[Sarah Sheets]

Singing

Awareness – calms to gentle singing/cooing. Trust – will look towards the source of singing (therapist or parent). Independence – will vocalize to respond to therapist or parent. Control – will begin singing without first hearing therapist or parent. Responsibility – will sing melodic contour of familiar songs.

Playing Instruments

Awareness – allows parent or therapist to help them play/hold instruments. Trust – touches instruments and begins to realize touch = creating a sound. Independence – will play instruments with the intention of creating sound. Control – will play instruments with varied tempos and volumes. Responsibility – will play instruments given musical (or other) prompts such as loud, soft, fast, and slow.

Movement

Awareness – allows body to be moved by parent or therapist. Trust – begins to move own body in response to music. Independence – begins to move body rhythmically in response to movement. Control – moves specific parts of body rhythmically to music (only feet, only hands, only head etc.) Responsibility – responds to musical prompts to move specific parts of body in sequence.

Listening

Awareness – responds physically (head turn, calming) to the sound of music. Trust – begins differentiating responses based on familiar/unfamiliar song. Independence – will express preference between familiar and unfamiliar songs. Control – chooses which songs to listen to. Responsibility – attentively listens to new/unfamiliar music of others.

[Sarah Sheets]

In my sessions, I always use singing and instrument playing. In both of these areas, I feel that I am fairly comfortable with how I do it and since beginning this course I have tweaked it slightly. However, for movement interventions, this course is helping greatly with new ideas. In the past, I am more successful leading movement interventions with very simple and specific directions. Now, I am trying to incorporate movement that allows clients to have more freedom to move the way they want to. I am still working to incorporate more music listening while keeping the kids engaged.

Alyssa – I love the way you bring novel instruments to explore! I’ve never met a client who didn’t enjoy the Hapi drum as something new and exciting to use.

[Sarah Sheets]

Along with my music therapy work, I also teach a preschool class (4-5 year olds) in the mornings. Today, I used the song “Be My Friend” while waiting in line for our turn to eat lunch. This worked amazingly well to focus them and to keep their hands to themselves (I added sign language on the words “friend” “play” “stay” “find” and “noise”). I think it will definitely become a standard in our classroom and I expect they will excel as they become more comfortable with the lyrics and signs.

Alyssa – I think that’s a good point about using songs that only use specific movements. I definitely need to provide more opportunities for free and unique movements.

[Sarah Sheets]

I live and work in rural Ohio for the most part although I do spend some time in the surrounding cities. For the most part, the clients I work with have had fairly limited exposure to a large variety of music. This makes for fun sessions! I love to introduce them to new things and one of my favorite things about working with kiddos is showing parents that children’s music doesn’t need to sound boring or cheesy – they can listen to “cool” things, too!

It is interesting to hear from all of you working in areas that are much more diverse than where I live. Having grown up in a similar area to where I live now, most of the people I see listen to the same kinds of music. How cool to live somewhere where you can appreciate so many different cultures!

[Sarah Sheets]

Last week I finished an assessment for a little guy who is three years old and was recently diagnosed with autism. He definitely loves to explore all of the instruments and throughout assessment we spent a lot of time improvising with him taking the lead and I matched his tempo, volume, and style on guitar.

[Sarah Sheets]

Amy – I love that idea! I just conducted an assessment for a three year old and that kind of tool would have been very helpful!

[Sarah Sheets]

One of my most valuable takeaways was thinking about how to interact with parents. For example, certain behaviors that may be red flags or how to reassure them. For me, interacting with the kids comes very easily and I enjoy it but interacting with the parents is not my favorite part of the job. Especially being a young therapist, I always worry that they perceive my as being young and inexperienced (even if they don’t actually see me that way). Throughout the rest of this course, I will value whatever insight I gain into communicating effectively with parents.

[Sarah Sheets]

Alyssa – I love that you keep an eye on their attention spans! Kids will definitely let you know if you are losing them. 🙂

[Sarah Sheets]

Caroline – I love “going with the flow!” I often write plans like choose-your-own-adventure books where I have tons of back pocket songs and interventions to throw in as needed.

[Sarah Sheets]

I really relate to the concept of being “child-like.” I have some experience teaching preschool classes and in that role it was one of my high priorities to make sure what I was presenting the students with was “cool” to them. Now as I am beginning to lead music therapy groups for young children, I think that same concept applies. I want to make sure what I am planning and implementing is what is most beneficial for their development as well as fun and exciting for them.

[Sarah Sheets]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Sarah Sheets and I am a new music therapist in Marysville, Ohio. I completed my internship with Central Ohio Music Therapy, LLC in May 2017 and became board-certified in August 2017. I started working as a music therapist with COMT in February 2018 and have been practicing for the past couple of months. I love working with COMT because I have the opportunity to work with so many different populations. Right now, most of my caseload consists of hospice work. However, I am leading a weekly group at a community gym designed for children with autism (We Rock the Spectrum). I feel that this course will help me to plan and implement truly meaningful groups and I’m hoping in the future I can lead more groups geared toward young children.

I’m so excited to take this class and I look forward to learning with everyone!

[Author]

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