[Sophia Paravalos]

I believe that music therapists provide the ability for parents to see the growth of their children from a new perspective. Music lives in every child and the ability to facilitate activities that allow the music in that child to come out and support their development can be something very valuable to a families relationship with their child’s development. Music is also a very strong tool for bonding and togetherness which helps to build stronger relationships between caregivers and child.

[Sophia Paravalos]

Working around the Boston area has stretched my knowledge when it comes to Spanish music! Boston has a very large Spanish-speaking population and I have met a lot of families who sing Spanish lullabies to their babies and have other common Spanish songs that are the equivalent to well-known American songs like twinkle twinkle. I speak very little Spanish and I love to take these opportunities to collaborate with parents and take a step back to be the student, allowing them to teach me their music and then offer some of my musical skills to support and learn the song that culturally means a lot to that family.

[Sophia Paravalos]

I was able to use the tickle song in an early childhood group class and it worked so well in including a parent that did not normally accompany a certain child to the group. The child had presented slightly different than he had in previous sessions with his other caregiver taking him but adding a silly song that brought some giggles seem to rekindle the bond they had outside of music into music thime.

[Sophia Paravalos]

I have definitely seen kiddos in sprouting melodies exhibiting some of the musical characteristics in the control level such as dancing spontaneously to the music and or imitating learned movements shown by the therapist. One thing I particularly love about sprouting melodies classes is that kiddos will slowly start to grow throughout the semester and you can see the vertical AND horizontal growth within these levels as they become more comfortable.

[Sophia Paravalos]

I hope to bring my enthusiasm for curiosity and emphasis on imagination and play to my sessions with early childhood. This is an age when everything is so new and magical and I think that the emphasis on being playful and curious through interaction with objects and peers allows for the best learning experiences.

[Sophia Paravalos]

This also was a big takeaway for me – It’s crazy to see just how much growth in such a short time kiddos experience as well as just how much of their surroundings they are taking in at all times.

[Sophia Paravalos]

I think my biggest takeaway this week was the concept of just how many ways a child takes in his/her environment throughout development and the many perspective shifts they go through mentally and physically as they get older. Exploring using their mouths, hands, feet, eyes but also exploring by asking questions when they are able to verbalize, use hand gestures and see how objects interact with each other. I have talked to a lot of parents that are often concerned about the way their kiddos interact with certain objects or behave but a lot of the behaviors are often very developmentally appropriate for their age and are just them exploring and taking in information from their environment in the way they know how to and that makes most sense to them.

[Sophia Paravalos]

Hi all! My name is Sophia and I’m currently a board-certified music therapist working at Roman Music Therapy services! I really enjoy working with kiddos 0-5 in the prime of development and also value the connection and importance of parent-child bonding during these times. I’m looking forward to learning a lot and getting to apply the knowledge to my work on a topic that is of such interest to me!

[Author]

Posts