Teaching Music Privately to the Special Needs Student

Prepared by Phyllis C. Field

Introduction:

At the officers meeting where we decided on topics, I brought up the concern of one of the other teachers. She had taken on a special needs student and was unsure how to proceed. She asked if we could use one of the meetings to discuss methods of dealing with a special needs student. Because I brought up the topic, it was assigned to me.

I had no special training for discussing special needs children. I had, of course, worked with my youngest son, diagnosed with ADD, and my eldest son with ODD. In the time when I substitute taught for the Intermediate Unit, I had worked with some special students, but only for a day or so at a time, and only with a great deal of help from the classroom aides. Still, I have read about the topic and have worked with a few students with special needs in the 13 years that I have taught privately, so I undertook the topic.

There are many categories of special needs students. We are unlikely in our private lessons to come across severely profoundly mentally retarded students or children with severe paralysis. It is more likely that we will work with students with ADHD, some form of autism, or a learning disability like dyslexia. In addition, we might be presented with a child with a minor handicap such as hearing loss, blindness or cerebral palsy that present unique challenges in private lessons. The thing to remember is that a child with a special need is still a child. He/she has come to you for the same reasons that any other child has come -- to learn music and to accomplish his/her dream of becoming a pianist or singer or flautist.

For this child, however, the music will become a form of therapy. It will help with the social interaction of a child with Asperger's Syndrome or become a physical therapy for a child with a muscular disability. For a child with Down Syndrome, music will help develop language, math and rhythmic skills that help with everyday living. For an ADHD student, it will become another reinforcement for learning to focus and to behave appropriately. You as a teacher will have to develop methods that work for your student to overcome each hurdle, and you will have to be consistent in reinforcing them.

In this paper, I will list general techniques that will work with all special needs students. I will present ideas about working with children with specific problems. I will show research results on the benefits of teaching music to these children. Included will be a list of terms that apply to special needs students and a reference guide of places where further information can be sought.

General Techniques and Principles:

The private teacher needs to understand the special need. If a parent brings a special needs child to you for an interview, you must ask questions. Most parents have lived with the special need for a long time and can give you information. Some have just received the diagnosis and are feeling their way along. A very small percentage will not be aware or will choose not to make you aware that their child has a problem and you will discover this as the lessons go on. If you suspect a special need, talk to the parents. Once you identify a child and a specific need -- read, read, read!

You will discover that many special needs children require only moderate changes on your part. For an ADHD student, you may need only keep him/her away from the window and write down everything that you want him/her to accomplish. For others you will have to rethink the way you teach piano, which may benefit you and your other students.

Music is processed by a different area of the brain than speech and language, so a child may be able to absorb information and skills taught with music more easily than with spoken language.

When you teach, be sure to keep the fun in it. A child who is normally frustrated by his/her handicap can still find enjoyment in music.

Do not assume that all special needs students are slow. Some special needs students are actually gifted students.

Do not talk down to a special needs student. Make goals clear and honest.

Do not pity a special needs student. If behavior is inappropriate, do not excuse or ignore it. In this way, the special needs child is no different from any other child you will have. I cannot tell you the number of parents who are frustrated because the teacher allows the student to get away with things from pity. This only teaches the child that he/she is different and that he/she deserves pity.

You will not turn every special needs child into a concert artist. Do not get caught up in the idea that this student should progress at a certain pace. The special needs child will need an individual program designed to meet his needs, so your goals will have to be different as well.

Praise the student when he/she accomplishes a goal. This will generate enormous feelings of accomplishment that help the child's self-image.

Be consistent in the lessons. The predictability of a lesson can become a comfortable routine that helps the child feel secure.

Use familiar music, which can trigger memory, and make the student more comfortable with learning new things.

Group music lessons can help special needs children feel more involved and accepted, as well as provide negative peer sanctions for inappropriate behavior.

Do what works! As author, illustrator, publisher and parent of special needs child with Down Syndrome, ADHD, and ODD, Natalie Hale says, "If the front door is locked, go in through the side door, the back door, and all of the windows."

ADD/ADHD Students:

An ADHD child has difficulty focusing on one thing at a time. This is due to some kind of neurological problem. More boys than girls suffer from this disorder. There are many causes for ADD and ADHD, but the symptoms are what define the special needs. Not all attention deficit children are hyperactive. Below are some suggestions for teaching attention deficit children:

Keep distractions away from the student -- other students sitting in the room, windows, doors, air conditioners, pets, etc.

Changes affect children with ADD more profoundly than other children. Stick to a routine that they can understand.

Find ways to make the student feel good about his behavior and his accomplishments. Praise him/her frequently. If your reward system isn't motivating the student find another reward.

Require notebook that contains all the papers you want him to take to the parents and all of the assignments just as you wish them to be practiced. Have him/her get parents to initial his/her daily practice in the notebook.

Go over the assignments clearly and simply. Complex instructions are often not understood because the student is trying to focus on one thing and will miss the other ideas.

