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November 16, 2019 at 2:56 pm
in reply to: How are you planning on sharing this information with colleagues, administrators and families?
ParticipantSamantha T– agreed! Invest in yourself and your continued commitment to your field of expertise. Employers will value this commitment!
November 16, 2019 at 2:53 pm
in reply to: How are you planning on sharing this information with colleagues, administrators and families?
ParticipantLike Erin, I have already had a meeting with my administrators and an additional music therapist colleague who has already completed the training and is currently running sessions. We have had a discussion about growing our program to additional locations and how we can spread the word to new families. I have made a big list of different ideas of other local agencies or locations where I could give presentations on early childhood development and how music and Sprouting Melodies can support families. I have even made a few initial contact reach out phone calls! Very Exciting! I have also had a number of conversations with the Head Start teachers whose classrooms I provide services in, to educate them not only about which songs we are using but attempting to educate them on the “why” as it pertains to the needs of the children I am seeing. Trying to work on my overall advocacy skills, get through my own hesitations in my way, and reach out to talking to adults– (I’m so much better with the children!!!).
ParticipantPlus– the agency for whom I contract is setting up a SM program with a local hospital and I am on board to provide these classes hopefully beginning in January! SOOOO excited to work with FAMILIES! I think this is one of the great benefits of the Sprouting Melodies program. It has a bit of an early intervention feel it its being family focused. Much of the time I am working with children in schools or daycares, I never have any contact with the families of these children. How much more successful can these children be with caregivers who are completely invested in going through this process with their little ones? Love!
ParticipantI, like Samantha H., feel like this training has already impacted my work. I have been using a few of the songs that were new to me in some of my dyad sessions as well as in a few preschool groups. “Jumping Up and Down With My New Best Friend” was an enormous hit in the Head Start preschool classrooms. Most of these classrooms have a 50% population of children who are learning English as their second language. But even those new English speakers were attempting in answering my question in the music, “Oh no what should we do?”…. with, “Find a different friend to jump with you!” Luckily, I have Beth’s books already, and I am enjoying going over all of the music and introducing myself to new material that will be so useful to my practice. I think I was stuck there for a bit after a bunch of training I had done in NMT, that I lost a bit of the developmental perspective. I have enjoyed going back to my clients and looking at them with refreshed eyes and spirit, chock full of new ideas and knowledge!
ParticipantChristina!!! YES on the firm boundaries and consistency!!!! It is my goal to work on my boundary-setting with some of my wilder K groups!
ParticipantI completely agree with Kim about engaging Staff and or caregivers and building rapport with them. If we can keep them invested in the music and the importance of this group, then they will follow suit with assistance and engagement which only reflects positively in the children.
And Sammie, yes, the positive comments and “catching kids doing good things,” amid the other “Nos” that they hear around them is SO important…. and the positivity is contagious! More kiddos may change their behavior for the better to earn that positive praise for themselves!
ParticipantI listened to the call on the week 8 page. It isn’t specifically listed as “the call”, but the little MP3 link is above the videos on the page!
ParticipantHally– that sounds like a wonderful addition to their program! Best of luck with it and hope to see you in the SM community!
ParticipantI am so glad that I have had this experience. I feel like it gave me so much to think about for those preschool classes I am currently working in. I am also really excited for the opportunity to sign on as a provider under our Agency contract at the Manchester Community Music School! My wheels are spinning about some locations in my own town that I can get out to, do some demos and talk up the work that we do!
The other thing I am really excited about is to feel a part of a network of other providers who speak my own language. Being the only music therapist in an EI agency is pretty lonely. I have recently secured most all of my work through contracts with MCMS, and I am really glad to be providing services within a network of other music therapists– I am so happy to expand my network now to include Sprouting Melodies as well.
ParticipantERIN! How exciting for you to get to experience all you have learned in Sprouting Melodies with your own new baby girl! Best of luck to you!
ParticipantANGELA — In your planning, Start Simple! Such great advice! Better to leave yourself plenty of room to grow musically as necessary– or quickly bloom as the case may be!
ParticipantI think the best way to feel confident in managing a group of varying abilities or developmental levels is to make sure you have a plan in mind specific to the group members. And then, within that plan have an “escape plan” or an alternative that you can pull out as you are IN the music… whether that escape plan being changing it up and making an instrument song into a movement song, or changing instruments, or inviting dyadtic play, knowing all the different ways your clients can move, being open to suggestions, changing timbre or tempo or dynamics, adding an accompaniment or taking it away… I like to give myself a pep talk before every group I do and remind myself that I got this… that I just need to follow my clients and the music will come. That being said, it can be really challenging handling some of the groups that I do. I think having the confidence to speak up and, in the case of the SM groups, providing parental feedback and education, or in another example, speaking up to the other teachers/providers in the classroom and inviting their participation; is one of the best ways to get others on board and invested in the success of everyone in the group. I typically request that in the preschools or daycare type centers that the teaching aides be the ones on alert for behavior management so I am able to keep the music going…. but what do you do if you have 7 children all yelling out their ideas for the songs? What do you do if everyone fights over who sits closest to the music therapist? How do you handle everyone wanting the biggest drum? How do you handle these random disruptions that distract your attention from the music and your plan?
Specifically using the older siblings or children in the class as peer models and role models as well as giving them roles of “helper” can address not only the developmental stages of independence and control for these children, but assists in fostering positive family and peer/social relationships.
November 11, 2019 at 8:53 pm
in reply to: Use 5 words to describe the music experiences in Sprouting Melodies 3.
ParticipantAh ANGELA– Yes FLEXIBLE for Family Sprouts!!! Much more positive of a word than my “Challenging!”
November 11, 2019 at 8:51 pm
in reply to: Use 5 words to describe the music experiences in Sprouting Melodies 3.
Participant5 Words SM3 : Independence, Ideas, Purposeful, Active and Acceptance
SM3 Plan: Gathering/Greeting: Gather Round, Bonding: Hold on Tight, then My Brand New Friend, Songs about Me: That All Makes Up Me, Instrument: You Play a Little, then Music is the Way, Movement: Will You Come, Cooldown: Leaves Go Down, Goodbye: Goodbye/Music Time is Done
5 Words Family Sprouts: Transformative, Joyous, Connections, Cooperation, Challenges
Family Sprouts Plan: Gathering: “Hey Everybody”, then “I’m Glad You’re Here Today,” Bonding: “Are we going for a ride in a car or bike today? “Wiggly Jiggly Car or Hold on Tight”, Song About Me: “All of this is Me” Instrument: “Dancing in the Middle”, Movement: “I Can Move Around,” Cooldown: ” Music Is the Way”, Goodbye: “Its Time to Say Goodbye”
November 11, 2019 at 8:31 pm
in reply to: Share how you can explain to parents the difference between music for development and music for skill building.
ParticipantANGELA AND KIM! Yes!!!! Exposure… just setting these children up with the opportunity to be exposed to music as they are transitioning through these milestones plants those seeds of musicality and musical ability that will continue as long as the exposure is there– I suppose it is up to the parents to be the impetus in whether the child is exposed and over what duration… so props on all the parents who value music!!!!
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