Special-Needs Students Gaining Life Skills Through Music

As a teacher at a smaller school, strong relationships with teachers exist outside of my subject area. These relationships often give you a window into a different part of the school, or into the needs of different students in the school. At the outset years ago, the band program numbers were very low, and as stability with the program grew, numbers grew. And with those larger numbers, eventually a middle school band position was added. This was fantastic, and it added opportunities at the high school to expand and add courses.

Two students with disabilities were in the band program at the time, and with involvement in the special education department a lot, it was easy to decide what to add: a Special Education General Music class. Some of our special education students were in general education music classes, and two were in general education band. This didn’t change – we just added an additional music course for these students during the day. And, much like when these exceptional students were welcomed into the band room, there were not a lot of tools or instruments, or experience to go by. The special education staff was invaluable in helping to find a direction.

The administration was incredibly supportive in building this class, and making sure that we could adjust students’ schedules to make sure everyone could be in the course at the same time.

Music is an inherently community activity, so we wanted the class to be actively making music, but we had to account for students with varying levels of autism, Down Syndrome, and other mental and physical capabilities. We wrote a grant to our local education foundation to purchase

Boomwhackers, and we were off! Boomwhackers are a great tool, because they work with colors, letters, pitch – and they’re safe and fun to hit, without a lot of cost or fear of breakage.

Using both book resources and internet resources (YouTube videos), our students began making music right away. We made flashcards with notes, and attached magnets, so our students could begin music literacy, and even composition. We incorporated math skills by learning how notes fit into measures, and would assign students a note duration, and they would have to find a group of students who would add up to four counts. This brought social skills into the mix, which was amazing to see!

Students could work together and organize themselves by colors, begin to compose, and work together to accomplish a goal. Just like any other student in the building, working together toward a common goal builds relationships.

Our high school life skills class even got into some physics. When our long Boomwhackers were used to the point that they bent, the class decided they could make them shorter, and they worked with their special education teacher to make sure they could find the right length with the right pitch, and trimmed them down to give them a longer life. It was amazing!

We didn’t have a lot of resources, but after Boomwhackers we acquired a set of hand drums. Circle drumming and basic ostinatos was a great start, and then we began to incorporate the drumming into the Boomwhacker work. Once we learned a song on Boomwhackers, the students would take turns composing an ostinato for the drums, and we would combine everything together.

Language arts crossover also happened when we would look at the lyrics for songs, and alter them to fit our class. For example, when learning “Oh, Susannah” on Boomwhackers, we learned the lyric, “I come from Alabama with a Banjo on my Knee.” We rewrote the song for every student, and they had to identify their own place that was important to them, a favorite noun, and a part of their body. The lyrics were so fun, but it also was empowering to have the students be creative within a framework. “I come from Indianapolis with a Basketball on my Head.” And when the lyrics are silly? The vocal performance is much less inhibited! Music teachers know that repetition is important, but that it can also get stale. By changing up lyrics or patterns, you can get in the repetition you need to build skills, while keeping things fresh, funny and interesting.

Keyboard instruments in the band room were also incorporated into the lessons. Initially, cut-up note cards with letter names were used to label the bars. A small dab of rubber cement was painted on the back of the note card. This provided enough stickiness to keep the label on the bar without leaving anything on the bar. The same color was used for the letters as their corresponding boomwhacker. We started with simple Do-Re-Mi songs, and there is so much that you can do with those three notes.

Eventually, the class was reading the notes and finding the bars well enough that labels on the bars were not needed anymore. We expanded to other percussion instruments, and will often do storytelling with percussion. The students’ ideas for what percussion sound can evoke the sound effect that we’re looking for is always amazing. Our next adventure is to add recorders into the mix!

A few years after this class was created, we learned about the founding of United Sound – and now all of our students are also involved in making music with our band program, as well as making music in their general music class. It has been a wonderful extension of what they’re doing in the classroom! Students are using hand-eye coordination, math, language arts – and working together as a group.

If you choose to expand your course offerings to include students in your special education classes, don’t be daunted. Start with what you know, and what you have. Maybe it’s only body percussion – you can make that work! Start simple, and add new skills as you and the students are comfortable. They will be capable of so much – never underestimate their abilities. Use your special education teachers to guide you, and know that you’ll find tremendous community support for giving music education to ALL students in your school!