[Tracy Schoenberg]

I completely agree with all the above statements. A music therapist has to be a good musician and a good therapist. Our main goal isn’t to educate kids about music although I believe that can happen naturally within sessions, but rather to address the developmental needs of all different kinds of children based on where they are developmentally. Children develop differently and a good music therapy program can be tailored to those needs of the individual, groups, and their parents, friends, and siblings. Personally i love the fact that I can be flexible without a certain script or detailed lesson plan that might not engage kids. I can provide a personalized approach to music based on the needs of kids and their parents to enable growth in child development and encourage parental and child attachement. From a parental point of veiw, I love gaining more knowledge where my child is developing and how I can encourage more development in certain areas. It is especially crucial when there is some sort of delay or challenge the kid is facing that needs to be addressed early on. I also enjoy the social aspect of music for parents and their kids. Most importantly I hope music therapy can be fun experience for everyone while incorporating musical play, listening, and movement.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

I can only respond to past experiences since I am not currently in practice, but I have used these 4 music experiences with my kids since starting this course although they are very distracted and have other agendas like playing baseball outside, but I get their attention for a few minutes at a time. When I worked with kids with special needs I had a schedule that remained the same even though the songs and activities changed. I used boardmaker pictures for the schedule of 1)Hello Song- 2)Singing, 3)Moving, 4)Instrument, 5)Listening, and 6)Goodbye Song- The Hello song was always the same to get them started and at times I changed it up to have some variety in style, but the other songs were repeated a lot so they became familiar with the songs. If a student couldn’t sing I adapted songs to have them respond how they could like moving scarves, tapping tambourine, or used a speech device I recorded a simple phrase to a call and response song and the child would press it when it was his/her turn to sing. If the student could use speech and sing, I would work on short songs with whatever they could reproduce and remember. The challenge was adapting to each individual need in a group setting, but it was usually done. As for singing to my 2 year old, I like to leave out a word to work on his speech skills since we are in speech therapy, but when I sing Old Macdonald had a farm EIEI and he will say Ohh- I then sing Old Macdonald had a ______ …. and he is obsessed with saying Poopie- so every song has Poopie as his response with a big smile on his face.

AS for playing instruments, that seems to be the most easiest thing to incorporate in a session because most kids want to explore an instrument and will use it in some manner to music that’s recorded or played. Drum circles are great for start and stop and leadership. A student who was in the control/responsibility stage could lead the start and stop of a drum circle and be taught ways to use there hands to make others go faster or slower as well as louder or softer. Other times my students in awareness/trust stage just liked exploring instruments by touching and shaking and mouthing whatever instrument was given. I know there were kids who just covered their ears that couldn’t stand the noise so they needed to take a break and come back when it wasn’t so loud and I would adapt a session to quieter peaceful relaxing sounds with bubbles or something that calmed that person down if I could and sometimes I couldn’t. One song that I liked was the instrument playing song and when the music stopped, the kids would have to pass their instrument to the person on the right. That usually worked on sharing instruments, if they were ready for that kind of activity, and gave everyone a chance to explore the variety of instruments at a time.

Movement was very natural to most of the kids I worked with, but some couldn’t move much or at all because they had limited movement ability. However, I adapted songs to have them reach up high or use scarves or tap a drum up high or just look up high. The school had lots of great equipment for movement like parachutes, group stretchy band, scarves, beanbags, streamers so I took advantage of parachute and stretchy bands and scarves when songs were ascending they lifted arms up and descending they reached lower. At times they just moved fast or slow or however they wanted. Sometimes the kids in the Independent/control stage would clap, stomp, or move a certain body part, and sometimes they would just watch, but most would mirror the same movements I demonstrated- I had a lot of energy back in those days. Currently my kids like to move by running around when I play music on the piano and jump around with their chosen instrument in my basket I have in the room. I don’t think they know how to move slowly even to slow music. They have a lot of hyper energy.

Listening to timbre was fun for students and was incorporated into games like listening bingo-and what sound do you hear? I had spooky bingo where they put a chip on the sound of creaking door, thunder, ghost sound, etc.. or I’d play a sliding whistle and the kids might show me with their hands if the pitch was ascending or descending. Freeze dance is movement and listening at the same time. Drum circles were really good at having the kids listen to each other – worked for elderly as well. For students who were in awareness or trust stage, I sang or played quieter songs and watched for a response to the music, if there was any. I think I need to work on this skill the most with my own kids since they both recently got ear tubes and they are hearing things in a whole new way. We’re going to a live kids concert tomorrow inside and I hope they can attend to it without screaming or bolting out the door.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

SINGING-
Awarenes- Hear and change pitches with definite pitch sounds
Trust- Match pitches %50 of time before words or vocal sounds which is beginning communication
Independence- Hear and babbles with different sounds with melodic inflection
Control- Sings songs using melodic contour and understands ups and downs of structure of singing- they may want to share or perform song
Responsibility- Matches melodic contour and uses pulse and meter well. They recall, remember, and want to share or perform songs

INSTRUMENT-
Awareness-Listening and responding differently to calm vs playful music- might reach for instrument
Trust- may start grasping or shaking instrument – start out slow and then increase speed and tempo as attention increases
Independence- Start to explore instruments purposefully- may try a variety of instruments and explore them by touch, feel and play
Control- Starts and stops play with music – practice imitation
Responsibility- Able to maintain steady beat which creates connection when matching beat with another person or group

