Had a lovely moment today with a group of 4 yr olds.
After a quick hello and how to play a drum conversation I asked them to move into the circle and have a play.
While I settled them in with a lot of noise I noticed a boy on the edge with tears streaming down his face and his hands over his ears.
I stopped the group and asked them to sit on their hands while I talked to Ben.
I told them that it looked to me like Ben found it too loud. He nodded.
I invited him into the circle and led him in holding his hand.
I then explained the body language for dynamics and sat opposite him holding both his hands. I said we needed to find out how loud Ben would like it.  I told everyone to start quietly and if Ben lifted his hands they could get louder , if he dropped his hands they needed to go quiet.
We than had a wonderful few moments. All 30  4 yr olds were focused on Ben, he literally had them all in the palm of his hands,  together we slowly lifted the volume and then dropped it. At first I was leading then he took control and finally a big smile broke out and he let go of my hands and stood up with his hands waving in the air and then jumped down to sitting and then back up. From then on he returned to a drum and had a wonderful time.

I often find  a few little ones (under 4) reacting to noise with tears and hands over ears, often an assistant gets to them first and takes them out or over away from the drums. This is the first time I have managed to get in and totally resolve the issue. Wonderful.

John