Aimee Ketchum

I graduated from College Misericordia with a BS in Occupational Therapy in 1995. I worked with patients with brain injury at two different rehab facilities. I have also worked as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist in Scranton, Hershey, Reading, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Bastrop, Louisiana, Brooklyn, NY, and my hometown of Lititz, Pennsylvania, over the past several years. Between working in brain injury remediation and working with children with developmental delay, I have learned a great deal about brain functioning. My experience in the field paired with hours and hours of research and close observation of my own children's development has given me the foundation for creating my developmental programs. I attained my Baby's First Massage Certification in October of 2003 and began working at the Heart of Lancaster Regional Health Center teaching baby massage to all new parents in August of 2004.

I teach children's music and exercise classes in six week sessions to children and caregivers in a group setting, I also teach several parenting classes on early childhood development, and baby massage instruction at the hospital and throughout the community.

Then one day out of nowhere Marley paid attention to the entire book. Not only did she look at the pictures and occasionally turn and smile at me, but she reached out to help me turn the pages, engaging herself like never before. It suddenly dawned on me that I had absently begun to sing the words instead of just read them. It caught her interest.

As I pondered the effects of rhythm and music on children, I thought about the children I work with as an occupational therapist: the children with cerebral palsy whose tight muscles relax when there is soothing classical music playing children with speech impediments so severe they cannot say 'good morning', yet they can articulate all of the songs on Sesame Street and children who are so sensory impaired that they cannot walk a straight line, yet they can do all of the motions to "The Hokey Pokey".

My own appreciation for music and love for spending time with children led me to create Love Notes© , a music and developmental exercise program for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.