[Tiffany Lee]

Many of the families I work with are in desperate need of resources and support, especially in early childhood and kids with special needs. Since I live in a rural area, our resources are very limited and there is very little offered for children under 5 years old. With limited resources, everything is booked very quickly and has long waiting lists. Even daycares in our area are constantly full. There was home schooling co-op that we were interested, only to find that the waiting list was 4 years long, meaning, you had to sign your child up when they were born in order for them to join in kindergarten! I’ve mentioned it before, but even with many young families in the community, you have to drive over an hour away to have access for many programs. Young moms and dads feel isolated in this setting. The only consistent bonding program I know of in our community is a mommy and me gymnastics class (which I enrolled my daughter in). Some parents I have talked to enrolled simply for the bonding experience with no interest in gymnastics, however, there are no other bonding classes offered within 50 miles.
I have also found many of the professionals I work a long side are hungry for more education and team support/ communication. I have had conversations with teachers and coaches who feel lost and are looking for ways to better include and educate their kiddos with special needs. The special education teachers I work with are amazing, but often overloaded because of faculty cut-backs. My sister is one of the only child psychiatrists in the state and said she spends a lot of the time calling schools, doctors, counselors, and families in rural areas who are in desperate need of education and suffering from lack of resources (special therapies, family support groups, proper diagnosis/ consultation…etc). This is something very dear to my heart and what attracts me to sprouting melodies. My community and parents desperately need the support and education!

[Tiffany Lee]

I have used all four of these experiences when planning my sessions for young children. I think it comes naturally to me because of having my own children and seeing what they naturally respond to and enjoy. However, since taking this class, it has really opened my eyes to the gradual development that takes place in each child and the skill sets that they are truly gaining over time. Since I work with mostly kiddos with DD or on the Autism Spectrum, some of them are behind on these developmental stages. This class has made me more aware of this and is helping me target their strengths and growth areas. For example, I have a pre-K student with DD that is doing 1:1 sessions right now, and we are working heavily on his impulse control and following directions. He LOVES to play the start stop game, but struggles if he does not have verbal cues and when we use instrument playing as the main form of cueing. I am realizing that it is not only his attention span and impulse control that he is struggle with, but that he is also catching up on his musical development and listening skills. I plan to work with him more on differentiating timbres and instrument characteristics. I plan on choosing instruments with obvious contrast instead of relying on just one instrument for cueing. The class this week has really helped me sharpen the experiences I can provide for my kiddos tailored to their specific developmental stages.

[Tiffany Lee]

Singing
Awareness: use and hear pitches when they vocalize
Trust: Start matching different pitches before they begin to imitate words
Independence: Use pitches and combine sounds together to create babble, use inflection & intonation, discover their voice and experiment with it
Control: Follow melodic contour (going up or down) of a familiar song, proud and may want to perform
Responsibility: Use pulse, meter, and melodic content, shift keys still, organize song into a specific meter
Instrument Playing
Awareness: notices a difference in sedative music vs play songs
Trust: Briefly plays instruments and puts them back down
Independence: Enjoy exploring a variety of instruments and putting them in their mouths less
Control: love starting and stopping music, like to be imitated, not necessarily no following directions but initiating the start and stop game
Responsibility: maintain steady beat, establishes a connected with other children or with parent, join in gathering songs
Movement
Awareness: change instinctual movements in response to changes in music (sedative vs. play songs)
Trust: Purposeful, continual, repetitive movement in response to music (not necessarily synchronized to music), usually pat and move feet before clapping hands
Independence: Move specific body part rhythmically (clap, pat, stomp), intentional movement
Control: Like imitating musical movements, take pride in being able to watch & copy the same movements, participating WITH you, internalizes music
Responsibility: Connect movements into a sequence, enjoy the cognitive challenge (head, shoulders, knees, & toes)
Listening
Awareness: recognizes changes in vocal timbre, turns head towards mom or dad’s voice, can startle
Trust: Recognizes and remember familiar melodies, turn heads when the familiar melody changes, find comfort in familiarity
Independence: Match the intensity of movement to the intensity and rhythmic characteristics of the music, facial expressions match the music
Control: Able to stop action to listen to music, actively make the choice to listen
Responsibility: stop actions to listen to and appreciate the music of others, respect the music production of other children and parents, no longer just me centered

[Tiffany Lee]

