[Samantha Springer]

I mentioned this in a previous post, but I learned that musical development in early childhood goes hand in hand with physical, social, cognitive, motor, and all of the other areas of development. I knew this before, but the way that Meredith presented this information just clicked in my brain and I had an “ah-ha!” moment. Sometimes I get so caught up in the non-musical developmental areas of a child that I forget that to a child, music is everywhere and everything. Instead, I should be looking at all of these developmental areas, musical and non-musical, as a whole to better serve the child rather than just at one developmental area at a time.

[Samantha Springer]

These are very valuable insights. I can definitely relate to what you mentioned in your post. I work with a few parents who are also always embarrassed by their young ones behaviors in a music therapy session because they always want to move around, dance, and not sit in one spot for a long period of time. I once mentioned to them that it was completely appropriate for the child to want to explore their environment in the way that they were exploring it in that moment and that it was developmentally appropriate as well. The parents always look thankful and relieved when they find that everything their child is doing is developmentally appropriate. I then went off of what the child was doing to structure the rest of my session.

[Samantha Springer]

I too want to be able to partner with parents so that we can work together to have a greater understanding of where the child is developmentally and how to use music in a way to help encourage growth. I love what Meredith said in the training about how musical development is also non-musical development; they’re parallel and go hand in hand.

Thanks for sharing your perspectives and what you will bring to music therapy based early childhood programs! It sounds like you have lots of previous experience to draw upon.

[Samantha Springer]

I have a strong passion for working with children and using music as a way to encourage developmental and creative growth. Although I don’t have any children of my own, growing up, I held many jobs that worked with children. I was nanny for a short time, babysat several children, and worked in a daycare. I loved every minute of it. I also have a minor in psychology, specifically child psychology. I will bring my past knowledge of working with children as well as my strong passion to early childhood music therapy based programs. However, I also hope to gain an understanding of a child’s developmental milestones so that I can work with and encourage the parents as well.

[Samantha Springer]

Welcome and it’s nice to meet you! I too hope to learn more repertoire. Also, congrats on your recent board certification.

[Samantha Springer]

Hi Maria- I’ve thought about growing my business full-time, but right now, I love my full-time job too much. Maybe one day!

[Samantha Springer]

I am interested in hearing about your SLP perspective throughout this course as well!

It’s nice to meet you!

[Samantha Springer]

Whoops! I forgot to add my Gravatar before posting. Hopefully it is uploaded now and you can all see me!

[Samantha Springer]

Hi everyone! I’m excited to be participating in this training with you all, learning and growing together.
My name is Sammy Springer and I live in Wisconsin with my fiancé (my wedding is next March) and our two dogs. I have been a board certified music therapist for a little over 4 years. I have my Bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy from Western Michigan University and completed my internship in Springfield, IL with young children. I currently work full time as an employee at a state-run facility serving children/adults, but I also own my own LLC and provide home-based music therapy services to young children on the weekends and evenings.

I love what I do everyday and feel blessed to be able to serve young children in music therapy! By taking this course, I hope to continue to learn and grow my knowledge about early childhood and music therapy. I want to implement the knowledge I learn each week in my sessions to provide valuable services to those in my community.

[Author]

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