[Wei Ming Loi]

I use mostly REMO drums too. I love the sound of the gathering drums and the tubano but the bongos sometimes is a little difficult for the younger ones as they tend to find it difficult to make a big sound.

I prefer plastic maraca more than wood maraca at this age due to the ease of washing them. We usually pop a chlorine pill into the water and soak the entire maraca in. The wooden ones take a long time to dry…. Some plastic shakers come in the shape of giraffes that children sometimes do hold at the neck of it.

I sometimes use handle castanets because they are easy to hold as compared to castanets but I find their sound a little too loud.

I tend to avoid bells as I don’t know how to clean them properly without running the risk of them rusting.

[Wei Ming Loi]

How much stimulation is enough? How much is too much?
I feel that there is a need to observe that the child’s arousal while we vary the timbre, tempo and dynamics in the songs. The child should be sitting upright, focusing on the caregiver or the therapist in the process, if too little stimulation is given, child might be lying down, leaning against caregiver not wanting to move, yawning etc. Signs of over stimulation can be a child who is overactive and is everywhere in the room or a child that is scared and clinging onto caregiver or screaming/crying etc.

5 words: Fun, energy, surprises, exploration, observation

5 sentences:
1) He can touch the guitar, look at how he is exploring it.
2) Let’s not stop him from playing physically but give him some time to respond to it.
3) It’s ok that he is not following the actions, he is learning as he observes.
4) Mouthing is part of learning, it’s ok as long as the instrument is clean.
5) Look at how he takes the maracas out of the mouth as we stop. He is really listening.

Plan:
I might start with a gentle hello first building up in dynamics and tempo with a gathering song. After the gathering song, I’ll build in a duet activity of a lap song/bonding song like wiggly, jiggly car. After the duet episode, I might do a little instrument song but with gathering together in mind. e.g. dancing in the middle. Then as they are all excited to do a movement song of perhaps Can you Follow? Thereafter, I will play down with the dynamics and tempo with a slow “Just like me” and if possible to have caregivers take another child in facilitating the ‘me’ action to whichever child that is nearer to him/her.
Finally I will end with the goodbye song.

[Wei Ming Loi]

Beth came to Singapore last year so she must be familiar with the situation here now too.
MT is still a very new profession in Singapore and we are largely confined to clinical MT in hospitals and special schools settings. Music Therapists here are fighting to create an awareness of what the profession is about and am trying to differentiate ourselves from musicians, sound therapy and other music programmes all the time.

That being said, there is also a move in the community towards looking for support for families with young children. Parents are also more informed and are looking at possible services for their child at a younger age. There is also a trend in Singapore of grandparents caring for the young ones while the parents are at work, thus leading to very little bonding time for the parents with their child. Thus, I can see the importance of spending quality time with the child through music in building up the trust of the child with their parents.

[Wei Ming Loi]

5 words: gentle, warm, loving , cuddly, flowing
5 sentences:
1) Look at the pitch of vocalisation that the child is making. He/she is responding to your singing!
2) Look at how your baby relax with your voice. Be confident of using it.
3) Let’s slow down and pay attention to the little one. See how he/she is looking at you.
4) Don’t worry if baby startles, let’s start gently again.
5) See how baby is moving his/her lips wanting to respond to you

Plan:
I’ll start with a gentle hello song with individualised babies names in it. Then perhaps with a familiar tune bonding song as most Singaporeans are very anxious about singing and a familiar tune will keep the anxiousness down plus keep the babies close to them. I really liked the Row it Faster song as it’s familiar and yet by adding in the pauses and movement brings the familiarity to something unique. Then building up the atmosphere again to an instrument song allowing the child to explore an instrument. After the little excitement in the instrument activity, I might want to move onto have a song that adds a little deep pressure on the child while singing “Just like me” can incorporate that with a gentle tap at the chest reassuring the child at the same time. Alternating the deep pressure with movement, I might want to move into a movement song but one that is still gentle enough for a young child before ending with the goodbye song.

Experience with young children 0-9 months:
With the aid of technology, I’ve been keeping videos of my child each month and saving a copy of them as reference to track how he has grown over the months as these tiny steps are so fast that I can’t keep track of them if not for the videos.
At 2 months, he started very soft gentle cooing in response to our voice, so we spoke and sang at very quiet voice as a reflection to his and leave gaps in between for him to respond.
At 3 months, his head was more stable so he started to turning his head independently. so we propped him up a little, for him to look around more but still keeping our faces near his midline.
At 4 months, his awareness of environment became increasingly strongly and starts to babbling to soft toys/ objects dangling in front of him.
At 5 months, he started giggling to voice slides, change in tones, he also started rolling at this time and tracking rattles flipping over to look at them. So we were placing rattles at his side encouraging him to learn to flip.
At 6 months, he was imitating various mouth shapes made by us and also has better neck control. We placed him in prone position (tummy time) and he smiles in being able to confidently lift up his head.
At 7 months, he loved being upright and babbling lots of ‘da da da’, we left lots of gaps for him to babble and listened to him attentively as he does so.
At 8 months, he was sitting up, playing with toys
At 9 months, he loved reaching out to people and could follow one-step directions when requested.

Beth, I don’t have access to the full article and would love to have a copy of it please.

