are qualified to help their clients in non-musical ways. I think this is due to the nature of working with kids, I’m constantly in the music with them and have little to no verbal processing (for obvious reasons).

Laura-Maria and Penny both touched on advocacy, and I think that’s also an important part of community music therapy. I really liked how Penny mentioned experiential advocacy such as hosting drum circles for the local community. I love music therapy, but I think it has a lot more affect when people experience music therapy with their own eyes (and ears) rather than hearing about it in conversation.

[Sabrina Stafford]

I think the role of music therapy in a community based setting is to be a supporter, not necessarily the end-all-be-all provider of care. This is not to say that a music therapist isn’t a leader during sessions/classes, but it isn’t the music therapist’s role to treat mothers who show signs of postpartum depression or work on in-depth hearing and vision impairment with children. It is the music therapist’s role to refer these families to the proper professional to meet their needs that is available in their own community. The music therapist isn’t there to diagnose children with developmental delays, but it is in the role of the music therapist to inform the family of their clinical thoughts on the child’s development and then to refer them to a licensed professional in their own community to provide a diagnosis. Of course the music therapist can check in with families and provide supportive care during music therapy sessions, but when treatment goes beyond the music therapy scope of practice, the music therapist must refer these families to a professional that is available in their own community.

[Sabrina Stafford]

My experiences with children of this age are pretty minimal. When my godson was born, I remember being extremely nervous holding him because of how tiny he was. (He was at an average size for a newborn). I am personally a loud and energetic person which definitely comes through in my music therapy practice. I think because I am a strong and loud person, I get nervous around little ones because I don’t want to scare them. I currently work with preschoolers and am very comfortable with this age group of 3-5 because I can use my energized personality to engage the children in a playful way. I continually work towards expressing myself in calmer/quieter ways.
I definitely think I need more experience when it comes to this age group before I commit to working with them in a sprouting melodies class. This may be a great opportunity for me to practice more relaxation songs and receptive methods in my current practice and maybe spend some time with babies in my own family that would fall into this class range.

[Sabrina Stafford]

It seems that a lot of you have responded to Penny and I am going to be jumping on this train as well. I’m not sure if it’s the nature of our field to always advocate for what we do and why it is beneficial, but I believe because of this music therapists can see different potentials in our clients. Much like the video Penny discussed, a music therapist’s clinical eye can help parents see some of these hidden potentials they may be missing in their daily lives.

[Sabrina Stafford]

Hilary: How can we forget about the flexibility that a music therapist has! Thanks for bringing this up. This was definitely a skill I had to learn in my internship: how to adapt to the needs of my clients and not be so rigid with my “plan.” This is a big factor that separates music therapists from music performers; it’s a two way street.

[Sabrina Stafford]

Rylie- I enjoy the part you mentioned about music being a connecting piece for children with autism. There is so much evidence based research to support the idea that music is a nonverbal form of communication that is especially useful for those with autism. I know I can sometimes feel defeated when working with a group of children with autism because some of them lack that social/emotional engagement piece. I can only imagine how being a parent of a child with similar issues would feel when their child lacks to outwardly express their emotions of love. Music Therapy can be a great tool for parents and children to communicate and understand one another. Thanks for the reminder!

[Sabrina Stafford]

Rebeka and Hilary both touched upon educating the families to ease the worry of raising young children. I am not a mother myself, but I can only imagine the worries that can come up when raising a child. For this reason, I think providing some answers to questions parents have is important, as well as normalizing things for families with children with special needs.
I am pleased to hear that sprouting melodies welcomes children of all capabilities to join their program and does not exclude children based on their differences.

[Author]

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