[Victoria Fansler]

The Tulalip community is certainly unique as a sovereign nation with its own distinct culture. Generational trauma and systemic oppression are also relevant to this community. I think these factors shape the way it is appropriate (or not) to go about educating parents. In Tulalip culture, folks learn by doing, and cultural systems of education place each person as both learner and teacher. Thus, and expert-driven model is often inappropriate; at worst, it can mirror old imperialist systems. However, I have found that caregivers are open to new information, knowledge, and ideas if we offer them with humility and within a collaborative framework. Additionally, often caregivers approach me with specific issues along the lines of “My child doesn’t listen” and show they are excited to have a new point of view to support their child and take some stress off at home.

One major need in this community — highlighted to me because of how my client population is chosen — centers on building secure attachments between children and caregivers. Children may rotate between living with dad, auntie, grandpa, etc. and these caregivers need tools to form strong attachments when daily consistency is not an option. Similarly, some of my clients have parents who re-enter their lives after being separated due to illness or addiction. These parents need systems to help strengthen their relationships with their children when they return.

[Victoria Fansler]

I hope to offer value to young children and their families in the following ways:
1) Providing radically inclusive and welcoming spaces where young children (and their caregivers) can feel safe and accepted
2) Providing a positive environment for developmentally appropriate exploration and learning, free of shame or punishment.
3) Providing meaningful bonding activities for children and the people who love them.
4) Being aware of music as a regulatory factor for children who wrestle with how to handle big emotions
5) Creating new communities and reinforcing cultures of support between parents, so that no caregiver feels alone
6) Bringing specific expertise as well as openness to learn from each client’s expertise in their own lives.

[Victoria Fansler]

The area that stands out the most to me here is movement. I have been able to apply information from this course to facilitate adult-child interactions that use movement for bonding experiences. Movement activities seem obvious for pre-school age children who clearly mirror actions like marching and jumping, but it was great to recognize the way that even young toddlers move rhythmically along with music and how movement sometimes starts and stops along with the music.

This area is also interesting to me because my wife is a dance teacher and has many classes of young children. Often dance studios market ballet classes with itemized curriculae to children as young as two, and it just does not seem developmentally appropriate to me. My wife’s approach has been to focus on “creative movement” and adult-child partnering experiences (eg. lifting the child up above the adult’s head for a special pose) rather than teaching a progression of explicit movement sequences. This developmental information supports what she has noticed in these classes and indicates a more appropriate time to start teaching movement sequences.

[Victoria Fansler]

I feel I haven’t been working with children long enough to have a solid progression in mind from my observations. It was really helpful to see these progressions laid out this week so I can take better note of development in each area with my clients.

[Victoria Fansler]

For better or for worse, I think television is a major component to contemporary American culture. Most of my musical memories from early childhood center around songs I heard on Barney. These songs became embedded into my early life as they related to daily activities and I formed memories dancing around the house to them. I see this element at play now with the children I nanny and their relationship to musical TV shows such as Mr Rogers and Daniel Tiger.

Growing up in Kansas, fiddle and bluegrass music became part of my cultural identity as I grew. Bluegrass jam sessions were my first experiences in community musicking and helped me view music as an inclusive, collaborative, fluid medium. In these jam sessions, everyone had a voice and an opportunity to be showcased, regardless of age, instrument, or ability. Musical decisions were made on the fly through eye contact and intuition. The emphasis was on the process of playing together rather than on the musical product, and on the experience of participants rather than that of audience members. This local culture of musicking challenged prominent elements of mainstream, middle class American culture, which tends to assume that if you are not remarkably talented then you should just be quiet and still and listen. My bluegrass experiences also challenged my classical music experiences in which musical decisions were made ahead of time by experts (composers, conductors, music teachers) and then disseminated to us as players.

Now, working with the Tulalip tribes, cultural music is a pivotal resource and connection for my clients. My elementary age clients experience tribal songs, drumming, and dance every morning at the beginning of their school day — music is a huge part of reclaiming their cultural identity after the tragedies of boarding schools and forced assimilation. In Tulalip culture I see the blending of music and movement as a single experience. I see Tulalip music as something sacred and to be done with great respect. For example, it is said that when you beat a drum, all the ancestors stand at attention; therefore, drums used to be reserved for those who had earned that responsibility, and they never used to be played by children and even now are only to be played in particular contexts. Tulalip music is inclusive in that all can participate, but it is also very structured in terms of gender, age, and instrument. It is not created for an audience, but rather has a participatory role for every person.

We all experience a combination of cultures, including with music. I learned different values and expectations from bluegrass, Classical, and children’s music when I was growing up. Similarly, my clients now have a strong connection with Tulalip music, but also have cultural experiences and values associated with pop, hip hop, and music learned in the classroom.

[Victoria Fansler]

These songs are really wonderful. They have been my main source of ideas and inspiration as I’ve started working with young children. Seeing them outlined in tandem with developmental stages is a helpful added layer of understanding.

