Tag: Toddlers and Music

The Benefits of Enrolling in Sprouting Melodies Classes

Posted on by Roman Music Therapy

There are so many benefits to enrolling in Sprouting Melodies® classes! Not only will you and your little one spend 45 minutes making music together, strengthening bonds and experiencing joy, but you are being led by a board certified music therapist with extensive experience and education in early childhood development! Each of our classes is designed to be developmentally appropriate for your child, as they meet milestones and create new connections with the world around them.

And if your child is receiving early intervention services, our classes can help support those services due to our unique experience and training.

Another benefit of class enrollment is weekly emails from our Sprouting Melodies providers, highlighting a stage or information on childhood development, and how the music in class can be used to support development, and how you can use our songs at home. Here is a snippet of one of our emails:

As caregivers, we are constantly trying to find new ways to teach our little people about the world, how they are connected to it and how they have such an important role in it. In fact, we sometimes become SO excited about sharing our knowledge and experience, that we forget to let our little people make discoveries on their own. On the surface and in the moment, it might not seem like we are limiting our little people, but when we try to make them conform to our already developed sense of self in play, we are taking away from their development of a unique sense of self. Independent and child-led play is so important for the building of self-confidence, resiliency, and flexibility in future endeavors! In fact, “when play is allowed to be child driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover their own areas of interest, and ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue (Ginsberg, 2007).

Sprouting Melodies founder and provider, Meredith, shares a frame drum with several young children.

This has a lot to do with how our babies brains are developing. By age 1, your child’s brain has doubled in size and by age 3, their brain becomes about 80% of what their adult brain size will be. During this time, they are learning in a multitude of ways, and these are not always observably active, because the learning is happening internally through mirror neurons. Mirror neurons fire off when watching someone else perform an action. So, when our little ones observe us walking/shaking/jumping/etc, their brain is firing off neurons as though they were actively participating in the observed actions. This process helps your little one absorb and process the information before they are ready to actively participate in the actions. So, you can empower your child in class by modeling and letting them observe your actions. Think of how amazing it will be when they decide to reach out and play that drum on their own!!

Read more about your child’s amazing brain at these websites:

Sprouting Melodies is not just a class, but a support system for you and your child! Our music therapists are eager and able to help you navigate the sometimes tricky journey of parenthood! Some of our Sprouting Melodies families have also formed bonds with one another, staying after class to socialize as their children enjoy a snack or play in our reception area.

If you are interested in learning more about Sprouting Melodies, visit our website.

Ready to get started with Sprouting Melodies? You can register online or call our office: 781-224-3300.

What families are saying about Sprouting Melodies…

Posted on by Roman Music Therapy

An Investment in Quality Time

As parents and caregivers, we are always looking for activities to do with our children that are fun and enriching! With all of the demands facing today’s families, it can be difficult to take time out of our busy schedules for fun, but it truly is an investment that will pay off!

One mom, Christina LaRock, who has taken our Sprouting Melodies® classes with her daughter, faced the same questions as many moms do. What can I do with my child that will be fun and rewarding for us both? Of her experience at Sprouting Melodies, Christina says “If Sprouting Melodies were a financial vehicle for investments, your ‘return on investment’ would be a sure thing, a true win!”

Sprouting Melodies® is a unique program offered by Roman Music Therapists for children and their caregivers, ages 0-5. With Board Certified Music Therapists leading classes, Sprouting Melodies® focuses to create child-centered musical experiences that integrate what they know about young children, development and music!

An Investment in Connections

What makes Sprouting Melodies® stand out is not only our focus on children and their expression through music, but the connections they are making with their caregivers and peers. Christina has seen the rewards of that connection. She says,

“When my daughter — who was 22 months old at the time — and I attended a Sprouting Melodies® class, I thought it was going to be a fun way to engage my daughter in music and movement. More than enough reason to go! It sure was fun! What I hadn’t anticipated was that the benefits to her would be much, much more than that!”

Reaping the Rewards

Christina experienced firsthand how the classes stimulate and enhance musical, social, physical, and emotional growth and development. She says that her daughter “learned in more meaningful ways what cooperative play is, how to share and take turns more effectively, how to use music as a vehicle to express her emotions. She also gained confidence and self-esteem by being in and sharing the spotlight, exploring different instruments and building an authentic, caring relationship with our Sprouting Melodies leader, Laura!

What distinguishes our Sprouting Melodies® Providers from others is their expertise in music therapy and special training in early childhood development. Our team is uniquely qualified to accommodate the needs of individual children within groups. They also strive to teach parents how music can strengthen bonds, engage cooperation and transform situations within the family.

Christina says, “If that wasn’t enough, what was even more amazing was how I, and my whole family, benefited from what we learned organically through Sprouting Melodies. All the while having a lot of fun! I learned songs to help ease those times when frustration would get the better of me (or my daughter). I learned how that not just listening to music — but making music –sparked a curiosity in musical instruments, patterns and body awareness in my daughter that has provided hours of fun at home together! And, in making music alongside my daughter, I had fun and met other local parents. To this very day, I sing the songs with my daughter that not only are fun & silly but truly help me be a better parent!”

Lessons That Stick

The investment of music is one that lasts. Christina finishes, “I asked my daughter, who just turned 5 years old, what her favorite memory of Sprouting Melodies is. She gave me a huge smile and ran to get her ukulele. Without missing a beat, she started singing “oh gather round, come and sing with me”. The music and the lessons remain … we’re still reaping the benefits!”

Roman Music Therapy Services has been providing Sprouting Melodies® classes to area families for a multitude of years. Many parents and families have made connections with one another through the classes they attended.

Explore and register for our latest Sprouting Melodies class offerings here! Please contact us if you have any additional questions.

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!

“Your baby is not bored! Your baby is totally confused!”

Posted on by Roman Music Therapy

By: Meredith Pizzi, MT-BC

babyI said it again this month at the Melrose Public Library program during a music therapy session.

I love looking out at all the babies and toddlers who came unsuspectingly. I begin to play my guitar and they just stare at me. It is partially a look of panic, “Who are you?”” And partially a look of disbelief, “You want me to do to what?” It is also a look of intrigue and confusion. But I do know, and I’m sure of this based on my years of music therapy experience, that these looks are not looks of boredom!

I have to admit that it did take me a long time to come to this realization. I used to think it was just me and that I was boring them to death.

I remember, my very first session with preschoolers for my music therapy internship. The students were brought down to the music room for thirty minutes. I started with the hello song I had prepared. I was petrified when I realized that they were all staring back at me with that deer in the headlights look. I sang the song two times and then, because they obviously didn’t like that one, I quickly transitioned to another song. The second song was received with those same empty stares. As was the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, the sixth, seventh, eighth and even the ninth. That’s right! I sang nine songs in that first thirty-minute music therapy session! No wonder they were confused. I never gave them a chance to catch up with me!

babyIt took me years of experience and learning about early childhood development and music, but now I know that if I’m still getting that deer in the headlights look, I need to do the song again, and again, and again, until the young children who are participating in my music groups are no longer in panic mode. Once their facial expressions relax and they begin to look at me with the expression that says, “Oh, okay…tell me more,” then I know we are ready for more music making. I assure you, as adults we will tire of a song much more quickly than our babies will. But our babies are not bored!

So the next time you start singing a new song with your baby, sing it again and again and again until they start to get it. Never do what I once did and run through 9 songs in 30 minutes! Instead, give your child a chance to really soak it all up and experience the music. And then when you are bored, sing it three more times!

Explore Sprouting Melodies and our early childhood music offerings.