Teaching music to handicapped children takes a special kind of person: someone who is patient, intelligent, and educated on the students’ disabilities. Music is a difficult subject to teach to handicapped children because it requires so much participation and understanding. However, the gifted, experienced music teacher can do it, and successfully.
When you find out you will be teaching a child with a disability (whether privately or in a classroom setting), find out immediately what the child’s disability is, the severity of it, and any other information you need to know. Look up the disability in the library or go see a special ed. teacher to talk about what to expect from this student. If you are teaching in a classroom setting, immediately talk to the child’s classroom teacher (or former teacher, if the school year hasn’t started yet) and look up his or her IEP. An IEP is an individualized education plan, and every child with a serious, documented learning disability has one. It is your legal responsibility to follow the child’s IEP. An IEP may include specifications such as allowing extra time to take tests, seating the child at the front of the classroom, or other small allowances. It may also provide for an aide in the classroom most or all of the time.
When you first meet the student, introduce yourself to the student and get to know him. If he has an aide, get to know her, too. If the student does not have an aide, but his behavior is continually disruptive to your classroom, speak to the special ed. teachers or to the principal of the school about getting one in your classroom. An aide can manage the student’s behavior while you teach the class so the other students don’t miss out on educational opportunities.
Realize that this student may learn slower than other students, or he may learn faster. Students with autism spectrum disorders may learn very fast, but may be disconnected from the classroom environment. Many students with behavioral disorders, in fact, are very intelligent, but are emotionally immature and/or unable to communicate appropriately with people. Try to understand the student’s method of communication and accept it, even if it is not what you would consider “appropriate” for other students. Of course, you must correct the behavior if it’s getting in the way of your other students’ ability to learn, but be more patient with a student who has learning disabilities.
Each of these students will learn differently. One of the best ways for them to learn, in general, is kinesthetically – that is, hands on. Explain to the child carefully what you want him to do, and give one instruction at a time. Children with behavioral disorders often can’t communicate well enough to understand more than one instruction at once without getting frustrated, even if they can understand doing multiple things at once. For this reason, clear, simple instructions are necessary.
As far as teaching a child to understand, give him all the pieces of a new idea at one time, and see what he makes of them – don’t feed a new skill to him bit by bit, because he will not see the overall purpose of the activity. For example, if you are teaching rhythm, hand the student rhythm sticks and display a card with a simple rhythm on it (say, four quarter notes). Then, count the rhythm as you point to the card. Play the rhythm while counting once. Play the rhythm while counting a second time and ask the student to play and count with you. Then, give the student another card and ask him to try it himself.
An “ordinary” student might ask why, might question what quarter notes are, or need further explanation as to why they’re doing what they’re doing. Children with behavioral disorders tend to understand without this explanation. Communication is what’s difficult for them, not understanding. Nobody really knows how a lot of these students think, so don’t make any assumptions about a child’s understanding until you hand him the skills and see what he is capable of learning.
In a private setting, you are able to spend much more time with the student, and you are able to cater directly to his learning needs. It’s a good idea to have another adult in the room, especially if the child is easily distracted. Let the student take control of his own learning. He will be more motivated to learn if he feels he has control over it. Also, if you give him the pieces of what he should learn and don’t talk too much about them, he will figure things out more readily and be less frustrated than if there is a lot of communication he’s forced to try to understand.
For example, if you are teaching a child to play the violin, give him the instrument and show him how to hold it, and the bow. Then ask him to pick up the instrument and play on the open A string twice, then the open E string twice. Many “ordinary” students struggle with this, because they are very careful to do it right. They are tuned in to the verbal instructions and the interaction with the teacher. Special ed. students may do very well immediately because they are focusing on the task at hand rather than communication and approval from the teacher.
As the student advances, if he refuses to do what he is supposed to, ask him what he would like to learn. Then, turn his answer around so that you are teaching in a way that suits you. For example, maybe he would prefer to learn a different, but equally easy song. Allow him to. If you are trying to teach him fingerings for the violin one at a time and he isn’t responding, teach him all the fingers at once and show him a song. Ask him to do what you do, and make sure he’s watching you do it. This kind of visual modeling will help a learning disabled student far more than verbal instructions will.
Overall, you must be creative and patient with special education students. Keep verbal instructions to a minimum, and usual visual modeling and kinesthetic learning approaches as often as possible. Remember that each student is different and that your approach will be somewhat different. Keep mental notes (or actual notes) on the students you have, on what approaches have worked, what approaches haven’t worked, and what you might try next. Get feedback from the student’s parents, other teachers, and anyone else you possibly can. Through all of these methods, you can successfully educated students with learning disabilities in music.
