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Jane Plank Posts: 3
7/5/2018
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A third-grader new to our school arrived in music with hearing aids. I assumed he was D/HH. He always brought a transmitting device for me to wear around my neck to amplify my voice to his hearing aids. He also was SI. I decided that close proximity to me was a good first strategy for optimizing aural and visual learning. His behavior, performance and participation was commendable throughout the school year. At the end of the year, I learned from another teacher that this 3rd grader's main reason for using the hearing devices was to improve his focus and ability to pay attention! Either way, the proximity strategy was helpful. I also learned to check more carefully to the labeling of each student's disabilities/impairments.
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LORRI Posts: 1
7/6/2018
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In addition to our regular weekly music classes, we wanted to prepare our ESE students for a presentation during parent's day. Our classes are grouped by age and grade level, not functionality, so there were a variety of abilities including students with autism, language and speech impairment, traumatic brain injury and intellectual disability. Successful performance opportunities are very important for all students, After reviewing appropriate songs with the classroom teacher, we selected with the children's approval, the Hokey Pokey, since they sang it in their classroom, it was very familiar and they loved it. However, none of the children were able to consistently identify left from right which was a long-term goal we were working toward. We came up with the idea to use color, which all student knew, instead of the traditional "right hand, left foot" etc. each body part moved was assigned a different color. We practiced the song during music classes while I played the guitar and sang or used a rock karaoke version that everyone loved. The students were all successful with the rewritten lyrics and concept. A scheduling road-block came up and I was unable to be present for the performance. None of the teachers felt comfortable singing. So, during my after school program music enrichment time, I taught students the song. Many were already "puzzle friends" and knew the students well from their Friday afternoon activities, where they read, play games and socialized with ESE classes. We recorded the song with the revised lyrics. Not only were the ESE students successful, but the collaboration was meaningful and created a since of pride and care for all of us.
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Christopher Edwards Posts: 3
8/20/2018
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The past 3 years I had the opportunity to teach a student with muscular dystrophy. When he first came to me he was confined to his wheel chair. He had very little mobility and though he wanted to participate, he found it difficult to do so. I made sure that every lesson included aspects that he could fully participate in such as singing, call and response, Kagan questioning strategies (discussion and Q/A). I could tell he really wanted to participate in the movement and instrument playing. So I paired him up with a responsible student who helped him with movement and instrument playing. As the year went on and his work with his OT/PT teacher improved, he became much more independent. Having a student with a physical disability broadened my teaching and lesson planning to become much more inclusive to all students. I found my lessons were able to be accessed by every student and there was much more fun and learning happening during that time!
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Mary Holway Posts: 2
8/20/2018
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I had a student whom I taught for six years in my school. K-5. His disability was a physical disability relating to his spine and mobility. He was not in a wheelchair but got around slowly with canes and special footwear. He could not participate in our classroom games and dances very readily so he usually was out "steady beat" person and helped me with remembering who needed to participate and who had participated. He kept track of people's turns and ran my music/tech when I needed him to.
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Walter Halil Posts: 2
9/2/2018
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I had a student in my third grade recorder class with Muscular Distrophy. He was having difficulty coordinating his fingers to keep the thumb hole and the front holes covered at the same time. This prevented him from from being able to successfully play any notes on the recorder. I covered the thumb hole for him with a sticker so that he could concentrate on the front holes alone. He was still having some difficulty, so I put a sticker on the top front hole, which is necessary to play all the other notes, and he was finally able to play "Hot Cross Buns" by himself.
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JESSICA NYE Posts: 4
9/13/2018
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I had a first grade student who had muscular dystrophy.and her wrists were bent inward severely, making it impossible for the student to hold on to items. The student was able to understand the music concepts, sing and participate in limited movement activities. When playing instruments, she was given instruments that she could play successfully, a desk and chair where she could place the instrument and a buddy to help her play the instrument when necessary. The student was positive and really wanted to participate and was able to complete all modified activities. This student's ability to learn was not affected by her disability, as long as the instruments were setup in a way that the student could play successfully.
