[Sarah Braverman]

Music therapists can talk to young families about the music interventions being used in the sessions with their children. They can explain to the families what the child gains from these interventions and how to generalize them into their daily lives. Music therapists can also provide young families with music interventions that can be used in the home that will be useful in helping their children in other tasks associated with their day-to-day activities. Music therapists could even tell parents how they what they can do to use music as a way of interacting with their children and strengthening their family bond.

[Sarah Braverman]

Singing-
Awareness: Using a vowel sound with a specific pitch (like /oo/ or /aa/)
Trust: Matching pitch of vowel sound
Independence: Experimenting with that vowel sound using various dynamics and tempos
Control: Using pitch of the vowel sound repetitively in a familiar song
Responsibility: Adding rhythm to the pitch of the vowel in the song

Playing Instruments-
Awareness: Hears the sound of at least two different instruments played by MT
Trust: Chooses an instrument by reaching for instrument and plays a pulse and on instrument while MT matches it to a structured song
Independence: Experiments and explores other ways to play instrument chosen
Control: Starts playing chosen instrument when MT plays music on instrument client chose and stops playing chosen instrument when MT stops playing music on instrument client chose
Responsibility: Maintains beat of familiar song on chosen music

Moving-
Awareness: Makes instinctual movement when listening to a specific song played on the guitar
Trust: Repeats that movement when specific song is played on the guitar
Independence: Rhythmically moves body parts independently to specific song played on the guitar
Control: Imitated movements modeled by MT as she plays song on guitar.
Responsibility: Uses movements independently and sequentially that can be generalized outside of music therapy environment

Listening-
Awareness: Changes in dynamics in playing instruments
Trust: Recognizing familiar melodies in different dynamics
Independence: Instrument play matches dynamics of the music being played in the session
Control: When to play instrument loudly and when to play an instrument quietly
Responsibility: Listening to the dynamics being played by others on instruments

[Sarah Braverman]

I have made changes in all areas of these four music experiences since the beginning of the course.

For Singing, I used to use my voice only when providing verbal instructions and singing songs. Now, I’ve varied the pitches of my voice to help children I work with be aware of behaviors that are and aren’t acceptable in the session space.

For Playing Instruments, I used to have my clients pick their own instruments and assumed they knew the different ways to play the instruments. Now, I’ve had my clients take turns in sharing instruments with me to show them different way of playing them.

For Moving, I used to use songs that only had repetitive movements that involved instruments in the songs. Now, I use a lot of repetitive movements to songs that have lyrics that have specific actions with and without instruments, like “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

For Listening, I used to only use my singing voice for songs the clients wanted to hear. Now, I use my voice to match the pitch of instruments, like the xylophone, as my clients play the individual notes on the xylophone. I also have learned to vary the rhythm of my voice based on certain pitches with my clients.

[Sarah Braverman]

I used the song “Just Like Me” without words in one of my sessions this week and played the beat on the drum. The client I was working with smiled and giggled while I was playing the drum. We also did some hand over hand on the drum as well to the beat of the song.

[Sarah Braverman]

Hi Talia!

I have an interesting question for you. What are some things that you’ve discovered so far in your practice that are similar and different for enhancing music experiences with Spanish speaking families compared to non-Spanish speaking families?

[Sarah Braverman]

I sang the song “Just Like Me” and “Car On My Knee” while I was watching the videos. I really liked the predictability and repetition of the lyrics in the “Just Like Me” song. I’m thinking that it would be a good song for me to try this week because I have two clients who do a lot of parallel play and I think the song would be great way to engage them in play with others. I also enjoy the rhythm of the “Car On My Knee” song. I have a client who I’m seeing tomorrow who likes cars and we just started working on rhythm last week. It would be good to incorporate something that he likes as part of building up his rhythm skills.

[Sarah Braverman]

The clients that come to my office are from various cultural backgrounds. Some of the clients that I see are from households where Spanish is the primary language. So far, the children that I’ve met from these households speak english and understand spanish. There was one session where I used the song “Buenos Dias” as my hello song for the client. The song began to engage them in the music and made them aware that music was present in the environment. In that session, I also improvised a goodbye song in spanish to the tune of “Goodnight ladies”. I also have clients who come from households where arabic is the primary language spoken. I have a client who is really good at playing the piano and currently, I am working with him to develop his rhythm skills to an arabic song that his dad sent to me. The song is in arabic; however, our main focus with this client will be for him to match the rhythm of the song and transfer the rhythm skills to drum and piano.

