2011 feature
Innovative Practice in San Diego, CA
Sound Minds and ESL Parents:
Encouraging Language and Love
Noelle Pederson, MT-BC
Director of Education & Training
Barbara Reuer, Ph.D., MT-BC
Executive Director & Founder
Resounding Joy Inc., San Diego, CA
This featured article describes the expansion of Sound Minds and discusses how this early childhood music therapy program functions as a training tool within the Even Start curriculum for low-income parents who use English as a Second Language (ESL) and their families.
Beginnings
In 2009, Noelle Pederson, the Director of Education and Training at Resounding Joy®, presented the Sound Minds program and correlating clinical results at the Western Region Even Start Conference for approximately 150 early childhood and family literacy educators. After attending the presentation, Kelley Tennis-Flores, the Bilingual Liaison for the Even Start program in Placentia, California expressed interest in a staff and parent training of the Sound Minds program at her facility.
According to Ms. Tennis-Flores, Even Start serves parents who are English as Second Language (ESL) students and their families who might benefit from the Sound Minds program. Ms. Tennis-Flores remembers the first interaction with the Resounding Joy® music therapist as following:
“When I saw Noelle get this room full of educators who were bored, half asleep, burned-out, and frustrated – she lit a fire under us and got us excited to jump up to sing and dance. It was definitely the highlight of the conference. It woke us all up, touched the warm part of us and reminded us of why we teachers do what we do when working with children. We know what works – when the kids AND the parents are having fun, we see a greater success.”
“A parent is a child’s first and most important teacher.” This quote is commonly used by Even Start staff and functions as the underlaying philosophy of the program. The Even Start program at Ruby Drive Elementary in Placentia, California is funded by a federal grant that is designed to break the cycle of poverty by empowering parents with the knowledge and practice of literacy activities and teaching them how to develop essential relationships with their children. Parents attending the program commit to learning 80 hours of ESL per month while their children receive quality preschool and childcare services. The main program goal is to help foster the bond between the parent and the child. Many of the parents have been raised with the idea of only giving directions to their children as opposed to relating to them – through touching, eye contact, and building trust. Activities such as music, playing, reading, or cuddling helps provide a solid foundation for the parents and their children. Even Start parents participate in literacy field trips to local community organizations and venues. They receive educational materials and resources to begin building home libraries and provide learning opportunities at home for their children.
Even Start participants make a significant commitment when enrolling in the program. For example, the program includes
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•Daily ESL classes
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•ESL distance learning
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•A minimum of 30 minutes daily Parent & Child Interactive Literacy Activities (PCILA)
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•Attendance at weekly parenting education classes
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•Attendance at daily preschool and childcare for children ages 0 to 7 years old, and
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•Regular home visits.
In January 2011, Sound Minds staff held a five hours training at the school location for approximately 30 families and 20 local Even Start staff members. Table 1 outlines the training schedule.
Table 1. Schedule of the Sound Minds Training
Kelley Tennis-Flores, Even Start Bilingual Liaison reflected the initial training as follow:
“I was noticing lulls throughout the day, downtime that wasn’t being used – we need to make this fun for our families. We brought in teachers from four different ‘school readiness’ sites from the district, preschool teachers, infant childcare workers, and the Even Start director. Everyone enjoyed it and got excited; it was a great bonding experience for us as a staff.”
Watch Sound Minds and Even Start
–Kelly Tennis-Flores, Bilingual Liaison, Even Start
Language and Bonding Focus
The majority of the parents who attend the ESL program and Even Start in Placentia speak Spanish as their first language; some families come from around the world. Not speaking English and possessing poor literacy skills prohibits these parents from attaining jobs, resulting in low-income or impoverished situations. The main goal of the Sound Minds program is to encourage parent and child bonding through music while addressing developmental goals for the children.
The focus of the program within the Even Start curriculum focuses on language development. Most of the songs and activities of Sound Minds use English as the main language with American Sign Language as gestural reinforcement. Some Spanish songs have been added to excite Spanish-speaking parents and their children about using their native language and to introduce other children to it since it is widely used within the community. Staff members of Resounding Joy® believe that it is important to incorporate at least one song of each parent/child that attends the group to encourage the acknowledgement and respect of their language, traditions, and culture.
Watch Sound Minds and Language Focus
–Even Start Staff; Parents & Children
Using Music in the Classroom
The early childhood educators attended a two-hour workshop, which included a 45-minute didactic presentation explaining the research behind using music to achieve developmental goals with children. Many of the classroom teachers spoke little English; a translator proved to be very helpful especially during the question and answer section. 75 minutes were allocated for actual experiential practice of singing typical children songs with sign language, movements, and gestures. Even Start staff voiced their concerns that they were intimidated to sing aloud, feared they would forget the lyrics, or that they felt uncomfortable or “silly.” By the end of the interactive practice session, the educators appeared more confident and were able to lead a few songs independently in front of the peer group.
Watch Even Start Teachers Utilizing Music
–Even Start Staff; Parents & Children
Many teachers remarked that they already use music in the classroom and made statements such as “I just put in a CD.” In the next video, Kelley Tennis-Flores speaks to the observable differences she has noticed between using live music with activities as opposed to recorded music with children in the classroom.
