We are now in the fifth week of this year’s Interactive Music-Making course, led by Alexia Quin with contributions from music therapists Juliet Wood (Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust), Gillian O’Dempsey (Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust) and Prija Vithani (North London Music Therapy CIC).

The 10 early years practitioners have been learning about the theories which underpin our approach, and we’ve had engaging discussions linking their early years experience to ideas from John Bowlby, Nicola Burke, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, Daniel Stern, Lev Vygotsky, Colwyn Trevarthen and Stephen Malloch.

“The most useful part for me was being able to look at the theorists and talk through how and what we do as practitioners daily links to each of them. We don’t really get the time to sit back and think about that day to day…”

Early Years Practitioner

There’s been time each week for musical workshops, enabling the practitioners to learn from their own experiences.  How does it feel when you participate in a musical activity which has been designed to give you comparable experiences to those we offer young children within interactive music-making sessions?  And time to explore musical techniques that help us establish non-verbal connections with children and build trusting relationships.

“It was useful to run through practical music-making activities. Really helps to start making this a reality.”

Early Years Practitioner

Now our focus is moving towards the children the practitioners currently work with and how they will start putting their learning into practice.  They’ll be developing a portfolio of musical activities, considering which children they will include in their first interactive music-making sessions at their settings, and thinking through all the practicalities to ensure it all runs as smoothly as possible.