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Rachel Begleiter Posts: 3
12/17/2018
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Think of a student with a disability you have now or in the past. Describe ways in which their disability affected their learning in your class.
In one of my fourth grade class, I have one student who is severely handicapped in both movement and speech abilities. This student is unable to respond verbally to questioning nor can the student be able to play an instrument properly or sing because of the student's disability. However, this student happily surprises me each time the student comes to music class. The student listen attentively and absorbs the knowledge gained from my class. For example, I was teaching the class about syncopation and syncopated rhythms, displaying eight quarter eighth note rhythms. The goal of activity was to be able to identify the notated version of the Syncopa rhythm. I took student volunteers to come up to the whiteboard and circle the Syncopas. This student was among the volunteers, and, with the help of the student's aid, the student selected the correct rhythm. It was gratifying to see that despite the disability that student was able to comprehend and apply the musical knowledge taught in my class.
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Rachel Begleiter Posts: 3
12/21/2018
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In one of my fourth grade classes, I have a student who is severly handicapped. He cannot verbally respond to question or do any complex movement. To help him answer questions, we use an IPad app that includes pictures that give a vocal response when pressed. This allows the student to respond to questioning in class.
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Madison Roach Posts: 3
12/23/2018
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In the past I have worked with variety of students who were in wheelchairs during class. For each activity we would do I would make sure that they had an instrument that could be played by tapping it on their tray or shaken when held. Some students were not able to hold instruments on their own and I would add a velcro strap to help it stay in their hand for the activity. I would also modify any movement props we used such as scarves and streamers so that the students could move them successfully or we would do the movement activity hand over hand.
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Ross McCarthy Posts: 3
1/9/2019
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I currently have a student who is hard of hearing in beginning band and she is playing the Trumpet. I use solfege and direction of my hands up and down to help her match pitch. She has gotten very good at feeling where her buzz needs to be for the note she is looking at. At took some time but she has improved greatly!
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John O'Hara Posts: 1
1/15/2019
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One of my 5th grade music classes includes a boy who is autistic. If it were up to him, he would be perfectly content to refrain from participating. He often has an object with him that he is interested in. Sometimes it is something he has created (usually very intricate). Sometimes it is a toy car. He's usually absorbed in the object, pretending, imagining..etc. I frequently remember to cue him after I've cued the class. I try to do it as inconspicuously as possible. For example, if we're standing up behind our chairs to strike our boomwhackers, I'll check to see if he's standing. If not, I'll get his attention and repeat the direction. It usually doesn't require much motivation to get him involved. He doesn't fight me on it. I think I'm just setting the expectation that he will be participating in music. I see my role as reminding him that I'm not going to ignore him and I'll always be there expecting him to try.
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Ana Valdes Posts: 2
1/27/2019
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I have a 4th grade student in the autistic spectrum. he comes to music once a week with a standard fourth grade class. He loves to play the piano and he will sit and play themes from movies, opening themes, and assorted songs. He plays everything by ear and he is on task the whole 30 minutes, playing the piano. i do not force him, to take part in our class activities, unless I feel he will truly be involved. Normally, he does not participate biut when he sits at the piano, it is magic. Last year, i donated a keyboard to his family after they suffered a house fire, and I encouraged his parents to pursue his passion of the piano.
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Penny Bryant Posts: 3
1/29/2019
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I have many students with different disabilities. My one student with autism plays beautifully when it come to instruments and likes to help other when it comes to recorder fingering and playing. I have to keep his enthusiasm down a little so he doesn't disrupt class. He tries very well and doesn't get upset like he does in PE class. When he gets frustrated with a task he has a tendency to hit himself or other things.
