[Suzanne Denu]

I feel like I use these four areas in every musical experience that I lead…but it is an awesome idea to keep these specifically in mind to be sure I am providing a well rounded experience and perhaps meeting some children’s strengths that are overlooked if you stick to say a very motorically-driven group. I think the one area that is more difficult for me to meet is listening. Specifically thinking of some groups I lead with primarily neuro-typical children in a preschool-headstart program. I find that I may skip more of the “listening” experiences for them because they as a group do not seem able to just focus… is it just me, or is it true that more and more children seem to complain of boredom all the time! If you aren’t jumping up and down with all of the bells and whistles and bringing chaos– the kids DO NOT seem able to just sit, and BE in the music. Now, is this because they did not have earlier foundational music experiences that would allow them to be able to “tune in” for a more focused intensive and cognitive music experience… this is what is SO difficult about working with older groups of children… when you are trying to run a group experience that needs to meet SO many variations in needs of the children. I typically play to the middle and hope that the children who are more on point will be great models for the others, but then keep my fingers crossed that the ones who struggle with behavior and attention do not pull down the entire energy of the group. Argh. I went on a bit of a tangent there. Sorry!
I do try and make sure that the structure of my groups include something more focused and listening driven, a lot of motor play and creative dancing and movement opportunity, instrument play and always always singing! How do you get your preschool aged classes of kiddos to sing along when they haven’t learned how to do this right from birth? Although perhaps this may be their responsibility level of “listening” showing– to be able to just choose to listen to their peers sing. Hmmm.

[Suzanne Denu]

Musical development was definitely not covered in my coursework either… how funny huh? I feel it is SO necessary! It should be a full semester when we do a Practicum with children. I wonder if Music Education Majors have a full class on it.

[Suzanne Denu]

Developmental Sequences:

Singing: Awareness – explores oral motor reactions/shapes with or without voicing
Trust- uses varied vowel and consonant sounds in vocalizations
Independence- imitates animal sounds
Control – sings song fragments adjusting vocal timbre and intensities
Responsibility – sing familiar songs while maintaining a basic beat

Playing: Awareness – turns head/gaze towards sound source
Trust – reaches out to touch instruments
Independence- uses hands to activate instrument shake or bang
Control – displays repeated rhythmic motion with instrument
Responsibility – can take playing instrument with peers within a rhythmic structure

Moving: Awareness – sucks rhythmically and moves entire body instinctively
Trust- moves body parts with internal, personal rhythm
Independence – alters movements in response to changes in the music
Control – combines two movements in repeated pattern
Responsibility – engages in simple social dances

Listening: Awareness – alters movement in response to silence in the music
Trust- displays affect change in response to the emotional content of the music
Independence – tolerates harmonic changes in the music
Control – anticipates end of musical phrases and end of songs
Responsibility – listens to music of peers

[Suzanne Denu]

Angela! Yes I totally agree that we as music facilitators demonstrating these creative ways of using an instrument give our clients permission to experiment with how they want to connect with the music and or instrument. Sometimes they just need to feel like they have permission to think a little bit beyond… especially the parents!

[Suzanne Denu]

Hally/Kim/ and Angela! I love singing into the drums! Also love using them like pots (especially this time of year with some witches brew or cooking songs),and steering wheels (frame drums)! My large gathering drums I will even use with older kiddos in an attention and social rhythm game rolling them across a large circle to each other on their sides. Thinking out of the box and thinking like a child making these discoveries!!!!

[Suzanne Denu]

