Music Together® at Cleary School
Children enrolled in Cleary School’s Parent Infant Program or Listening and Spoken Language Program are offered the opportunity to participate in Music Together® classes. Music Together® is an internationally accredited program.
This video clip shows a preschool aged class with students who have varying degrees of hearing loss. They participate in a Music Together program one time a week for 45 minutes. It is led by a Teacher of the Deaf and Speech-Language Pathologist who are certified instructors. In our Preschool Program, the Teacher of the Deaf certified in Music Together works with the classroom assistant to provide a 30-minute session each week.
Classroom assistants participate in supporting their students. The Music together team incorporate speech, language, and auditory skill development into every session. Each student is provided with Music Together® CDs and written materials so the parents can carry over activities at home.
In the video, you will observe is a traditional call and response song. This type of song reinforces the beginning of conversational skill development. They help practice turn taking, being the listener and the speaker, in a repetitive and predictable context. You will observe children waiting and retaining auditory information and responding with appropriate pitch and tonality.
Songs are chosen at just the right range for children’s voices. They are developing an auditory feedback loop that monitors their voices and changes. You will notice that the children are moving rhythmically to the song and imitating motor movements associated with it. Each child participates at their level.
You will also observe children moving to the rhythm of the music. Some of them are moving independently, and their caregiver is facilitating some to notice the rhythm of the music. The change in body movements helps the children identify slight sound variations. The speech syllables are simple in nature so that they can focus on the pitch and melody of the music. This simplification also reduces the intimidation of more complex language structure making.
Music Together is a valued part of our children’s programming.