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Tapping innate musicality

Remember our basic premise that all children have an innate musicality – the 'music child' at the heart of every child with special needs. We also know, however, that musical development depends on exposure to, and experience in, music making. Through this, children come to recognise certain orderliness in the music of their culture and begin to expect certain sounds or patterns.

When we hear a piece of music that has unusual timing, phrasing, or harmonies, we might be surprised. We might enjoy the innovative sounds, or we might find them disturbing initially, but we are likely to evaluate them in the context of what we have heard before and our expectations of familiar (usually Western) music.

Recognising musical form

For example, by experiencing nursery rhyme songs and other pre-school music, children become aware of their musical form and are able to judge how long a verse or chorus will take. So they will be able to recognise when the song is coming to an end.

To test this, try singing 'Twinkle, twinkle little star', with or without the lyrics, and stop when you reach the word "high". The experience feels incomplete because there are an unfamiliar number of phrases. Further, even when the melody is unaccompanied, our brain recalls the usual harmonic underpinning for the word "high" as a dominant chord (which is also known as the V or V7 chord). This would be an unusual place to finish, as the melody 'feels' like it is incomplete and needs to continue/finish. You don't have to understand the musical language we have used to experience this phenomenon.

Creative techniques

If you try to hold on to this 'Twinkle' experience we just described, your own innate musicality will help you to understand the following exercise. For example, if you:

  • leave the word off the end of a line, a child is likely to fill in the gap
  • slow down the last phrase of a song/piece, a child is likely to stop when the music ends
  • play a lively piece of music that comes to a sudden stop, a child who has access to an instrument is likely to 'punctuate' the ending with a loud crash!
  • pause in the middle of a phrase, a child will prompt you to continue.

There are dozens of other techniques that you can discover and use if you are playful and creative in your musical interactions with a child who has special needs.

Physical cues

Very importantly, remember that children will respond to you as well as to the music. Keep animated, and use facial expression and body language to communicate the musical intent and maintain a non-verbal connection with the child.

For example, sing a rising melody, then pause… open your mouth and take an audible breath… raise eyebrows with slight smile… and wait expectantly… – the child will help you to finish the music!

You may notice that children who have special needs are able to respond more readily to musical and facial/physical cues than to verbal instruction.

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