It is SO interesting to go back and analyze my sessions with certain children keeping these developmental stages in mind. I am working with many children who chronologically are between 4 and 8 years old, but are functioning at the Awareness level and Emerging Trust Level of Musical Development. Many of the children are non-verbal and are multiply disabled… from an outsiders point of view, these children may have an extremely limited ability in musical engagement. They just come and “listen” to music. It was awesome for me to re-read the list of musical characteristics of the Awareness and Trust levels with some of these children specifically in mind– my eyes were re-opened to the myriad of things these children are showing me during their musical sessions. Not every choice in music therapy is musical– sometimes those choices ARE to turn away… or to let out a single vocalization….or to open one’s eyes when previously closed.
One of the young girls I work with last displayed an awesome reaction to the music. As I was singing her a goodbye song at the end of our session with my guitar was placed on the tray of her wheelchair, she displayed rhythmic extension of the fingers on both of her hands (which are usually fisted). When the music was removed, she stopped. When I put it back in place she began again in time with the rhythm of the guitar. And again, stopped when I did. It is really difficult to tell whether this is perhaps a reflexive kind of reaction– (maybe induced by the vibrations), and I suppose it needs to be considered. However; I was super excited about it and brought her to the classroom teacher to show her. This time I sang and just tapped a rhythm on the guitar, and again she replicated this same response. I am very excited to see if my client can repeat this during our next session this Friday, and to see if I can translate this extensor movement into a purposeful instrument activation experience for this young girl! Any ideas are welcome! Thanks so much!

[Suzanne Denu]

I have the same question for Hally… can you explain self contained 6’s and 12’s….? Months of age?

[Suzanne Denu]

As I think Angela and Samantha mentioned as well– I love learning music from my clients– or their families! When I was living in New Orleans and working at the hospital– my world was rocked by the music of the area and what the patients and families listened to. What a broad range of styles I was introduced to! I loved nothing more than letting the teens teach me about southern rap, or the kids from outside of the city school me on country music. My musical world expanded hundred-fold thanks to my years living there. I am so grateful.

[Suzanne Denu]

I love the opportunity to think about this question and reflect on my own family, musical roots, and culture. My grandfather was a self-taught one man band. He played banjo and was a drummer in a band he called, “Leo’s Harmony Boys.” Whenever I would go to visit, I would request he play and sing for me. Although he passed away when I was only 7, the recordings I have of his playing and singing are some of my most valuable treasures. I recently dug them out and played them for my son so he could hear his namesake. in this way, we are building a family music culture. Another big part of this culture is from my maternal grandmother, my Vava. I remember lap rides with her bouncing on her legs to words in Portuguese I did not understand. “Ca-va-ling” is what I heard, and what I still know it to be now. The best approximation I can guess is that is the equivalent of a gallop sound. Vava did this not only with me, but with my daughter when she was an infant…. and once my Vava passed away, my husband has been the one who has adopted it as his song to sing with our baby nephews.

Considering culture in working with clients is very important to me. I walked in cold to a new Head Start program yesterday for the first time. I received absolutely zero information in advance regarding any of the children, the teachers, the number of students…. show up and make music! Four classrooms in two different locations. It is very tricky without any advance knowledge to prepare when you aren’t sure what you are walking into…. and I realized that even having NO information can create a bias for the therapist! Turns out, a good 50% of the students in each classroom are from Spanish-speaking families– but within these 50%, the dialects are completely varied. I would love to increase my confidence level in singing songs in different languages. However, if we keep the music simple– and let the music be enough, especially when working with children– then the language barrier isn’t so insurmountable. The best practice seems to be maintaining awareness, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity in cultural matters.

[Suzanne Denu]

Without realizing that it was a Sprouting Melodies song, I’ve been using “Where is the Music” as a chant to focus and begin my groups that are Pre-K ages!!!! I must have heard it at a conference or something previous and kind of picked it up and adapted it. Instead of driving straight eighth notes, I begin with quarters, then subdivide into eighths on the “got it got it got it” part…. it is interesting to observe the children whose own “personal rhythm” lends itself more towards the micro-beat and those who feel the macro. I think it may speak to the nature of how the child is feeling that particular day. I also love varying the dynamics and how we experience the beat– sometimes we stomp, march, or clap it.

It always makes the classroom teachers laugh when a child answers “Where is the Music” with a point to my instruments behind me saying, “Right there!!!!” and this past Monday a child sang, “got it got it got it got it got it in YOU!!!”

Like Kim and Angela, I also agree that I loved hearing the piano accompaniments for the songs presented in the video! I never get a chance to use piano in my daily work, but now that I have access to one at home, I can’t wait to try and learn some of the accompaniments for the SM songs so I can practice and brush back up on my skills!