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Linda Steffen Posts: 1
1/30/2019
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I have had many student present and past with autism. I have found that there is no one solution that works for all students on the spectrum. I have had to get to know what works specifically for that individual. Aides and classroom teachers have always been a great resource to help work out a strategy for each student. Since they have them all day and I only see them once per week, they have spent more hours with a student and can help work out an issue, strategy, or even how to work through frustration. I had a student in third grade playing recorders and was doing great. In the middle of the school they changed the schedule and the entire class was moved to another music teacher on staff. This only promoted frustration in the student and he would get violet and throw the instruments. The administration decided to move that class back to me and take a different class and the student settled back in with no violet outbursts. Change was not good for that particular student.
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Janine Schenck Posts: 4
2/4/2019
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Several years ago I had a student with ADHD in my elementary choir. He was 9 years old. Many children in the choir did not like being near him because he was such a disruption. I teach at a very small private school. This child was exceptionally musically inclined, was not afraid at all to sing in front of his peers, and delighted in his natural ability in my class. However, he simply could not attend for more than two or three minutes at a time, and when his attention wandered he created a disturbance for the rest of the class.
I gave him jobs to do. Before class, I would pull him aside and tell him that I needed his voice to help a certain area of the choir, so I would ask him to stand in that area. Throughout the class, I would move him around the ensemble. I would also ask him to help pass out and collect papers, as well as sing in small groups. I also learned not to take too long explaining a particular concept to the entire group, as an explanation of more than a minute or so would cause him to go off task. By the end of the year, I saw him not only improve his musical ability, but also start to make friends in choir.
edited by Janine Schenck on 2/4/2019
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Janine Schenck Posts: 4
2/4/2019
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Linda Steffen wrote:
I have had many student present and past with autism. I have found that there is no one solution that works for all students on the spectrum. I have had to get to know what works specifically for that individual. Aides and classroom teachers have always been a great resource to help work out a strategy for each student. Since they have them all day and I only see them once per week, they have spent more hours with a student and can help work out an issue, strategy, or even how to work through frustration. I had a student in third grade playing recorders and was doing great. In the middle of the school they changed the schedule and the entire class was moved to another music teacher on staff. This only promoted frustration in the student and he would get violet and throw the instruments. The administration decided to move that class back to me and take a different class and the student settled back in with no violet outbursts. Change was not good for that particular student.
Linda, I also had a couple students with Autism who were overstimulated by the activities in music class. I would encourage the classes to keep volume to mp, (play quiet enough to hear your neighbor) but what really hooked these two young men was when I brought my own instruments to class during our unit on the orchestra. They were particularly interested in the flute and clarinet. One told me after he liked how shiny the keys were and all the mechanisms for the buttons. (His words, not mine.) After that, they joined circle instead of hiding in the corner of the room.
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Tricia Buckstein Posts: 4
2/6/2019
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I had a student for the last 3 years that was missing her right hand. This made it very difficult to play recorder and guitar. We were able to modify the music expectations on the recorder by allowing her to play only songs that used the left hand. For the guitar, I teach melody guitar, we tried a couple ideas to make it work. We finally decided that the guitar would lay on her lap with the neck facing the right. She would use the end o her right arm to push down the frets and her left hand to pluck the strings. She ended up being the best guitar I have had in 18 years.
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Deb Merrill Posts: 3
2/7/2019
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I have a student with autism in our elementary music class. He becomes over stimulated easily and we have a place where he can sit in our room that is a bit away from the other students. He can still hear and see everything we do, but he enjoys his quiet space. I am lucky that there are two of us in the music room at the same time and one of us can talk to him with quiet directions, if needed. He contributes to class and is always aware of what we are doing. He loves to play the instruments, but sometimes wears headphones to soften the sound.