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Jill Law Posts: 3
9/13/2018
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I have a student with hearing loss in my second grade music class. He does not always hear pitches accurately and struggles to follow along with singing and listening activities. This sometimes causes him to distract others around him and struggle to stay on task. I use a lot of things that he can look at such as listening maps, animated songs with words to follow, pictures and videos that he can track visually. This seems to keep his attention and help him focus especially during listening activities. He also has seating that is close to the sound source and I do adjust the volume to help him as well. He really likes music and the visual aids really help him be successful. He also enjoys playing drums and other rhythm instruments as this helps him feel the beat of the music in addition to the visuals. He rarely has behavior problems now and these modifications not only help him but others who may struggle to focus and participate.
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Rosemarie A Fernburg Posts: 4
9/17/2018
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I have a blind student in my Strings class with 50% hearing loss. I have been working with her teacher to encode her music into a modified braille system so that she can experience the same level of independence that the other students have. Other modifications have been to use more tactile stickers to mark her finger placement on the fingerboard and to support her development of a good bow hold. She uses a microphone with her implant and so far she has been successful with the early steps of learning to play a stringed instrument. I am becoming more aware of the way I verbalize instructions. I find myself trying to eliminate visual only demonstrations. If it truly is a concept where the visual matters, I look for ways to provide physical markers for her so she can find them on her own. The way I teach bow placement, in particular, has changed. This year I am having students listen for the tonal difference rather than solely rely on visual feedback. I was really nervous about her joining our class, but we a both learning a lot!
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Lee Bugeja Posts: 1
9/21/2018
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I currently have student in my third grade chorus who has intellectual disabilities and orthopedic impairments. He is a joy to be around! However he does have great limitations when it comes to writing and expressing himself verbally. In one exercise we used a worksheet in which we had to write words that went with the appropriate rhythm. Instead of writing the word, we had him draw a line to match the rhythm the word went with. It was a great success!
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Rebecca Weber Posts: 2
9/23/2018
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I have a student in my class that has an orthopedic impairment and must use a wheelchair. I have his class practice the beat through folk songs and activities with Quaver. For most activities, I use body percussion that students can practice in their seats. If I use a circle activity that requires movement, the student is able to move his wheelchair on his own and participate. If an activity requires the use of legs, I find a way to modify it so that the student with the impairment can still participate. When we practice on barred percussion instruments, I reserve a larger xylophone for this student so that they can easily access it from their wheelchair.
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Joseph Guidice Posts: 1
9/26/2018
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I teach Pre K ESE music throughout my school district so every child that I come in contact has some special need. The most challenging class was a class of deaf children. At first I struggled and had difficulty translating my "regular" lesson to something that would be relevant to these students. In addition, there was a full range of deafness in the room, from hard of hearing to profoundly deaf. Fortunately, their classroom teacher, assistants and interpreter were amazing. I often used large percussion instruments with them so they could feel the pulse of the music. In addition, I would have the students put their hands on my guitar as I played so they could feel the vibrations. Finally, we used more movement exercises and games that involved more visual cues. The entire experience was a real eye opener for me.
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Connie Edmond Posts: 3
10/5/2018
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I taught general music at the elementary level for deaf and hard of hearing students at my previous school. It was challenging at first because I did not receive prior training for their accommodations. Eventually through the assistance of the paraprofessionals and their classroom teachers, I learned strategies to improve my teaching skills of exceptional students. World drumming curriculum was awesome, students were able to feel the vibrations of the drums and play rhythms with accuracy. Also my instruction became much more intentional/deliberate as a result. I learned to develop their other strengths such as movement skills to what the students can see (lights on/off) representing music on and off.
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NIKKI KEMP Posts: 3
10/19/2018
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I have always taught early childhood music. Many years ago, I had a 1st Grade autistic student that was amazing in music. Though her cognitive and executive functioning skills were completely lacking, she was able to teach herself to read music, play piano, and had perfect relative pitch. Having her in music class was a joy, and a challenge, because while she was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the class musically, she was far behind in many other ways. Accommodations for her included being close to instruction, peer guidance, and frequent checks for understanding. Modifications for instruction to her included assigning her more elaborate ostinati to play, modeling singing techniques for the class, and giving her opportunities to read musical notation.