If the student missed something or didn't understand, repeat yourself in a calm, positive way.

Always keep eye contact when you are explaining something. If the student appears to be "taking a vacation," bring him/her back to focus.

Encourage parents to set a specific practice time and schedule in an environment without distractions. Have them review the practice after each session with a mini-performance or a checklist. They should then reward the positive accomplishments.

Work on only one concept at a time.

ADD students get frustrated easily. If a piece of music is perceived as too difficult, the student will shut down and do nothing or act up. Be prepared to scale a piece down into small, easily accomplished tasks or to replace the piece with a simpler piece.

Most ADD children will not ask for help. Encourage them to ask. Remember that ADD students may need more help for a longer period of time, but try to decrease the assistance over time.

Keep the activities hands-on, using many ways to explain the key concept of the lesson; but do not move around the room.

Teach the student to reward himself/herself. For instance, you might ask, "How do you feel about being able to play this piece so well?"

Visually Impaired Students:

Visual impairment can be anything from eye teaming, convergence abilities, focusing, lack of suppression, and eye movement abilities to blindness. Sometimes you can see these problems right off. Other times you have to observe what the student is doing to realize that there is a problem. Often times the problem has been diagnosed and is being treated with corrective lenses and exercises.

This is not so in the case of blindness. What should you do if a blind student wishes to take music lessons? There are ways to teach music to the blind. These methods will also be valid for students with visual perception problems.

A blind student will use his/her ears more thoroughly than a sighted student; therefore, avoid aural distractions such as fans, fluorescent lights that buzz, air conditioners, etc.
Describe the room and allow the student to feel the room and objects in the room so that he/she will develop a reasonable comfort level.

Teach the feel of the keyboard or the instrument of choice. Remember that the terms up and down will have different meaning to a blind student than to you. Close your eyes and feel the relationship between the black and white keys. With your eyes closed, you cannot tell which is black and white, but instead you think of them as up keys and down keys.

That means you have to avoid saying that high and low are the same as up and down. Use the groups of three black keys and two black keys to help learn the keys F and B or C and E.

Try an idea out on yourself with your eyes closed.

Make sure that the visually impaired person thinks about the words the same way as you intend them. Sight gives us a different perception of words than a sightless person may experience.

Hands-on work is essential. Be sure to explain what you are going to do in detail before you actually try it. Then place your hand over the student's hand or have the student place his hand on yours. Explain what you are doing as you demonstrate. State the pitches as you play them. Hands on patterning helps students understand how pitches relate to each other.

Prerecorded pieces should be recorded in a certain order. First give all written information on the piece being recorded if it is listed on the print music. State time and key signature as well as tempo markings. Record right hand first at a very slow pace. Say pitch names as possible but keep rhythms exact. Next, record the left hand. After the hands separate slow version, record the entire piece at the correct tempo using all dynamics and tempo markings.

Teach students things they can recognize right away. Use melodies or simple chords to make the student feel successful. Intensive ear training as described above and memorization skills will impact the student's future desire and growth at the instrument.
When the student has learned to play well in the ear recognition way, it is time to train them to read Braille music. This requires great dedication as the student cannot read the music and play at the same time -- except for singers. The student has to learn the music one measure at a time and memorize it to play it.

Down Syndrome Students:

The Down Syndrome student can also learn to play and instrument. The goals for such a student may be entirely different from the goals for a regular student. Music is often an effective way to reach students because music engages the emotions. Often people with special needs learn best through the use of music because that part of the brain is less likely to be damaged from birth defects, accidents, etc.

In one study of an 18-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, a method of teaching piano was used for twelve weeks with one to two lessons per week. Below are the methods they used:

First a verbal cue was given; then a tactile cue was used. This would be like the hands-on method in the visual impairment portion of this paper.

Next a verbal cue was given and an aural or visual cue followed. In other words, telling the student what to do then demonstrating it yourself.

A sung cue was given. This would be like a chant or a sung instruction.

Finally, a symbol was shown to represent the idea.

The results were so encouraging that the girl went on to take additional lessons.

Learning Disabilities:

There are many different learning disabilities. The material which I was able to gather suggests ways to improve the memory of students with learning disabilities since many students with learning disabilities have problems with remembering materials covered in school.

This section will list various mnemonic strategies to help students with learning disabilities remember key concepts in music theory, history, and technique.

Keyword Strategies:

This strategy puts together closely related words into a sentence that make sense to the student. For instance, if I were trying to teach Baroque composers to a student, I might make a sentence like "He broke his back when he grabbed the handle of her scarlet purse." I would associate the word broke with Baroque, back with Bach, handle with Handel, scarlet with Scarlatti, and purse with Purcell. Thus, the student would learn four composers of the Baroque era. I might add a picture of a man bending over picking up a purse and saying, "Ouch!" this would reinforce the idea in a meaningful way for the student.