Watch Live Music vs. Recorded Music
–Kelly Tennis-Flores, Bilingual Liaison, Even Start
Three months after the training, the music therapist returned to Ruby Drive Elementary as a consultant to observe the parents and teachers with the children, provide feedback and make recommendations about how to further build the program. The staff reported progress that they had observed with the children, parents, and improvements in their own facilitation skills. Many of the staff members created their own music, especially for transitional songs used for lining up or washing hands, and reported that they feel more comfortable with improvising songs in the moment.
Watch Even Start Staff Observations
–Even Start Preschoolers & Parents
Using Music Activities at Home
Prior to the Sound Minds Parent Workshop, parents created small musical instruments with the ESL teacher. Parents were eager to demonstrated their music products to the Sound Minds music therapist.
To evaluate how parents use music outside of the classroom environment with their children, Sound Minds staff applied a simple “Music Usage Survey” outlined in Table 2.
Table 2. Sound Minds “Music Usage Survey” for Parents
As an outcome of the informal survey, parents selected “pacification” most often and described that they sing an occasional lullaby to get their child to sleep. Others indicated that they play recorded music (e.g., from the radio – not necessarily children’s music) in the background throughout the day.
The Sound Minds staff discussed with parents how music might be used as a transition song, for play, and to provide general structure and fun to their children’s daily routine. Parents responded with confirming nods and took notes.
During a consultation visit three months later, the Sound Minds music therapist referred to the information from the initial “Music Usage Survey” and asked again how the parents are using music at home with their children. Many of the parents excitedly replied with descriptions of music activities they do at home, what instruments they have created with their children, and the overall benefits they might have observed by using music with their children in everyday life. One parent said,
“We like to be together more and I stop thinking about what am I going to do with them? We like playing together all the time.”
Watch Parents Use Music at Home
–Even Start Parents/ESL Students
At the the next consultation visit, both parents and teachers reported that remembering all the components of the song was the most difficult piece to facilitate. This can be seen as progress considering that during the January 2011, training workshops the participants described the biggest challenge as “feeling too silly” to sing and engage in the activities. Not one parent or teacher described feeling that way any more. One parent said,
“I just want to do it as perfect as I can for my kids, but they have fun no matter what I do.”
Watch Challenges of Using Music
–Even Start Parents/ESL Students
Sound Minds staff conducted a clinical post-training evaluation with Even Start parents and staff. In this evaluation, most parents requested a video with the songs’ melodies and actions. Hence, Sound Minds staff created a DVD with video excerpts featuring each song of the 30 songs used in the curriculum as well as explaining how to position the child for each music activity, modeling the movements, and providing the melody and lyrics.
Today, Even Start staff uses the DVD to practice so they can lead the parent-child groups and use them during the children’s morning music floor time. The music therapist of Sound Minds suggested that the instructional DVD be provided to every family who attends the Even Start program.
Watch Sound Minds Instructional Video Sample
Future Perspectives
Since the beginning, Resounding Joy® has broadened the possibilities for education and bonding at Ruby Drive Elementary Even Start program. The Even Start program in Placentia, California has ordered USD $5,000 worth of instruments and equipment for the classrooms and “family kits” that the parents may take home and use with their children.
Resounding Joy® is refining Sound Minds to become a licensed training program to continue training early childhood development staff for programs like Even Start, Head Start, teen parent programs and so forth. The goal is to get music making and learning into the hands, hearts, and homes of teen parents, ESL parents, and their families. Some of these programs have funding in their curriculum budget to hire a certified music therapist, which allows the program to receive the highest quality of services. However, for the majority of early childhood programs who do not have available funding yet, other options need to be found.
Music therapists should be prepared to offer training and consultation to early childhood staff so that the interactive music-making programs continue within classrooms and parent/child groups. Sound Minds will continue to fine-tune this training program in order to provide other music therapists a more detailed concept of the curriculum and how to get such program started at other early childhood settings. Eventually, a formal program evaluation of Sound Minds will be warranted.
Watch Why Sound Minds?
Resources
About the Authors
Noelle Pederson, MT-BC is the Director of Education and Training of Resounding Joy Inc. She is the primary Sound Minds facilitator, program development coordinator, and lead music therapist. Contact: npederson@resoundingjoyinc.org
Barbara Reuer, Ph.D., MT-BC is the Founder and Executive Director of Resounding Joy Inc. and CEO/Founder of MusicWorx Inc. She is a recipient of AMTA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Contact: breuer@resoundingjoyinc.org
imagine: Early Childhood Music Therapy Online Magazine | ISSN 2153-7879
Noelle Peterson, MT-BC
Barbara Reuer, Ph.D., MT-BC
Sound Minds and Language Focus
Even Start Teachers Utilizing Music
Live Music vs. Recorded Music
Even Start Staff Observations
Parents Use Music at Home
Challenges of Using Music
Sound Minds Instructional Video Sample
Why Sound Minds?
Sound Minds and Even Start
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