Hally, your groups sound SO fun! Love the microphone maracas and your ideas of the change in syllables to sing on. Totally supports that acquisition of speech sounds and with the older children, targeted vocabulary!

[Suzanne Denu]

There is a quote I read this morning:

“One of the most responsible things you can do as an adult is to become more of a child.”

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Thought it was appropriate for this conversation!

[Suzanne Denu]

After working with children for 15 years, I feel like I have a good grasp on child development. What really did resound with me was Beth’s comments about jumping. Young children need to move and explore their bodies in all of the new ways in which they are discovering. I was known as being a bit crazy in the eyes of other EI providers because I was the woman who would lay down on the floor with the children, or would crawl, creep, and twirl. It is so much more satisfying to explore the joy of movement with children when you are comfortable in your own body as well. After having my own children and getting back into working a more consistent schedule, driving from place to place, I found that I was not taking care of myself in the best way possible. It began effecting my work. I wasn’t jumping or twirling anymore… I was doing the shortcut where I just bounced on my tiptoes– (and sometimes it was to avoid a bit of bladder leakage) or I was walking in a circle… I found I was losing energy not only throughout the day, but throughout a session. I made the commitment to myself last year to get into good physical shape. Working with children is HARD WORK PHYSICALLY! What I have found though, is that the joy of movement has come back to me now that I am better able to MOVE! For those classes I have with children who are 5-6 years old or more developmentally, I have upped my game in movements that challenge the children as well as myself– try doing squats to a rhythmic song!

Dang… I had an entire other paragraph here that I inadvertently deleted. I’m going to try and recall what I wrote…

I firmly believe that children are being taught to be passive in so many aspects of their lives. Screens are everywhere you look. Toys all have buttons and flashing lights that give children all of the answers and tell them what to think. Parents are overbooking their children with mini gym classes, sports, dance, stem classes and are in a constant search for someone else to teach their children…. is this because parents are overworked and exhausted and are not able to find the energy to play with their own child? Are they just not confident in their abilities to know what their children would like to do? Or have they lost their own joy and have forgotten how to be CHILDLIKE what with all of the stress humans are facing these days? I hope to be a positive role model for silliness, energy, and for finding the joy in making music with tiny humans….in hopes that parents will find a way back to joy, pull out some pots and pans, put on a music channel and dance…or crawl…or twirl again with their children and connect in the most important way– face to face and heart to heart.

[Suzanne Denu]

Christina– I totally agree! Silly! Fun! Not taking ourselves so seriously will hopefully be a great role model to parents who perhaps have forgotten how to be CHILDLIKE when they are overwhelmed with the monstrous task of trying to RAISE a child!

[Suzanne Denu]

I think the most valuable takeaway I had from this week’s modules is the reminder that in answering young children, they are seeking a clear, simple answer to their question… even “why” questions that can get exhausting (as I remember with my son and daughter) for a parent. I recall pulling out the “because I said so..” a few times myself when there was nothing else I could say to satisfy their curiosity. Having prepared answers that not only satisfy the question, but reaffirm the child’s sense of security is most important. Now that my children are a bit older, I’m going to make sure I have some answers ready for those really tough questions coming my way as we navigate middle school!

I also enjoyed the reminder that as a music therapist it is very important to understand the motor development the young child and how this can help you in determining instruments or props to make available in your sessions or groups. One certainly does not want to frustrate a child with an instrument they are unable to activate appropriately due to their developmental level…. find a new way, or a new instrument… and make sure all instruments are accessible to the developmental level of the children.

[Suzanne Denu]

HI Angela– I was reading your takeaway and I think we were thinking along the same lines! I wonder if it is something about the society in which we now live in that makes parents feel like pushing their children to grow up so quickly and try and “teach” concepts that the kiddos themselves are not in a developmentally appropriate stage to acquire? I have witnessed the same sharing tug of war that you described. Is it the parents being fearful of their child exhibiting “inappropriate behavior,” or is it the parent being fearful of what the other parents observing may THINK of THEM? Either way, it is comforting to know that I may have now acquired a better understanding of how to address this with the caregivers when they are attempting to redirect “sharing” with their babies.

[Author]

Posts