The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive
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Autism Society records most keynote and concurrent sessions at their annual conferences. You can see and hear those recordings by purchasing full online access, or individual recordings.
5041 Including Children with Autism in the Music Curriculum: Playing Instruments and Beyond [ASHA Session] [Social Work Session]
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Purchase AccessMeaningful Inclusion of Students in the Music Curriculum
The work of Cole, DeSchenes, Horvath, Ebeling, Chapman, & Sprague (2000), Adapting Curriculum & Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms: A Teacher's Desk Reference, categorizes adaptations into the nine domains of Quantity (sometimes referred to as Size), Time, Level of Support, Input, Difficulty, Output, Participation, Alternate Goals and Substitute (or Functional) Curriculum. The material focuses on general education, yet, with some forethought, these adaptations can be easily generalized to the music curriculum. Examples of musically based curricular adaptations range from expecting a child to answer fewer questions on a test than his classmates (quantity) to arranging for a child who must pace and is unable to stand in one place for a choral performance to walk around the auditorium with a flag representing the country from which a musical selection is being performed (participation).
Some further examples of including a child with autism or other disabilities are indicated below.
Category | Explanation of Adaptation, Example and Extension |
Quantity (or size) | Adjust the number of items a student is expected to learn or number of activities a student will complete prior to assessment of mastery. |
Reduce the number of scales a student must correctly play or notate at the end of each week those that are chosen randomly from 6 to 3. Extension: Consider giving the student a quiz of 3 scales on Tuesday and another 3 on Friday. | |
Time | Adapt the time allotted and allowed for learning, task completion or testing. |
Increase or decrease the time allotted to learn a piece of music or master other tasks related to music. Individualize a timeline for learning a long piece of music for a student with executive functioning challenges by charting out when subtasks of the project are due. Extension: Consider reviewing the timeline and breaking the long piece with intermediary deadlines for the entire band with discussion and/or handouts. | |
Level of Support | Increase the amount of personal assistance for keeping a student on task, or reinforce or prompt use of specific skills. |
Ask a student who has mastered a given task, such as drawing a treble clef and 5 lines for a staff, to assist a student challenged in completing this task. Work in groups for peer tutoring opportunities. Extension: Try to find a student with special needs who has mastered a task to help a regular education student. | |
Input | Increase the amount of personal assistance for keeping a student on task, or reinforce or prompt use of specific skills. |
Consider as many senses as possible, such as hearing, vision, kinesthetic, etc. Point where a high C is on the treble staff, in addition to or instead of merely stating that the note is located on the 3rd space. Have different body parts represent each degree of the scale while learning solfege. | |
Output | Provide different options on how a student can respond. |
Employ alternative means for answering a question, such as orally, written, communication boards, AlphaSmart™ or other assistive devices. Let a student point to a high C on a staff instead of expecting a verbal answer. Extension: In cooperative groups, determine as many ways as possible to show how a student can demonstrate where they know middle C is on the treble staff. | |
Difficulty | Adapt the skill level, problem type or rules on how the leaner may approach the work. |
Allow the use of a keyboard when expecting students to master scales or notating different types of triads. Extension: Consider acquiring a large keyboard that is placed on the floor for students to walk on, allowing them to physically represent notation with their own bodies. | |
Participation | Adapt the extent to which a learner is actively involved in the task. |
Have a student unable to stand still for chorus rehearsal or a performance march about the auditorium waving a flag, playing a percussion instrument or engaging in improvisational movement during the concert. Extension: Instead of isolating the student with their activity, consider having the entire chorus move in a complementary manner with the student. | |
Alternate Goals | Adapt the goals or outcome expectations while using the same materials. |
Expect a student to learn notation from whole to quarter notes instead of whole to 16th notes. Extension: Instead of having a student recall from memory composers and other facts from different musical eras from active memory, have the student fill in missing words to complete passages from a bank of appropriate names and terms using the Cloze procedure, thus employing passive memory. | |
Substitute Curriculum | Provide different instruction and materials to meet a student’s individual goals, yet still align with the curriculum. |
On a temporary basis, a teacher’s aide takes a student into a practice room during rehearsal to learn a percussion part with the aim of returning to the larger ensemble when the part is mastered. |
Teaching Persons with Autism how to Play Musical Instruments
This part of the presentation focuses on employing the strengths and characteristics common to people with autism to teach them how to read music and play a musical instrument. Closely adapted from the Miller Method, as described in The Miller Method®: Developing the Capacities of Children on the Autism Spectrum (Miller, 2007) and From Ritual to Repertoire: A Cognitive-Developmental System Approach for Working with Children with Autism (Miller & Eller-Miller, 1989), sessions begin by creating systems and routines employing the elements of music, to which from the child's point of view are fun activities. For example, initial activities include creating the materials needed for learning how to read music. By drawing lines, writing letters of the notes on little yellow stickies and placing them on a piano keyboard, the students begin to gain familiarity with the piano. Later, activities involve placing those yellow stickies on a larger musical staff and matching what is on that staff to the keyboard.
By the time the student gets to "piano book #1" (or other instrument), he or she is already familiar with most of the introductory concepts of reading music, making the book much friendlier to use. Most persons on the autism spectrum, ranging from the more significantly affected and without a reliable means of communication to those with Asperger Syndrome, can learn to play a musical instrument to some extent. Just like people who are not on the autism spectrum, some students have sufficient proficiency to become professional musicians, whereas other have to work harder but still enjoy the process of learning an instrument.
Participants will come away from the session with easy-to-implement, practical solutions for including children with autism in the music school curriculum and teaching them to play musical instruments.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will learn easy to implement and practical accommodations and techniques for including children with autism in grade school music curriculum.
- Participants will become familiar with techniques on how to teach children with autism how to play a musical instrument.
Content Area: Education
Stephen M. Shore, Ed.D.
