Synthesis Sunday: Chapter Ten - Control - In Music, Therapy, and Early Childhood: A Developmental Approach

Control is an interesting concept, especially for the child. In Chapter ten of Music, Therapy, and Early Childhood: A Developmental Approach by Elizabeth Schwartz, we take a look at how young children develop and demonstrate control through musical interactions and explorations. As a therapist who works with persons on developing impulse control, this chapter has been extremely relevant to my work.

One of the resources that was sorely needed and lacking during my undergraduate education was the Briggs/Bruscia stages of musical development. I wish I had been exposed to these ideas way, way back. They were around when I was in school, so it would have been something we could have accessed, but it wasn't part of my class work. Oh well. Maybe it was better to wait until now to access that information - I can synthesize it much better as a seasoned clinician than I would have as a novice music therapy student. If you are currently a student (and reading this book - Hello, all from Converse College!!), please know that there is so much that can transfer from early childhood into the work that music therapists do with other populations (especially those with intellectual and developmental diagnoses) - it does not have to stay in early childhood treatment only.

In the case of early childhood development, control includes many elements of interaction and engagement. It includes all of my treatment domains - motor, academic/cognitive, social/communication, emotional/behavioral, and musical. Control includes making choices, organizing and interpreting stimuli into patterns and anticipatory responses, and starting to identify self as separate from others (p. 79). Control includes linking communication and music, exploring musical phrasing, and engaging with others through purposeful musicking. Words emerge as significant - lyrics are sung - there isn't as much need for things like melodies - the child can replicate the lyrics independent of other musical elements, but there is the emergence of pitch matching as well (p. 83-89). All of these are things that we address in my work with my clients - things that my clients may not have mastered during their development for some reason or another.

My students are not able to control much of what happens in their lives. Many of them appear to have characteristics in common with the children described in this stage in Schwartz's book. The 17-year old young man who can verbalize but cannot seem to regulate his volume while playing the drums may be someone who needs therapeutic guidance through some TMEs focusing on the stages suggested by Briggs/Bruscia and by Schwartz. The challenge for a therapist like me is how to present and practice these skills in a chronologically-appropriate but also developmentally-appropriate manner. It can be done.

I am adding to my thoughts about an assessment based on this approach - something that takes these nicely delineated and organized skills and applies them and others to the work that I do on a daily basis. I'm not sure how this will work yet, but I am still thinking and working and conceptualizing.

Next week is Responsibility - the last of the stages. After that, there will be quite a bit of discussion about how to implement these concepts and ideas. Will you join me?

Happy Sunday.

 



Schwartz, E. (2008). Music, therapy, and early childhood: A developmental approach. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.-