[Tabatha Tillman]

Amadee, I like what you said about age appropriate music and interventions. That’s probably the most difficult things with kids. I have a kid that I’ve been working with for almost a year now and he adored this song I do with scarves, but over the last month he has grown out of it and I never expected that because he had such an over the top reaction to it, but it showed me that kids can grow out of songs and we need to be aware of this!

[Tabatha Tillman]

Samantha, Do you wish you could implement what you have learned sooner or are you glad that you will have some time to really develop a plan for what you want to do with all that you have learned?

[Tabatha Tillman]

Stephanie, I would love to hear about how you made all of these connections! I wouldn’t even know where to begin with finding organizations like that in my area!

[Tabatha Tillman]

I haven’t really thought about how to share this. I have talked to my local community center that I provide early childhood classes at about doing different age groups for our classes. I’m not really sure who else I could share it with. I could talk to our early intervention program and start there. I also usually do encourage my Early Intervention families to continue on with some early childhood classes! I definitely still feel like I have a lot to learn and more research and personal time to spend on this topic before I’ll be willing to go share it with a lot of people. I want to make sure that I know as much as I can!

[Tabatha Tillman]

I will find a better way to implement early childhood classes in my community. I’m currently just provided classes at our local community center, but I would love to venture out to other places. We have a lot of local mom’s clubs in my area and I would love to see if there is a way to reach out and work with them some. I feel like this training has really changed the way that I look at the structure of early childhood classes and the way that I run them. This training has also helped me see the importance in helping parents bond with their children. This training has also helped me to gain confidence in creating songs in the moment to enhance my work with children in early intervention.

[Tabatha Tillman]

Carrie,
I love the concept of being a coach vs. a sportscaster. I can see where those different roles can be useful in early childhood groups! I also love what you said about using nonverbal language. Children typically pick up nonverbal language close, so it can be a lot easier for them to understand that at times!

[Tabatha Tillman]

Megan,
I did my internship at at Veteran’s hospital and then started a private practice saying that I would never work with kids and all of the doors that opened for me were doors with children. It’s been a huge adjustment because out of all of my clinical hours I did maybe 50 of them with children, but I’m so thankful for all of the resources and wisdom that other music therapist are willing to share. That’s the only way I’ve been able to do this. And I do completely agree with you that these interventions can work with older adults. Elizabeth Schwartz came to the SER-AMTA conference 2-3 years ago and she presented on a developmental checklist evaluation and she shared that some people have shared with her that if you look at the checklist backwards it can help you monitor the progression of Dementia! It was fascinating. I really hope that some early childhood doors open up for you if that’s where you want to be!

[Tabatha Tillman]

I don’t think I’ll be continuing on as a Sprouting Melodies provider. My private practice is so new and still growing. I lead a few early childhood groups, but not enough to justify the annual fee at the moment. I do look forward to taking what I have learned and implementing it in the early childhood classes that I do hold. I love the way Sprouting melodies breaks the classes down into ages and I would like to implement that at the community center that I provide my classes through. I also don’t usually focus much on the structure of songs when I plan my class so I look forward to trying to develop a variation of the Sprouting Melodies session plan into my classes. I also look forward to trying to develop more intentional relationships between parents and children because I typically focus more on trying to get the kids engaged rather than developing the parent child relationship.

[Tabatha Tillman]

I can’t say that I have any strategies. I don’t run groups with children on a regular basis and when I do this is something that I really struggle with. I think that the reason I struggle so much is because the age ranges for my groups are too big. It’s hard when every child in the group can walk except for one and I struggled making that one feel including. Going forward I think one of the best strategies is to be aware of all of the challenges that you can have and go ahead and come up with alternatives before you go into the group. I also have a problem with consistency in my group. I have families that will pay for all of the weeks of the class and then just not show up to half of them. It’s hard to plan for everyone when they aren’t consistent.

I do think it’s important to communicate with parents during groups and to be hands on. I also think it’s crucial to keep an open line of communication. I mainly work with early intervention and a lot of our communication goes through service coordinators and a lot of times the parents will tell the SC things that they’ll then communicate with me and it can be frustrating because I don’t understand why they don’t just talk to me instead of having a go between. I’m trying to make parents feel like they can communicate with me and it can be a difficult thing to do. But obtaining that open line of communication in crucial because you need to share with them and if they don’t feel like they can talk to you then you can’t help them.

[Tabatha Tillman]

Alicia, I love that you used role models as one of your words for family sprouts! I think when doing a multi-age group that might be a good term to use to help the older kids coper with possibly not getting as much attention as their younger siblings!

[Tabatha Tillman]

Brooke, I love that you brought up the domains in music for skill building. The domains are so crucial to that. I also love that you used the concept of creating a safe space for kids to explore. That brings a nice visual to my mind and it’s a concept that I don’t often think of.

[Tabatha Tillman]

Stephanie I love what you said about jealousy! That’s a natural thing to come up in this setting. When you brought up the parents it also got me thinking about how difficult it could be for parents to share their time between their kids during the group especially if one child needs more assistance than another does. That would definitely make jealousy rear its head which would cause kids to act out.

[Tabatha Tillman]

Family Sprouts

Integration:A chance for integration of children with differing ages and levels of abilities.
Community:A chance for parents to build community and share experiences and a chance for children to build community within their comfort of their family unit.
Together:A chance for families to grow and experience life together.
Individuality:A chance for children to explore and find their own individuality within the comfort of their family.
Learning:A chance for children to learn about themselves, their family unit, and others.

Gathering:Come on let’s make some music- getting everyone together and beginning with engagement
Bonding Songs:I like to lick the ice cream-a time to bond as a family
Songs about Me:All of this i me-a way of gaining a sense of self
Instrument Songs:You and Me Makes We- music making with the self and the family unit
Movement Songs:Can you follow- moving together with some individuality
Goodbye:Music Time is Over- bringing the group to a lower level and saying goodbye

[Tabatha Tillman]

Sprouting Melodies 3

Independence:Children develop their independence and begin to make decisions for themselves without looking to their parents for what to do.
Exploration:Children feel the need explore everything because they want to better understand what’s around them.
Decision-making:Children begin to master decision making by choosing what they want to do and what they don’t want to do.
Success:Children have a strong need to succeed at all that they do and they have the willpower to keep trying even when they fall down.
Expression:Children develop a sense of expression and they want to express how they feel and exhibit all that they are learning.

Gathering: I’m glad you’re here today-Greeting the children and making them feel welcome
Bonding: Swimming together-a set time for parent/child interaction
About Me: Watch Me Go- starting that time of pulling away and becoming independent
Instrument: All Night! All Day!- decision making with instruments and how you play them
Movement: Jumping Up and Jumping Down- purposeful movements and exploration
Goodbye: Thank you very much- signaling the end and giving a breather

[Tabatha Tillman]

Music for development vs. Music for Skill Building

When talking about music for development, we’re planning on the music causing specific reactions in the children. We want the music to provide a specific level of stimulation and we want it to appeal to the children. We want the music to inspire movement, speech, and a sense of self.

Music for skill building is using music to target specific areas of development. Rather than just letting them experience the music, we are trying to get them to exhibit specific behaviors when they hear the music. An example of this is that we’re so glad that the child is moving, but let’s see if the child can march to when the ants go marching rather than the child just bouncing to it.

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