MOVING-
Awareness- Music supports instinctual movements- sedative has slow movements and play song speeds up- response is natural
Trust- Repetitive movements like jiggling foot, bopping head or full body baby bop response to music to respond to music- not necessarily going to do a specific action
Independence- Will begin isolating body parts like stamping feet, clapping hands and moving rhythmically
Control- Can imitate learned musical movements like another adult or peer-
Responsibility- Imitates learned sequence of movements like Head, Shoulders, knees, and toes

LISTENING-
Awareness-Recognizes change in vocal timbre like the parents and turn head towards that person- may have startle response if too loud
Trust- May recognize familiar melody and turn head if there’s a change in familiar melody. Familiar helps calm – especially with lots of tantrums and tears
Independence- May match instensity of movements with intensity of music like moving in with ascending scale or out with descending scale- or facial movements might show response to intensity.
Control- May stop actions to listen to music and can be engaged in listening and mirroring someone jumping or running- watching is just as effective for those kids that can’t run or jump
Responsibility- Stops actions by listening to others and can really appreciate other and connecting with other people and not just themselves

[Tracy Schoenberg]

I admit my elderly clients were really fun too- and I used similar songs in a more mature way

[Tracy Schoenberg]

which particular song helps with decreasing food throwing (and maybe spitting) 🙂

[Tracy Schoenberg]

In the school I used to work at, a lot of older kids still seemed to be in the awareness and trust stage. I used lots of repetition of familiar songs that were repeated every day as well as develop songs with a strong beat. Some could grasp an instrument like a maraca or tambourine, and some just listened and looked at me (or away from me depending on their mood). We had really great instruments in the music room like a xylophone bass bar you could put their feet or hands on to feel the vibration as I would play. They really enjoyed slow songs with wave drums or rainsticks as well, and multicolored lights with songs for sensory experiences.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

I chose some various times throughout the day to practice on my own kids because we had extra time this weekend. My 2 year old loved the bonding songs, especially “Hold on Tight”- he signed and said “more” 3 times and he only does that when he really likes something like cookies or something good. My 5 year old seemed to like the bonding songs as well, and liked being bounced around like his little brother. He likes being treated like a little kid sometimes. The dramatic pause and fermata was really effective in making the songs interesting to him. My older kid is in the control stage and liked to dance and play his harmonica to the songs as well as choose what actions to do in “Will You Come” song. My 2 year old is in the independence stage and prefers to play drums, but has a shorter attention span for watching me play piano and singing. Singing to him without an instrument and the rhythmic chant helped keep his focus as well as using musical surprises with silence, glissando, and loud vs. soft. He really doesn’t like sitting and listening. He prefers to do his own thing while being sung to. Even though it looks like he isn’t paying attention, he does give me that occasional look when I pause or change the tempo so I know he still is engaged with the music.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

In the community I live in, we have a ton of traditional folk songs that I see in Daycares and preschools in the area. The Park District has Kindermusik, Kid Rock, and Music Together music programs for little kids as well as a ton of music schools to learn instruments. There are also a lot of churches and church programs that teach kids songs from their religious organizations.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

Working in the school system has really opened my eyes to the wonders and challenges of music with kids with developmental and behavior challenges. It brought some kids to life when they didn’t seem aware of anything, and was very easy to motivate positive behaviors in small classes. A little bit more challenging in large diverse groups, but was manageable. I always tried to have a sense of fun about it because music can and should be enjoyed and shared. Not every kid is happy all the time and I know that music therapy has limitations in groups, but I always tried to reach each kid. The individual sessions were always the greatest time because it totally revolved around them, and then I slowly added a friend or 2 to have more social interaction. That works really well sometimes. My job as a parent has been full-time with some part-time music therapy jobs in elderly care and piano teaching. However, I would like to go back to early childhood music therapy someday. I sense there’s a need for it in my area. I also would love to get my kids some positive experiences in music since they have sensory issues with regular music classes, and I’ve tried multiple ones.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

I enjoyed this cheat sheet for developing children birth through 5. I think it’s really accurate and I see where my kids are, or should have been though these developing time periods, but it is important to encourage those developing behaviors as much as possible with different age groups. Neither my kids have enjoyed group music class because it’s clumped into birth to age 5. There’s a huge range of needs and skills in those time periods and they hate loud sounds and large groups scare them. The funny thing in 18-24 months that it said was that kids are able to turn a doorknob, and that’s what my boy did the whole time in music class last week and ran out. I was so discouraged until I read that this is totally devolempmentally appropriate for his age. Too bad this music class was so expensive. He was outside the class more than inside.

[Tracy Schoenberg]

Hello! My name is Tracy and I’m a stay at home mom of a 2 and 5 year old that have some special needs of their own. I graduated from Illinois State with a Masters in music therapy 13 years ago and undergraduate in music education. My internship was at a VA hospital working with many different populations ranging from substance abuse to psychiatric to dementia, and later working with a special education district, therapeutic school, elderly population, and recently working with my music therapy friend at Epilepsy foundation. I live in Illinois, and would love to make this information part of my practice someday. So far the hardest job I’ve encountered is motherhood so I’m looking forward to learning more about child development and music.

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