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Leon Carson Posts: 3
2/11/2019
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I currently have a student with an orthopedic impairment (OI) which makes it difficult to properly hold the guitar and use the fretboard with good hand position. What he needed was a modification of position and posture to hold the guitar. He also needed a way to press the strings against the fretboard in an unconventional way. I placed the strap on the guitar to secure it around his waist while he was sitting. He laid the guitar flat with the strings facing up. This allowed him to use the guitar in a steel guitar fashion. He used his thumb to press the frets to create the desired melody while plucking with his right thumb. It has worked out just fine.
edited by Leon Carson on 2/11/2019
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James Bonner Posts: 3
2/13/2019
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I currently have a student with a degenerative bone disease, primarily in his legs – an orthopedic disability. He is confined to a wheelchair so movement to music is greatly limited. When doing movement activities, I try to include a lot of upper body movement with arms, neck and head movements.
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Derrick Blassingame Posts: 2
2/18/2019
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I had a student with ASD with behavorial dysfunction. I built a relationship with the student by identifying his love to play the piano. After listening to his love for animation theme songs, I featured him in my winter concert. His behavior has improved with less interruptions during class. His interest in music has given me a platform to communicate with him in ways others may have problems.
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Rogina Carden-Wilkinson Posts: 3
2/18/2019
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I teach students with all sorts of disabilities: hearing imparments, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum, the list goes on. For this reply I will focus on a student whos is deaf/hard of hearing. This impariment affect my student's ability to quickly hear specific changes in music. Thankfully, she is a hard working student who is eager to learn and puts forth the necesary effort. We use a special microphone device to help her hear instruction more clearly and she is good to make sure that she is sitting towards the front in every class. Some ways in which I have modified instruction for her (as well as her class) is to play listening examples more times than I would for a non-hearing impaired student. I also will repeat the instruction, as well as write down the important directions. My goal is to begin using more visual aids such as listening maps.
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Renee Cartee Posts: 5
3/1/2019
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I had a students with aspergers. I actually have had several students with aspergers, however, this one was always fun with numbers. He had difficulties with being musical, and needed guidance, but his accuracy for notation was amazing! Aspergers is on the spectrum. High energy in his case, and very detailed to the smallest number. I would give him as much positive feedback as possible because he became very proud of leading my recorder groups since he understood how to count the music so well, even if his fingers fumbled.
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Mary Papit Posts: 3
3/3/2019
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I have a 1st grade student who comes to music class in a wheelchair. She has a paraprofessional who comes with her. The student can stand, but cannot walk. My 1st grade students sit on the rug, so she comes in, gets herself out of her wheel chair and crawls a very short distance to her assigned seat in the front row on the end of the row, where I or the paraprofessional can easily assist her. Her seat is easily accessible for her. She does not need any accommodations for most of what we do in class. She can sit on the rug to play any of the instruments we use. Movement is the only area where she needs accommodations. I usually have the students do movement that she can do either sitting or standing. If we are doing locomotor movement, the paraprofessional will push her in her wheel chair. We often use scarves when we do locomotor movement, so she can use her arms and hands to move the scarf while the paraprofessional moves her chair. Her disability does not really affect her music learning. She was very shy and quiet at the beginning of the school year. Now she eagerly raises her hand to ask and answer questions.
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Jana Burton Posts: 3
3/8/2019
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I had a middle school band student with muscular dystrophy. She was on a ventilator through a tracheotomy. This student could speak clearly but did not possess enough breathe support to play a wind instrument. We put in on percussion, but we needed to make other modifications, due to her electric wheel chair it was difficult for her to get to a proper playing position on some of the instruments. Also, due her MD, she did not have extra upper body strength. Using regular drum sticks were a challenge, She was not able to control them as well as she would have liked. Working with a percussion company, we were able to find a pair of sticks for a small child that were balanced. It gave her the confidence she needed to be successful in band.
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Nancy Andrews Posts: 7
3/11/2019
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I have some severe behavior issues in some of my 2nd grade music classes. Much of it is that they simply cannot control and are very impulsive so they speak out constantly and have a hard time sitting still. I try to do a variety of activities to keep the students engaged but the constant interruptions are often frustrating. Some of my classes have up to 5 students with these issues so they "feed" off of each other and at times I feel like it's getting out of control. Any suggestions?
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