Lessons for Unique Learners
Recently we discussed adapted music lessons at one of our symposiums. In preparing for this symposium, I read two articles written by music teachers working with students on the autism spectrum. After reading these articles, I started re-examining my approach when teaching adaptive music lessons. Am I really striving to find out how the student learns best? Am I really letting their strengths shine in our lessons? Am I pushing them to achieve something that isn’t actually feasible at the moment? Am I really offering them an opportunity to enjoy the music, or am I just pushing my agenda?
It was scary asking myself those questions. Some of the answers revealed that I was not actually living out my belief that these students are capable and unique, and that music learning does not have to be this rigid, structured, experience.
So I’ve begun making some changes in my teaching. For example, last week during a lesson, my student was perseverating on one particular part of a song. When I tried to interrupt his playing to make suggestions, he did not seem to hear me. Eventually, he stopped playing. At that point, instead of giving him the suggestions I had planned on giving, I asked him, “What are you thinking about right now? Tell me what’s going on in your head.” Why had it not occurred to me before to get his perspective first??? After all, this lesson is for him and his benefit. Asking him that question gave me insight into his approach to the piece we were working on. It lead to a different method of teaching the song.
The student in this example is very high functioning on the spectrum and has the appropriate language skills for expressing his thoughts and feelings. Of course, it becomes more complicated to gain insight into a student’s thought process when they don’t have the language skills. But, I’ll deal with that when the time comes. For now, I’m grateful for this change in perspective, for my students’ sakes!
- Chiara