[Sarah Braverman]

There was a child I was working with today who demonstrate responsibility in music through the use of rhythm, duration, and structure. His mom and grandpa came to watch the session I had with him today. The client was able to play multiple instruments with me by imitating simple rhythmic patterns while maintaining a steady beat to familiar songs we used throughout the session. We played colored xylophones during the session and I had him play a colors song with me on the instrument together. The client and I increased the lengths of sounds produced in order to understand the concept of colors and distinguishing which color was which. His mom then encouraged the client to show me how he played “This Old Man”. The client increased the length of the sounds produced in the moment and played the song with no errors. He also demonstrated great listening skills as we took turns playing the ocean drum when we sang “The Goldfish Song” in our session. When the fish got tired it was my turn to play the ocean drum, and he recognized that it would be his turn when he had to wake up the fish by playing the drum. He also made an interesting comment during the session, which was “Music is alive!”

[Sarah Braverman]

Here are the responses to music from a child that I might see within a music group in each music developmental level

Awareness- track sound of moving instrument with eyes/ and or head, reaching toward source of sound with arms, and changing vocalizations in response to unpleasant sounds.
Trust-Making purposeful, pitched vocalizations, using descending intervals in melodic contour, and locating sounds in the distance.
Independence- using repeated sounds, clapping hands, and matching intensity of movements to intensity of music.
Control- Singing intervals of 2nd, minor and major 3rd. 4ths, and 5ths, using spontaneous song fragments, and using varied vocal dynamics.
Responsibility-uses pulse when moving musically, maintains play of instrument within a group, and sings in both the major and minor keys.

[Sarah Braverman]

Personally, I’d like to bring new ways of using my voice in early childhood music therapy programs. The content this week helped me to understand how important it is for us to experiment with the sound of our voices in order to help our clients with vocalization and finding their own unique sound. Currently, I have clients who spontaneously vocalize and vocalize with the music that I bring in my sessions with them. I want to be able to encourage the clients to increase their vocalizations and help them to discover what they can do with their voices. This also gives me the opportunity to see how I can experiment with the tone of my voice to help clients take something out of the session that can be generalized to other settings outside of music therapy. Through learning about how language develops in children from birth-60 months, I can figure out the best way for me to use my voice as a reinforcer for language skills with clients that I’m currently seeing in my sessions.

[Sarah Braverman]

I was able to take away a lot from this week’s content. I thought it was fascinating to learn how children can already be musical by the time their born. It’s interesting how when they begin to do things like instinctively suck and cry, they do so in rhythm. It made me wonder if the rhythm during that stage of birth to 3 months is the same or different for specific needs of every child. I also found it incredible to see what children are already able to learn from 3-24 months. It helped me to understand a bit more personally of where some of my current clients might be in their development and how I might use the tone of my voice to interact with them. The other day I was working with a child who took an interest in playing the colored xylophone. I use my voice to sing the names of the colors as I play them on the xylophone. The child watched me and then began saying the names of the colors after I played them on the xylophone. It was amazing! With the content I learned today, I can now understand where this child might be developmentally and think about next steps that can help the child reach new milestones in their development through music.

[Sarah Braverman]

Hi Talia!
I think it’s amazing what your doing and I’d love to learn more about your business. I’m a huge culture person and I love learning new languages. Currently, I’m trying to become fluent in Spanish; however, as of right now I can only speak and understand some Spanish. I have some clients who are children that come from households where Spanish is their primary language (which makes me super excited!). I would love to add more Spanish and Bilingual songs to help my personal practice become more multicultural. If you have any ideas or songs, I’d be more than happy to hear about them!

Hope you’re enjoying the course! 🙂

Sarah Braverman

[Sarah Braverman]

Hi Everyone!
I’m Sarah Braverman and I am a music therapist for Healing Rhythms in Rochester, MN. I just started working in the field of music therapy about a month ago, so I’m super eager to get started. Currently my caseload consists of working with children with autism, Apraxia, developmental delays, language delays, and other various types of disabilities. I hope to get out of this group some techniques and ideas that I can use to help my clients sustain their attention and engage more in the music therapy session. I expect to learn about how to use music that can help my clients reach their goals in a fun and meaningful way.

I’m really excited for this course and I can’t wait to get to know everyone!

[Author]

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