At home, my husband and I listen to a lot of different types of music! It goes from Indie pop to Disney to (last night) beach boys. In our community, main stream music is very popular, specifically country music. When I ask my clients what they like to listen to, most of them say “whatever is on the radio.” Around here, that usually means COUNTRY music since we do not have very many diverse radio stations. We live in a primarily Caucasian, small rural town. We are blessed to have a local university (that doubles our town’s population), so there are opportunities to hear live classical, jazz, or choral music. However, most in the area do not take advantage of this. Part of my mission as a music therapist is to expose my clients (specifically my teenage clients) to other styles of music and cultures to broaden their horizons and emotional expression. They also expose ME to new styles of music and bands that I have NEVER heard of, which is always fun. Our community is primarily Christian, so religious music and hymns are much preferred, especially when I work with an above 50 population.

[Tiffany Lee]

I have a little 4 year old boy with DD that was referred for music therapy services in a public school setting. Today was his first 1:1 session, and I recognized a lot of signs that he is still exploring the developmental phase of control, but also showed signs of the responsibility phase. He loved sudden dynamic changes (especially playing loud and fast) and enjoys being the one to make choices and be in control. Due to his challenges, he is academically behind and was not able to distinguish colors of instruments, but was able to recognize there were different instruments available and loved exploring their sounds. What seemed to be his favorite intervention today was matching his actions to the dynamics of instrument playing. When I would play loud and fast, he loved to run. When I’d play slow and quiet, he loved to walk slowly around the room. His favorite was when I suddenly said “stop.” He did not sing when prompted, but he did repeat at one point through speaking “yayayaya” during a song in response to me singing the line! It was a great moment!

[Tiffany Lee]

I loved the layout of this class and getting to clearly see the developmental milestones listed and how they relate to our field when goal writing. Having a one year old and two year old right now, it was very “close to home” for me and reminded me how quickly children develop. It also was validation to me on how this program divides up their classes. I do believe that sets Sprouting Melodies apart from other programs. The most significant thing I took away were specific examples of developmental lags to look for in each age category. Many of them were things that I knew about in a general sense, but it was a great refresher. I appreciated the detail of categorizing the milestones into physical/ emotional/ language…etc. This class especially made me consider musical development stages in young children. I currently have an MT group with children pre-K through 3rd grade in a public school setting. The age span is the most challenging part of the group and this class helped me consider the range in development I am working with.

[Tiffany Lee]

Like I previously stated, I live in a rural community with many young, growing families, and yet, very little resources for this population. I am excited to bring early childhood music therapy based programs to support, educate, and bring experiences that will strengthen a family’s bond as well as a create an atmosphere where caretakers can meet others and have a sense of togetherness. When I had my first child, I was surprised at how lonely it can feel being a new mom. I looked for support or places to meet other new moms and was very disappointed how hard it was to find in my community. I was surprised at how many parents felt the same way that I did. I hope to bring not only early childhood music therapy based programs to strengthen the bond between parent and child, but to promote a supportive environment for caretakers vs. the more common competitive environment many parents face. I did my undergraduate research on music therapy and parent-child bond, specifically targeting breastfeeding. I found music therapy to be a successful tool in not only breastfeeding education and the mother’s state of relaxation, but also the sense of feeling heard, understood, and suported. In a sense, I believe music therapy in an early childhood setting has the potential to not only greatly benefit the child’s development, but the family and community as a whole. I hope to bring that aspect to my practice.

[Tiffany Lee]

Hello Everyone! My name is Tiffany Lee and I live in Weatherford, OK. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 2010 and completed my internship at The Children’s Center and Rehabilitation Hospital in Bethany, OK in 2011. I have always loved working with kids and have provided music therapy services in multiple public school systems working with clients with special needs. My husband and I have a 2 year old, 1 year old, and one baby on the way! I recently took a job with Southwestern Oklahoma State University as adjunct faculty in the music therapy department and supervise music therapy students’ field studies. We provide MT services in many different facilities across our community, and I currently do work with some young clients. Being a mom to young children myself and having done my undergrad research in MT and parent/ child bonding, I am so excited to learn through this program. I live in a growing rural community with many young families, and I am surprised at how little resources there are for young families in this area. I am very interested in becoming a sprouting melodies provider and to bring meaningful experiences to our community and local families, as well as model this knowledge while working in my current position as an MT-BC supervisor.

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