Music and Movement – Audio Description and Transcript
Parents and Whanau Hui – Growing and Learning Together with your Deaf Child,
brought to you by Ministry of Education, New Zealand Federation for Deaf
Children and Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand.
A presentation by Darryl Alexander and Josje Lelijveld on ‘Music and movement’
held in a small seminar room in Living Springs, Christchurch.
Presentation by Darryl Alexander, Resource Teacher Deaf, van Asch Deaf
Education Centre on music and movement for a deaf child.
Darryl (signing): This workshop will have three parts. First it’s how we see music,
how we see it. How do we do that? Second part of this workshop is how we feel rhythm.
And the third section, we’ll learn some rhymes. This workshop focuses on music and
movement and it focuses on how to see music through the eyes and feeling vibration in
the body. The children are deaf, so have some hearing loss. So even though the children
may not be able to hear the music, they can still enjoy the music through movement.
For example there is dancing, playing with rhythms, there is sign-singing with your
hands.
You may be thinking to yourselves, ‘Hmm, how do I make music and movement? Well,
let’s turn off the interpreter for a bit and please there’s no need to be nervous about
that. We’ll be okay! No need to be shaking in your boots without the interpreter. We’ll
be fine.
Darryl holds up a white piece of paper with a picture of a drum on it.
Parents and children practice the movement of playing a drum.
Darryl holds up a white piece of paper with a picture of a guitar on it.
Parents and children practice the movement of playing a guitar.
Darryl holds up a white piece of paper with a picture of a violin on it.
Parents and children practice the movement of playing a violin.
Darryl holds a stick and uses it like a conductor. He gestures for the audience to
start and the parents and children imitate various instruments.
Interview with Darryl on his experience of using music and movement.
Darryl (signing): There are different kinds of sounds, different kinds of way to show
rhythm. You can use the floor, or knock on a table. You can flash the lights on and off.
There are lots of easy ways to demonstrate this
Josje Lelijveld is in the centre of the room with the parents and children circled
around her. She stamps her foot on the ground and encourages the rest of the
room to join in. The parents are children are stamping their feet, clapping their
hands and tapping their hands on their knees. Josje gestures everyone to stop.
Darryl (signing): We certainly have music and movement in our household. I love
music myself. I might put on a music DVD for my children. And I can still be involved, I
can dance with them, sign-sing with them. Although I am deaf, I can access the songs via
the captions. The captions help me be involved in that, and my wife too. It helps us be a
part of talking about music with our children. And we can sign-sing with them and
dance with them. One really good tip for all parents is to turn on the captions when
watching DVDs at home. It really helps a child take in language from both audio and
visual sources.
Darryl signs the nursery rhyme ‘Humpty Dumpty’. The parents and children
imitate his movements.
Parents practising signs for nursery rhymes.
A workshop participant asks Darryl a question.
I currently take my child to a mainly music class because there’s limited activities in the
small area in which we live and she has unilateral hearing loss and so my concern is,
what’s she actually hearing and is that more confusing? Is it louder or is it too loud or,
you know, there isn’t all of the actions with it. So, is that something that you would
encourage still, to get the social interaction and watch the other children dancing and
singing and carrying on or is it something that might be confusing?
Darryl responds to the question.
Darryl (signing): I think yes for sure, I encourage you to go. Turning up the volume I
don’t think is necessary, just natural volumes are fine. But just use your discretion on
that, and what seems to work best for the child. And remember the aim is for them to
get an understanding of music. And that’s not about how loud it is. Sometimes it’s
difficult for me to identify a certain instrument being played. Is it a clarinet, a
saxophone, or a flute? I’m not sure. Is it a guitar or a keyboard? Rather than just
increasing the volume, you can show your child through mime and movement.
Demonstrate to them how that music is made. That’s the best way of helping them to
tune in to the music.
Interview with Darryl commenting on what he hopes parents take away from his
workshop.
Darryl (signing): My hope is that parents and their children use ideas of rhythm, use
sign-singing, use gesture or singing, any form of expression really, that’s what I want to
see.
Parents practice signing ‘Humpty Dumpty’ as a group with Darryl. They all clap
and smile.
PowerPoint on Top Tips for ‘Music and Movement’.
Top Tips:
 Use your eyes and body to feel the music – make it a visual experience.
 See music and movement, rhythm and rhyme, in your everyday lives.
 Feel and move to encourage expression through music, rhythm and rhyme.
Ministry of Education logo, Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand logo, NZ Federation for
Deaf Children logo.