5/13/2018
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Robert Cook
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Right now I have a 7th student with ADHD who has struggled with getting past the basic fundamentals of sitting up straight, holding the instrument (clarinet) correctly, keeping time, reading the note names without writing the note names in her music and method book and just all out hiding in the instrument storage room stuck with fear that I was actually going to ask her to play alone in front of the class. She also missed pep band and concert performances due to her embarrassment and lack of accomplishment.
Obviously, I could see that the struggle was real for her and that I wasn't sure if she really enjoyed band that much. Her sister and step siblings were also in band, so I knew this was going to be a challenge. I didn't want her to think that she could not complete what her siblings had done so well. Therefore, I started out by having her work with a peer and that only worked for about a week before I noticed that she was constantly getting off task and regressing into her old habits. She always had a stuffed toy out or she was playing some sort of game on her phone. I was not happy. After speaking with her mother, I decided it was time to invite the student to take free private lessons with me after school on Thursdays to reinforce what I was working on with her and others during class.
Once the student started lessons I was able to help her chart her progress by setting short term goals and writing them down in her book next to each lesson. She was still coming to class and lessons unprepared. During discussions with her in her lessons I discovered a few facts that I didn't know at first. The biggest one being she never took her instrument home. I figured this was something her parents would notice, but strangely this never occurred to them or me. Once we got her mother on board to get the instrument home, I could then address that holding the clarinet improperly was causing her pain in her hands. She fought me tooth and nail for at least two months, but I finally decided to pull out the stops and start giving her rewards (the school "on track" passes) for each time she came to a lesson and achieved a goal. She now holds the clarinet the correct way with only slightly adjustments to the thumb (it may be time for an adjustable thumb rest).
At first my bribery consisted of just "on track passes" and then smiley stickers for preparing chunks of her pass off exercises in her method book and keeping her hands in the right position. This worked for everything from dotted quarter eighth note patterns to scales that didn't go over the break to learning her winter concert music. However, she had one beginning band hurdle to jump before she could be a true intermediate band musician. She would have to master going over the register key or "the break" on the clarinet. The look on her face was of sheer terror. She reluctantly came to lessons, she stopped being productive until I bribed her with a stuffed animal that was left over from one of our fundraisers. I didn't even realize it was in my office until she pointed it out to me. So in true teacher fashion the bet was on. She had to come to class and lessons prepared to perform the assigned amount of pass offs and she had to get over the break. After three months of working on the right hand covering the holes on the clarinet to get the low sounds we took a flying leap and crossed the break to a "C" on the staff. The bells rang out and the lights came on, she was now a clarinetist after two years of being a beginner.
I want to say it was the short term goal setting (chunking), re-writing her parts, positive encouragement and teacher skill that put her on track, but bribery definitely didn't hurt. |