It is important to remember that mnemonic devices are not an education method or a curricular strategy. They are intended only to help students remember important information that would be presented in a lecture format or a reading format that might be difficult for a learning disabled student to remember. They do not replace attentiveness, practice, and other basic things students must do to succeed in music lessons.

Pegword method:

Pegwords are used when numbered information has to be learned. For instance learning that specific dances have a specific meter. Pegwords are rhyming words for numbers.

One is bun six is sticks

Two is shoe seven is heaven

Three is tree eight is gate

Four is door nine is vine

Five is hive ten is hen

Pegwords are substituted for the number to be remembered. For instance, you might have someone waltzing in a tree or doing a gigue on a stick. This could help the student remember that a waltz is in 3/4 time and a gigue is in 6/8 time.

Letter Strategies:

This is a commonly employed strategy with music teachers who want children to remember the names of the lines and spaces. If I want the children to remember the Bass clef lines I would simply give them a sentence with the first letters of each word being the important information -- Goofy black ducks fly around.

Autism (Asperger's Syndrome):

Asperger's Syndrome is a mild form of autism. Classic autism is a devastating neurological disorder with a strong genetic component, marked by rapid brain growth during early childhood. Many autistic people are mentally retarded and require lifelong institutional care. But there is a broad spectrum of autism that is more widely recognized now than before. It seems that there are countless people who can compute and systematize easier than they can understand socialization.

You will find more boys than girls showing symptoms of autism. How does this affect a music lesson? With the young man with Asperger's that I teach, there are a few things that I have noticed.

The autistic child will not make eye contact easily. You should not force this, or you could make him feel very tense. This could cause a terrible outburst. The student won't realize this is socially wrong.

Scales, theory pages, and other technical materials come very easily to the student. If I point to a key signature of four flats, he will say, "Ab Major." There is not the hesitation I see often in first year students.

Systematic practice is better for the student. What seems like drudgery to someone else, is actually normal for this student. The negative side is that some days he will refuse to practice and will throw a fit for his parents.

When you speak about the emotional facets of a piece, you are speaking a different language. Be specific about the way that you would play the piece, and use few emotive images. Say things like, "You need to gradually get louder here." Don't say, "This should be exciting here and tender here."

Some kids with mild autism do not like to be touched. You should ask before you move hands to a better position, etc. Otherwise, you may end up with an outburst. Remember that each child with autism is as different as any other child may be. My student doesn't have a problem with physical contact, whereas, another might.

Conclusions:

Children with special needs, be they physical handicaps or intellectual handicaps, are as individual as "regular" children. They need to be treated as individuals. Sometimes more preparation or thought needs to be given to the lesson. Still, the techniques that help a special child will also invariably help the average child in lessons. It is worthwhile to employ some of these strategies with all of your students.

If you have the opportunity to work with a special child, learn all that you can about the condition. Look for appropriate teaching styles. Then, enjoy as you find yourself learning right along with the student.

Glossary of Terms:

Assistive Technology: any equipment used to help a student with a disability to work with greater ease and effectiveness. Examples may include tape recorders, CD/ROM games and information center.

Direct Instruction: an instructional approach to a subject that emphasizes the use of carefully sequenced steps that include demonstration, modeling, guided practice, and independent application.

Learned Helplessness: a tendency to be a passive learner who depends on others for decisions and guidance.

Learning Strategy Approaches: instructional approaches that focus on efficient ways to learn rather than on curriculum. Includes specific techniques for organizing, actively interacting with material, memorizing, and monitoring any content.

Multisensory Learning: an instructional approach that combines auditory, visual, and tactile elements into a learning task. Tracing clay notes while saying the names and listening to the teacher playing the music would be and example of a multisensory approach.

Other References:

A Mind at a Time by Melvin D. Levine.

Basic Materials for the Piano Student (Braille Edition) by Marcelle Vernazza and Leonora Young.

Behavioral Management: A Practical Approach for Educators (6th Edition) by J. Walker and T. Shea.

Clinically Adapted instruments for the Multiply Handicapped by Cynthia Clark and Donna Chadwick.

Drumming to the Beat of a Different Marcher: Finding the Rhythm for Teaching a Differentiated Classroom by Debbie Silver.

Exceptional Children: and Introduction to Special Education (7th Edition) by William J. Heward.

Helping the Special Learner through Musical Activities: A Book of Musical Games to Teach Functional Skills to Handicapped Students by Paula Hollen Mills.

Making Music with the young Child with Special Needs: A Guide for Parents by Elaine Streeter.

Music for the Hearing Impaired by C. Robbins.

Music is for Everyone: A Handbook for Providing Music to People with Special Needs by laurie Farnan.

Music for All: Teaching Music to People with Special Needs by Lois Birkshaw-Fleming.

Reaching the Special learner Through music by Sona Nocera.

Speech and Hearing Science; Anatomy and Physiology (4th Edition) by Willard R. Zemlin.

Teaching Children and Adolescents with Special Needs by J. Olson and J. Platt.

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