I wanted to discuss use of bonding songs in my settings a bit. I used some bonding songs with a mom’s group and their babies recently. The moms had very positive responses to the experience. In particular, they really enjoyed the “Hold on Tight!” song and found it fit with the developmental stage of their babies. Their transition from the sedative, safe style to the more active and playful style was clear and quite fun to witness. I noticed that although many of the moms were uncomfortable with singing out loud in the group, they were still able to participate with their babies through the motions as others sang. I could see how these songs really help to facilitate attachment and bonding between babies and caregivers. This is huge since many of the children I see in the area are with me because of some disruption in that initial attachment.

My question is, how can we apply the wonderful impact of these bonding songs in settings where the parents are unable to attend? Most of the children I see regularly — especially the babies — are in a daycare setting while their parents work. In a classroom there are generally two or three babies present for every adult, and the teachers are often busy with other things: changing one child’s diaper, setting up for the next activity, etc. How can I help facilitate bonding between adults and babies in a setting like this? Is it appropriate to do bonding songs in which I am paired with a child, even though I am someone they may only see once every week or so?

[Victoria Fansler]

A few weeks ago I was brought in to observe and consult about a three-and-a-half year old in his first day of preschool. He stood out in his classroom because despite his chronological age, his behaviors showed evidence that he was still in the Trust stage in many areas. I observed in the afternoon, and he had been crying almost consistently throughout the morning. His physical abilities were about equal to those of his peers, but his language skills were very behind: “Mama” was his only distinct word, and beyond that he mainly showed explorations in timbre (especially screaming on this scary day for him) and vocal babble. The goal of “tolerance of novel experiences” stands out to me because attending his first day of preschool was so new and frightening for him that he seemed to feel traumatized and was impossible to soothe for most of the day.

While in the room, I had a couple minutes with him to see if music would help soothe him. When I began to sing, he turned his attention toward me and stopped crying; however, once he turned toward me, direct eye contact with this new person was overwhelming to him. He turned away and began to cry again. Singing to him without making eye contact was the most successful attempt I had. In thinking about this developmental stage now, I believe I could have made greater use of differences between sound and silence and responded directly to his body language so that he could have some choice in how long the musical phrases lasted.

Since this consultation, this child has been referred for psychological assessments and greater developmental support. Unfortunately, this means he will move to another school where we do not offer music therapy services. I will certainly miss the opportunity to work with him more, but I am thankful to him for teaching me about the role we can play in supporting children’s development.

[Victoria Fansler]

I definitely think the quality of being childlike is a foundational piece of my personal style as a music therapist. Especially with young children, I bring enthusiasm and playfulness that in some ways mirrors their experiences. I also bring empathy, unconditional positive regard, and authentic presence with my clients.

Of course, competence is also a fundamental piece of what we all need to bring to early childhood programs! This information helps me to more specifically tailor experiences to my clients based on their ages and developmental levels. It also helps me be a better informed resource for the parents, caregivers, and teachers I partner with. Having a detailed picture of typical development will help me to clearly identify potential gaps or red flags in my clients, as well as their areas of strength. Knowing the way each developmental step leads to the next will help me structure experiences to match each client’s developmental function and build from there.

[Victoria Fansler]

This week I enjoyed observing the ways that certain “problem behaviors” are often developmental building blocks for future skills we want children to have. For example, the “mine” stage could appear like selfishness, but the child has to understand things from their own perspective before they can start to understand other people’s perspectives and develop empathy. Similarly, it is natural for children to push boundaries before they truly develop an internalized sense of morality. In working with children who have spotty development due to trauma or neglect, I wonder if we sometimes do a disservice to older children by expecting them to “skip” certain developmental stages based on their chronological age. It seems to be a delicate balance between meeting children where they’re at and pushing them to new experiences and higher expectations.

[Victoria Fansler]

Hello!

My name is Victoria Fansler, and I am a music therapist with the Snohomish County Music Project in Washington State. I work full-time in the Tulalip community (a reservation about an hour north of Seattle) under a grant from the Tulalip Tribes. My focus is providing music therapy for children who have survived trauma. I have clients from infants through teens, and I also have a moms’ group for mothers of young children. Part of my work is at the Tulalip Early Learning Center, supporting children six weeks through preschool age. My goals with these children generally involve filling in social-emotional gaps in development, resulting from early trauma or neglect. As the program grows, I would also like to be more of a resource for teachers and families in the community.

I currently use many songs from the “You and Me Makes We” book as well as songs taught by Elizabeth at conference; that was part of my motivation to take the course. Being rather new to early childhood work, there is a lot I hope to learn and explore here! I hope to learn more about how to use music to facilitate caregiver-child bonding, particularly for foster families or newly-reunited family. I agree with Courtney’s comment above that I feel somewhat versed in interventions for pre-school age children but not as much with infants and young toddlers. I hope to gain musical ideas for transition songs so I can offer these as tools for teachers and caregivers. I am also excited to hone my skills in providing visceral experiences of emotional validation and other-led emotional regulation through music. Finally, I am excited to just plug into a network of therapists so we can collaborate on how to successfully address issues that come up frequently with the children we serve.

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