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Several years ago I taught a student with autism. He was easily overstimulated by the sounds in the elementary music classroom and our many movement activities. It was not unusual for him to make loud noises and hide under the furniture when he could not handle the stimuli. His teacher gave him noise cancelling headphones for music class. In addition, I gave him a special place at the far corner of the music class where he could go if he needed to get away from the noise or movement. In addition, I featured this student during singing activities. He loved to sing -- especially into a microphone -- and he matched pitch very well. The class and I celebrated his strengths in music class, as well as allowed him to modify his participation in certain activities that overstimulated him.

Several years ago I taught a student with autism. He was easily overstimulated by the sounds in the elementary music classroom and our many movement activities. It was not unusual for him to make loud noises and hide under the furniture when he could not handle the stimuli. His teacher gave him noise cancelling headphones for music class. In addition, I gave him a special place at the far corner of the music class where he could go if he needed to get away from the noise or movement. In addition, I featured this student during singing activities. He loved to sing -- especially into a microphone -- and he matched pitch very well. The class and I celebrated his strengths in music class, as well as allowed him to modify his participation in certain activities that overstimulated him.

I had a 2nd-grade student this year with many disabilities, including and not limited to: Autism Spectrum Disorder, EBD, etc. This meant that each week I wasn't sure what his behavior was going to be like, or if he could function in the music classroom. I would see him once a week for 45 minutes, and for the first several months of the school year, he would make it either between 20-30 minutes into the class before his behavior for whatever triggers he may have had, would set him off and he would start acting out with violence and impulsive behavior, which resulted in activating the intervention plan of calling the front office for a team member who was certified to help and remove him from class to keep himself and the other students and myself safe. When this particular student was able to stay in the class for the whole time, I made sure to not give either too much or too little praise, as I was told by his teacher during one of his IEP meetings with the parent that if he felt singled out for either a positive or negative could set him off. Basically the only consistent thing about this particular student was his inconsistency. Behavior plans, multiple meetings that the parent had were held throughout the school year to continue to re-evaluate what works and what didn't for this particular students. One thing I was able to do for him was give him his own set of mallets that I allowed him to put into his mouth when we played on the Orff instruments. He knew he had his own pair to do whatever he wanted to do with, which was helpful for the rest of the class to not have to worry about non-sanitary mallets when we switched instruments. Needless to say, it was a challenging year with this student in my class, and I have learned a lot about the importance of being flexible, and being proactive with my strategies.

I had a student who was born with only an upper left arm. We were reading and playing rhythm on rhythm sticks. He was having difficulty holding rhythm stick under his left arm. I bought a 2" dowel rod cut it a 2' length and he was able to play holding under his left arm. He wanted to play the snare drum. I found some Velcro straps and was able to attach the drum stick to his left arm. He was in heaven.

I have a student who is in fourth grade. His name is Samuel. Samuel has a speech impairment as well as other health impairments. He has a one on one para who travels with him to his specials classes and he uses an iPad to communicate. Samuel does as he is told and is usually on task. It does take some encouragement to have him participate in hand signs or playing instruments. I did learn that he loves movement activities. Last week I used the parachute to demonstrate the form for William Tell Overture. Samuel practiced the motions in his seat and was very excited to hear the music. It was like he was a different student. When we actually went to the parachute he listened and had so much fun using the parachute. He doesn’t let his disability hinder him in class. You can tell that he really enjoys music and loved moving around instead of just sitting and using instruments.

I had an autisic student in my room with a one-on-one paraprofessional. Students were being quizzed on classifying the instruments into their proper families. All students had a "fill in the blank" quiz with the picture of the instrument and a blank next to it to write in the family name. For my student with autism, I had cut outs of the instruments and he had to place them onto the color coded instrument family paper. (Purple was strings, blue was brass, green was woodwind, and red was percussion. These were the color codes we used all year.)

In the past, I have made adaptions to the melodic notation assessment that I use. When students have specific learning disabilities, they may have difficulty drawing note heads on the staff. In the past, I have allowed students to use manipulatives to notate what they heard. I have also reduced the number of pitches in each example and provided boxes on the staff (like bar lines between each note head) to help students compartmentalize the notation for the first pitch, the second pitch, the third pitch, etc. In terms of testing accommodations, I have tested students one-on-one (flexible setting), played the melodic phrases as many times as the student needed, and allowed for extra time.

I currently have a student who lacks self-control, is impulsive and is very easily distracted. The challenge for me is to actually get him to stay seated and focused so he can learn in music. I would like to provide preferential seating for him in the front of room. This would allow me to monitor his progress better and be within arms link to him. I would also like to come up with a signal that would let him know that he is going off track, and vice versa a signal that he can give me to let me know that he needs to move. I have given him a special rug to sit on during class to try establish some boundaries for him. This worked for a little while, but I wasn't consistent with him in order to make it apart of our expectations for him in my room. With regards for assessing his knowledge, this year I need to break things up into smaller units for him to see if this will help with his attention and retention.

In my recorder class, I have found that it works better for my ADD students to have a peer test them on their mastery of a song. While I am working through the class, assessing the students' proficiency on a given selection, I have my advanced students listen to those students who have trouble with their focus while waiting their turn.

Several years ago I taught a student with autism. He was easily overstimulated by the sounds in the elementary music classroom and our many movement activities. It was not unusual for him to make loud noises and hide under the furniture when he could not handle the stimuli. His teacher gave him noise cancelling headphones for music class. In addition, I gave him a special place at the far corner of the music class where he could go if he needed to get away from the noise or movement. In addition, I featured this student during singing activities. He loved to sing -- especially into a microphone -- and he matched pitch very well. The class and I celebrated his strengths in music class, as well as allowed him to modify his participation in certain activities that overstimulated him.

I had an ASD student who was high-functioning but was noticeably challenged when interacting with peers. There was a core group of students who were effective and patient when helping him understand appropriate ways to engage and interact with others while completing cooperative tasks. When creating groups and structuring in class assignments, I always included one student from the core group that partnered well with him. He changed groups with the same frequency as others; group assignments were not restrictive. By year’s end, he appropriately engaged with everyone in the class.