Synthesis Sunday: Independence - Music, Therapy, and Early Childhood: A Developmental Approach

It is Sunday, and that means time to do some synthesis, AKA reading something and then internalizing it within my own clinical practice to make some sense out of what happens during music therapy. So, off we go into the ninth chapter of my selected text - Music, therapy, and early childhood: A developmental approach. Written by Elizabeth Schwartz, this text organizes several ideas about musical development into a book that is a practical guide for music therapy clinicians who work within early childhood populations. With a bit of synthesis and lots of thought, I use this text as a guide for my work with children, adolescents, and others with developmental disabilities. Like all of my synthesis texts, it takes some extrapolation to get from the intent of the author to my own population, but that's what I'm here for - to figure out what is applicable to my students.

Last week, I started an infographic for myself to help me organize my thoughts. Here's the graphic from last week. I'll add to it this time around...

As you can see, there is an order to things that humans do during their developmental process. My students, those with intellectual/developmental disabilities with associated psychiatric concerns and disorders, have interrupted developmental processes, so they are often displaying musical behaviors that do not match their chronological ages. This model for early childhood development offers therapists like me with additional formats for assessment and treatment planning.

As I've read through Chapter Nine, Independence, I've added to my infographic. By the way, this is for my own use and for sharing with you all, but I will not be doing anything else with it. If it works for you to learn in this way, let me know. I like to think I'm not the only person who learns best when presented with knowledge in a picture format. Here's the updated version...

Schwartz's Model of Early Childhood Music Development

This is simply a representation of what Schwartz put into the past two chapters - trust and independence through music. This is going to get very complex if I continue with the spiderweb structure, but I think that's part of the point. Musical development is not straight forward, it is a complex system.

One of the things that I love about this model is that it is delineated into situations that many people who work with children recognize - this chapter seems to address the "terrible twos," and it makes sense that independence would be the focus during this time.

I am figuring out a way to integrate these thoughts and ideas into my practice without having to complete forty-five pages of writing for each client. I am starting with awareness and evaluation (don't we all start there?).

It is time to move into the rest of the day. I'll be thinking about all this, and next week may be a synthesis of the synthesis, but it's coming together in my mind...slowly.

See you next week.



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