Last week, Lucy Osborne (Music Therapist and IMM Course Leader) ran an online CPD event for current and past IMM students. Attendees ranged from current students to a 2015 graduate!

It was exciting to hear how past students are still using their musical skills after all this time; one practitioner shared “we are doing music sessions every day!”. It was a wonderful opportunity for practitioners at the start of their IMM journey to hear reassurance and encouragement from others who have been in their shoes.

Topics covered in the discussion:

  • Practicalities and advice on setting up new groups

  • How to engage children who are “in the corner of the room”

Some shared ideas of using stretchy lycra or a parachute to help bring the group together during musical activities, while others described how they use singing commentary to acknowledge and include children who might be outside the group activity.
This event also provided a great opportunity for song sharing, with everyone sharing their favourite song to use with their children. We discussed how valuable it is to have “songs with a purpose”, and to recognise why we are using them.

One practitioner described how she uses the same melody to help transition between activities in her group. Another practitioner shared a fun, playful song, Willoughby Wallaby Woo, to encourage sharing and to develop peer awareness between the children. This sparked an idea of how we might continue to share songs with IMM alumni, with a clear motivation to keep learning and developing musical skills.

If you’d like to get involved with future IMM CPD events, please contact Elsa: elsahariades@musicastherapy.org