Tag: music classes

Music Therapy for Early Childhood

Posted on by Roman Music Therapy

Music Therapy For Early Childhood

Everyone can make music! It’s true! Whether singing along to your favorite song, tapping a beat on a bongo or experimenting on GarageBand©, everyone has the ability to create music. And you’re never too young to be involved with, or respond to, the benefits of music making. Watch any child, especially babies and toddlers, and you’ll see for yourself. They bang, they strum, they sing and dance without any care as to how ‘good’ they might be or if they are hitting the right note.

Music isn’t only fun for our little ones, it plays a critical role in overall development, helping to build neural pathways and unlock hidden potential. Before language skills are even developed, music can serve as a vehicle for communication with babies and toddlers.

Who can benefit?

Children of all ages and backgrounds are especially receptive to music! For those receiving early intervention services, music therapy can be a creative strategy to successfully reach children with identified developmental delays or other unique needs.

Children without delays, and those in daycare centers or preschools, also have fun engaging in music making that supports their emotional, social, cognitive and language development. Music making also provides young children a great opportunity to bond with caregivers and peers!

Program Offerings

    • Sprouting Melodies: Created for children, ages 0-5, and their caregivers, Sprouting Melodies is an award winning early childhood music program. Offering age-specific classes for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and sibling pairs, Sprouting Melodies classes are facilitated by Board Certified Music Therapists who have additional training in early childhood development.
    • Clinical Music Therapy: Music therapy sessions can be provided in conjunction with other early intervention therapies or pediatric therapies in both individual and group settings.

Does your little one light up when you sing to him or her? Are you looking for an activity that stimulates your child’s development while also fostering the bond between the two of you? If so, demo one of our Sprouting Melodies classes or contact us to find out more about our individual music therapy sessions.

Winter Session II Open for Registration With NEW Enrollment System

Winter Session II Open for Registration With NEW Enrollment System

Posted on by Roman Music Therapy

Hello new and current Sprouting Melodies Families!

We are pleased to announce that our Winter Session II Sprouting Melodies classes are open for enrollment. This session begins February 16 and ends March 28. Our EARLY BIRD Special offers you $15 off the normal price.

We also offer a new class enrollment/registration system to not only accommodate enrollment but to serve as an online complement to the Sprouting Melodies class experience. A Family Dashboard contains resource pages and various other goodies that will inform, inspire, and guide you along as a caregiver making music with those you love.

The new platform is called “Mainstreetsites” and is a popular tool used for music, dance, and other extracurricular class offerings.

What’s different about it:

  1. New url – http://app.mainstreetsites.com/dmn2554/classes.htm
  2. New page about Sprouting Melodies – along with updated FAQS
  3. A simpler process of registering
  4. Password protected pages of information, called “Family Dashboard”
  5. Integration with Facebook
  6. You can schedule attendance to a makeup class
  7. Newcomers can schedule a “test drive” (demo) of a class

What you need to do:

For our current Sprouting Melodies families, we ask that you please create a new account. even though you may have already enrolled a child in one or more classes.

Thank you for your help transitioning!!!! We know it will be worth a bit of extra trouble. And do share your feedback about what can be better!!!! We are ALL ears.

Register
Here it is, the official button to our new enrollment system

Repetition Reaps Rewards

Posted on by Roman Music Therapy

Our Sprouting Melodies® Program has really grown over the years and has provided an enriching, playful, and supportive music class to many, many young children. We have seen the children:

  • Grow in language development as they sing greeting songs, body awareness songs, and books set to music.
  • Develop motor skills as they learn to shake maracas with a musical cue, march, run and jump to music and play the drum with one or two mallets.
  • Request and giggle with glee during lap rides, which give the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers the sensory stimulation they greatly need, especially during this time of year when playground time is limited.
  • Foster new friendships with each other, asking for their friends during the week and identifying them by name when they come in the room each week!

We want to tell you all about our Repetition Reaps Rewards Program. This program aims:

    1. To reinforce that repetition is the real secret to learning
    2. To thank all of the loyal families who continue to participate in Sprouting Melodies with their little ones

Ms. Pizzi plays the guitar as a young baby crawls on his belly and touches the guitar with his hand.

Here are the details…

  • For every full session that you register for, you will receive a stamp on your Repetition Reaps Rewards Card (Prorated Sessions will not count towards your 5 classes.).
  • After five full sessions, you will receive 50% Off your 6th class!
  • Repetition Reaps Rewards cards are for each individual child and stamps can not be combined within your family.
  • Stamps can be earned within any Sprouting Melodies class and can be redeemed throughout the year.

We are so excited to offer this opportunity to both thank you, the parents, and to support your children in their overall early childhood development!

Why I Love Making Music with Children

Posted on by Roman Music Therapy

How could you not love making music with children? I love providing music therapy programs for little ones at public libraries and in our Sprouting Melodies® classes. And I love making music with older children in afterschool groups. But honestly, the best part is knowing that Moms, Dads and other caregivers can bring those songs home and develop the music making at home.

So on that note, here are 4 reasons why I love making music with children:

1. Music is Music – Simple Enough

EMARC-Hands-300x190There is nothing like sharing in the simplicity of music making with a child. As a newborn, music is a profound experience that causes the baby to stop and look around, waiting and watching. As children age, they become more and more aware of the environment and still attend to music as if it is a huge presence in the room. I learn a lot from their experience of music.

2. Progress is obvious – and so much fun to observe!

When you see children, young and old, master a musical task in a song, the progress is crystal clear! I enjoy working in groups of 6-7 weeks because at the end of a session, the progress from beginning to end is absolutely magnificent! We can all sit around and say, “Do you remember when we first started this group?”

The same is true with a child at home. With repetition, you see great growth! Every time a song is shared, children soak it in. With even more repetition, they are able to make the music their own. And it is really is fun to see.

3. Music making with children is joyful!

When you can see the anticipation of a musical phrase in a baby’s eyes, smile, and body movements, it is shear joy! And as the baby grows (which happens much too quickly), the joyful responses become joyfully contagious! It’s hard to not laugh with a 3 year old when playing the drum, or a 7 year old delighted to be strumming to the blues on the guitar!

4. Bonding through music is natural

Early Childhood MusicThere is a closeness in making music with your child that goes beyond a song. It is our common understanding that songs and lullabies create intimate shared moments for babies and caregivers. With repetition, those shared musical moments create meaningful bonds.

The same can be said for music making with older children. Think about all of the stress and conflict in our parental relationships with our children. From putting on shoes in the morning, to clearing the dinner table, to brushing teeth. There are plenty of events that take us away from bonding with our kids. Making music on a regular basis with your children returns some of he playful bonding to our relationships that we all need.