Music Education: Unlocking the Strengths of Neurodivergent Learners

By Claire Allen: Before the ASTA/SAA Conference even started, "Unlocking the Strengths of Neurodivergent Learners," presented by Tamara Gonzalez and Christine Goodner was on the top of my list to attend. As a violin teacher, supporting neurodivergent learners is something I wanted to learn more about, and I wasn’t alone. This was a packed room full of teachers and parents of all different instruments. It was clear from the presentation - a short 45 minutes! - that this barely scratched the surface. I’m hopeful that this won’t be the last time this topic is shared about at a conference. The presentation combined extensive research with poignant personal experience. Gonzalez is the parent of two neurodivergent learners currently engaged in music lessons, and Goodner was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. They also both have extensive experience teaching and supporting neurodivergent students. They started by defining "neurodiversity" as the diversity of the human mind, which includes literally everyone, as all our brains are different. "Neurodivergence" is when someone has a brain that functions differently from the norm, so people with diagnoses of autism, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and/or ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) fit into the category of "neurodivergent." Someone who is "neurotypical" has a brain that functions with what is considered typical neurological development and/or functioning. One of the core tenets of the Suzuki method is that "Every child can." Teachers struggling to understand a neurodivergent student may doubt this, but the presenters gave us an expanded definition: "Every child can learn, but not every child will learn in the same way or at the same pace." A diagnosis of a particular kind of neurodivergence helps in describing possible traits and behaviors, which can also be observed by the teacher. But while teachers may work with students and families who have a diagnosis, they may also work with students who are not diagnosed, or even with families who prefer not to seek out a formal diagnosis. Goodner and Gonzalez emphasized that this is a personal choice, and that even without a diagnosis, a teacher’s observations can be used to create support systems and strategies to help the student learn, recognizing that every brain is unique and every student learns differently. For teachers, being mindful of language and tone is important when working with all students - but especially when working with neurodivergent learners. The presenters shared the sobering statistic that by the age of 12, neurodivergent learners receive 20,000 more corrective or negative comments than their non-diagnosed peers. The impact this has on a young student’s self-image and self-worth is hard to comprehend. Gonzalez and Goodner offered a description of some traits, specific strategies, and ways to support students with different types of neurodivergence. For students with ADD/ADHD: These students may get easily distracted mid-task, struggle to know what the most important thing is amid multiple tasks, and experience very detailed sensory perception. Some ways to support them in lessons include:

• Taking breaks to allow them to move
• Game-ifying movement, i.e. having them do five jumping jacks for each correct repetition of a tricky spot.
• Using different learning spaces if available - change locations in the classroom, alternate standing and sitting, etc.
• Using games to make repetition fun
• Introducing novelty - even if they need to work on the same technical concept or the same part of a piece, find a way to make it new each time to keep them engaged.

For Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): For me, not knowing very much about ASD, the most interesting thing was learning that ASD diagnoses come with one of three different levels, which describes the type of support the person needs. A student with ASD may have behavior and language loops or repetitive behaviors, overwhelming perseverant or intrusive thoughts, underdeveloped fine or gross motor skills, emotional disregulation, and/or sensory sensitivity. A teacher needs to be able to recognize these not as something that is "wrong" with the student but as something to support and work with. One thing that really struck me about autistic learners is just how crucial the role of sensory input can be. Sensory sensitivity is something that must be accommodated in order for learning to happen, and working with it can be the difference between a successful learning experience and a meltdown over something that may seem trivial to the teacher but is causing an agony of discomfort to the student. Our presenters emphasized that these students are all perfectly capable of learning a musical instrument - but the adults around them may need to support them in ways that to our brains seem unnecessary. For example:

• Things may need to be broken into even smaller steps
• We may need to spend lesson time helping with emotional regulation
• Students may need more scaffolded learning for longer than we think.

With all neurodivergent (and some neurotypical) learners, support for executive function skills is essential, and special coaching may be needed. Executive function skills include: task initiation, sustained attention, self-monitoring, time management, planning, flexible thinking, and more. The presenters suggested several supports that could be implemented for practicing, including making sure the student has a "why" for practice - for example, "I want to be able to play this scale in tune," vs "I’m being told I have to play this scale 10 times." They suggested using writing instructions on sticky notes and placing those directly on the music so a student can see exactly what they need to do, using timers both for the overall practice session as well as individual tasks within it, using alarms to remind when practice is supposed to start, mapping out how long to practice each item on the assignment list, giving a specific number of repetitions vs a set amount of time to practice, and making notes at the end of a practice session about where to pick up the next day. The basic framework they suggested for working with neurodivergent learners is Prepare - Implement - Reflect:

• Prepare - Knowing what you have observed about the student, prepare supports and modifications for their lesson time with you.
• Implement - During the lesson, implement those plans.
• Reflect - Afterward, reflect on what worked and what didn’t, and what to try next time.

One of the strategies that wowed everyone in the room was when Gonzalez shared her experience of preparing her son for his cello lessons. She wrote a story for him about a boy who was hungry and tired after school, who felt better after having a snack, who might get annoyed by his brother, and who was going to his cello lesson. At the lesson, he would get to see his teacher, and they would play music together. Sometimes, he might get frustrated if he didn’t get something right away, and that would be okay because his teacher and his dad were there to help him through. Gonzalez shared a wonderful video of her son’s cello teacher starting the lesson by reading this story to him, as a way to help him transition into the lesson space and prepare him for what was going to happen. We saw a smiling, giggling child, who was ready to play cello at the end of the story. Gonzalez's story provided a way of talking through what might happen - not only from a logistics standpoint, but from an emotional standpoint, and what they could do for support if those thing did happen. It's a fantastic strategy - it puts the student, parent, and teacher in a space of being able to respond - rather than react- when the student gets overwhelmed. As you can see, this is an incredibly complex and important topic, and I intend to keep educating myself about it. I had a chance to connect with both Gonzalez and Goodner after the conference to ask about their experience preparing for and sharing this presentation. "It was so informative to collaborate on this presentation with Christine and get her perspective on the information we shared," Gonzalez said. While she is not neurodivergent herself, "I see it through the lens of parent, spouse and teacher. I was thrilled to see great attendance and engagement at our session, and Christine and I are excited to find more opportunities to share this presentation with other music educators that weren’t at our SAA/ASTA presentation. It is so needed!" As for Goodner, "It was an honor to present on this important topic along with Tamara, who has such a depth of experience and knowledge on this topic, and to add my own experiences as a teacher and as a neurodivergent learner myself," she said. "We were so encouraged to see the interest in this topic from our colleagues and hope there are continued conversations about how we can all support the diverse learners who may enter our programs and give more students the opportunity to thrive in music lessons." I know I speak for my fellow conference attendees when I say how grateful we all were to be at this session, and to get more ideas and strategies for supporting our students! You might also like:

• A Deep Dive into Left Hand Technique at the 2024 ASTA/SAA Conference
• Vijay Gupta at ASTA/SAA 2024: Music as a Place of Possibility
• Past and Present ASTA Conference Coverage

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