[Wei Ming Loi]

Sorry that I’m late but this exercise is really helpful for me to remember the steps. Thanks.

Singing
Awareness: Cooing, Vocalising pitched sounds
Trust: Altering pitch in response to singing voice; vocal exchanges in an intentional manner
Independence: Experimental Babbling; repeating certain motifs
Control: Some parts of a song can be heard enough for an adult to identify
Responsibility: Reproducing full songs maintaining pulse

Playing Instruments
Awareness: Reaching out to instruments/orienting to instruments play
Trust: Brief intentional play from child
Independence: Using instruments purposefully
Control: Start and Stop playing with the music
Responsibility: Maintaining a steady beat, playing in rhythm

Moving
Awareness: Rhythmic movements in body seen; Movement in body may change with changes in music
Trust: Moving with music in a repetitive manner
Independence: Ability to isolate movements to a particular body part
Control: Imitating learned movements in a song
Responsibility: Sequencing movements

Listening
Awareness: Change in expression to vocal timbre changes e.g. smiles when hearing mum’s voice
Trust: Recognising familiar songs by smiling/pointing to an object etc.
Independence: Match Intensity of movements to intensity of music
Control: Stops actions to listen to music
Responsibility: Appreciating the music of others; moving beyond self

[Wei Ming Loi]

Sorry I am so late in posting. I am using all 4. But after the course has started, like a few of you, I’ve reduced my reliance on the guitar and have been using more voice lately and the response is great. The children are attending and participating. I’ve also been involving the caregivers in the sessions more and getting to be more involve in the sessions together.

[Wei Ming Loi]

The music therapy community in Singapore is very small. But as for music with early intervention, there are lots of music schools in Singapore running music and movement activities with the children.. In fact, most if not all playgroups and nurseries in Singapore has Music and Movement as part of their curriculum. There is also Kindermusik and Gymboree which acts as supplementary classes outside school. However, I work in a special school and the children here are deprived of those available services as the programmes do not accept children with disabilities. I feel that Sprouting Melodies can be a service that can be provided to the children in the special schools and especially when parents often find it hard to bond with their child. Music can be a powerful tool in that.

[Wei Ming Loi]

I love the way Tamara say that our focus is on children! I feel that as music therapist, we are trained to see what the children can do and develop from there and not just focus on what the children can’t. It is also our positive energy that we bring that can allow parents to relax and explore music with their child.

[Wei Ming Loi]

I used ‘a car on my knee’ with my group of 5 years old last week and they love it. We replaced the car with the egg shakers they are using and rolled them to another partner across the circle, so they need to look for one before the next cycle starts again and they were all rushing to grab a shaker waiting for it to start. I’ve also used one of the mixolydian chorus that I’ve seen in the “you and me makes…we” book and inserted in with an introduction song that I’ve wrote alternating between individual child singing and chorus where everyone clap and sing together. I was surprised how fast they picked up the mixolydian melody and are screaming at the top of their voices!

[Wei Ming Loi]

I live in a multi-racial society with 4 main races. Thus, there is really no one kind of traditional and cultural music available. The Chinese have the pentatonic scale, the Indians ragas, the Malays gamelan, the Eurasian mostly influenced by the Malay music. However, as Singapore is greatly influenced by the western society as it used to be a British colony, English and Chinese pop music is the most common available music in the society, with Jazz as an alternative genre to pop for many. With the “Mozart Effect” popularization a few years back, classical music has also been widely exposed to infants and pregnant women.

[Wei Ming Loi]

This week I’ve had the experience of having a client who seemed to have moved from the trust stage back to awareness due to an incident in the session. He was initially in the trust stage, responding in a reciprocal manner and reaching out to play on the instruments. But he stood up on the chair at that instance and it was really an unstable service so I reached out, hold his hand and got him back to the ground and his musical interaction changed immediately. He went back to the awareness state, being aware of the music but did not seemed to be making much of the reciprocal interaction with me for that session anymore. It made me feel how important it is our role in facilitating development in children and how I have to set up the room more cautiously to facilitate the interaction.

[Wei Ming Loi]

I agree with both Amy and Angle viewpoint of how being a mother allows me to have a better understanding of the early childhood population and our work with their parents. I could better understand the anxieties of the parents in tracking the developmental milestones of their child in this highly competitive society. personally, my husband also had difficulties reading the cues from our child and while working with him to build up the bond between my son and him, I feel that I’ve gain tremendous experience on the specifics of guiding a father in my own work as an mt.

[Wei Ming Loi]

I thoroughly enjoyed Beth’s sharing in the videos. What struck me most are the ideas and advice that we can give to parents based on the understanding of the child’s development.

For example in 12-18 months, the children show ownership of people and objects and are not interested in sharing and telling the child at that time to share might not be appropriate. At 18-24 months, children may show defiant behavior and we can assure the parents that it is not due to a parenting style but a need in development. At 24-36 months, children may not differentiate between reality and make-believe thus at times they might say something that is not real but he or she is not lying but rather it’s part of his/her normal development.

From just this few examples, I feel that by sharing such facts with the parents, they will get to see their child in a different light and the child on the other hand gets to play in a safe and nurturing environment.

[Wei Ming Loi]

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