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Kathleen Pendas Posts: 3
11/2/2018
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I had a student who had a learning disability, but found out that she did much better when there were visuals. I used solfege hand signals, pictures, listening maps, music note cut outs that she could put in order for rhythms played, etc. I demonstrated all rhythms I wanted played on the instruments and she was able to play them back.
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Robin McDonald Posts: 3
11/12/2018
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I have a student with little to no use of his left hand due to a stroke during infancy and his left foot/leg drag a little. He does have great use of the other (right) hand/arm. He is easily frustrated, but I do manage to usually "talk him down" to a calmer state so he will at least try. Drums are great for him, but he also likes to use other instruments as well. I hang triangles from music stands so he can play them when necessary, and shakers work great with one viable hand. For instrumental parts that usually require two mallets, I alter the part so that he can use one mallet. Having a caring, musically strong music buddy with him works great, too. For moving activities, some times he decides something may be too much/too tiring. In those cases, he gets to select an instrument to play a steady beat along with the music being used.
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Keith Marks Posts: 3
11/13/2018
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I currently have a student with autism. This is my 3rd year having her in my music class. For a while in the first year, I had her use a weighted lap buddy as well as a sitting square. These helped but over time, she didn't need them anymore. She now has the opening line in our musical, which she recites very well, especially if I let her say it through the microphone.
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Michael Boehlein Posts: 2
11/20/2018
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I taught a group of fifth graders once with a wide range of disabilities. ranging from physical to mental disorders. Some were not verbal. I differentiated the lessons per student, and focused alot on hand-held tactile instruments that could utilize fine motor skills. A couple were able to play basic guitar songs after a couple of weeks. As a class we could 'play along' with some recorded music, playing perhaps an instrument that they could either hold and basically use as intended.
I moved to high school, in my band I had a student with severe dyslexia. Basically the student learned to play by ear, but for competitions or sight reading we did not have that option. We developed alternate makings on his music, which did take a while, but focusing on down-beats, and subdivisons. it took about a year, we used less and less markings, by his junior year he was able to play effectively at our sight reading competiton.
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Jason Thomashefsky Posts: 3
12/5/2018
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I have a class of students, mixed grade level, in a social emerging class. This class was created when most of the students entered kindergarten. For many years I have done a combination of push in and inclusion type music lessons with the students. Many of which are on the spectrum and auditory stimuli bothered them to some extent. Working with their speech pathologist, we developed a system of motions and rhymes that we performed on a consistent basis to bring them to the classroom. While in the classroom we remedied the noises by creating a social story to accompany them to the classroom. Through patience and practice, these students come and immerse themselves in the classroom. One student in the classroom enjoys music quite a bit and has a great sense of relative pitch. They have the ability to recognize large chunks of tonal and rhythm patterns. An issue arises with this students disability is the ability to focus long enough to do anything with it. It seems like with this student, their short-term, working memory ability to code new information has been hindered by their disability. I would love to learn more ways to help this student become more musically successful in my classroom.
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Karenna Holt Posts: 4
12/16/2018
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I taught a child who had Fragile X from the time he was in Kindergarten all the way through 5th grade. He had very limited speech and extremely limited fine motor skills, but he loved music! He was in my Chorus from 2nd-5th grade! He had an aide for Kindergarten and 1st grade, and she would help him hold the mallets to play the Orff instruments or strike a drum. It became a little harder for him in 2nd grade, and I would help him get his hands around the mallets . I always had another child help him follow along with where we were in the music and demonstrate what we were doing, The other students we wonderfully supportive of him, and everybody went out of their way to provide assistance if he needed it.
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Karenna Holt Posts: 4
12/16/2018
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His Fragile X did affect his learning in all subjects at school because things had to be repeated multiple times in order for him to remember them. I had to make sure that I repeated the critical content with him multiple times before I asked him to complete the task.My sentences to him had to be very short and to the point. He did understand me when I made sure to do this.
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