Blog Post: Exploring Dyslexia Within Music

Hello everyone, 

I would not normally mix my professional and private life but I wanted to share a post about a topic which I have been passionate about for a long time which is all about special educational needs within music. In this blog post, I wanted to talk about specifically Dyslexia in music.

Dyslexia is often seen as a hidden ability which can only be identified when certain activities are undertaken, this could include reading, writing and processing skills, often the individual with a learning difficult has learnt to mask their disability to blend into every day life.

I wanted to include a definition of Dyslexia which is featured below:

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.

A less well known about  form of Dyslexia is Dyscalculia which is a maths orientated disability that impairs the individuals ability to learn and perform number related concepts accurately.

Disabilities affect individuals in different ways and severities and so when working alongside individuals with any degree of disabilities we have to find the right techniques which will help that individual. It should also be notes that no individual technique by itself is likely to work with every student that you may meet. 

To begin I wanted to highlight the areas which people with dyslexia may encounter:

. Working at speed.

. Organisation.

. Auditory skills.

. Visual Perception.

. Concentration.

. Co-ordination.

. Sequencing.

. Short term memory.

. Motor skills.

. Visual perception.

. Timing skills.

. Spatial skills.

Individuals with Dyslexia may also suffer from:

. Low self esteem.

. Frustration.

. Exhaustion. 

. Anxiety.

. Fear of failure. 

. Other erratic or unexplained behaviour.

. Often the music can seem to glare or jump around the stave for students with Dyslexia.

When translated into a musical environment Dyslexia may affect the following areas:. Sight reading. 

. Learning notation.

. Learning new concepts. 

. Maintaining a steady beat.

. Melodic or rhythmic repetition.

. Learning new notation which can include learning new exercises or pieces of music.

. Problems between transferring new information between short term memory and long term memory. 

There has been very little written about Dyslexia in relation to music and information and in my own personal opinion, I see that a holistic approach to teaching that is person centric is the best approach to supporting a student with Dyslexia. A holistic approach means that we take into account the full person including their mental well being, social factors as well as their learning needs.

In all forms of teaching we can face challenging behaviour but it is our role to uncover the layers and find a strategy no matter how unorthodox to support the students development. 

In my own professional practice, I have to use a wide range of approaches and techniques to support students. I am always conscious that certain techniques which work with one student may not work with another student which always ensures that I approach my teaching practices in a holistic form. 

The systematic approach to teaching is a methodical approach to delivering a formulated body of ideas or principles in a through and logical manner. This approach involves indentifying the stage which the student is currently at and where they begin to struggle and forming a step by step approach so that the student is then able to grasp that concept.

The following bullet points feature an example of teaching systematically:

1. Demonstrate the rhythm by first clapping, patting or speaking the rhythm.

2. Draw the rhythm onto a piece of paper marking where all the beats lie within the passage of music.

3. Ask the student how many beats were marked onto the paper and get the student to repeat the rhythm. 

4. Demonstrate the rhythm again but this time by tapping the beats of the bar to a rhythm.

5. Illustrate on the piece of music where the main beats occur and further illustrating any further complexities within the rhythmic structure.

6. Put the above techniques together which will illustrate how each note of the passage of music is related to each other. 

Teaching systematically is a constantly evolving process which an emphasis on refining the process and evaluating what has worked and what has not worked, this approach can often be seen as a hands off appraoch where the practitioner demonstrates the technique in different forms but allows the student to progress and learn in their own time. 

Often as a teaching practitioner we feel an urge to jump in to correct a student but the systematic approach encourages a hands off approach which allows the student to make a mistake or approach a task in the way that they have understood the instructions. The concept of learning by our experiences can often have a bigger benefit to the student than a very hands on approach which allows for no change in the direction of the session. 

Other teaching techniques can include re-enforced teaching in which a concept is taught over and over again which can be useful in learning a piece of music or a new concept or a multi-sensory approach to teaching which explores how we hear, feel and see within a musical context.

We can further enhance our sessions with students with additional learning requirements by including the following resources:

1. Flash Cards which feature rhythmic structures featured in the piece. This can support students to seperate the difficult sections of the music in a different form.

2. Highlighter Pens which can be used to highlight flats, sharps, dynamics and key signature changes which can make the music easier to read. 

3. Enhanced music which had a bolder central line which can support students to read and process musicin an easier to understand form.

4. Enlarged music (music can be legally copied if it is to aid a student with a disability as long as the student has the original copy in their posession).

5. We can use a piece of paper with a square cut in the centre to isolate certain bars and to help the student to focus on certain bars which could be difficult. 

6. Play, wait, repeat is a technique where the teach plays a passage of music, waits and repeats the passage of music and then gets the student to mirror this approach which helps the student visualise how the passage of music should sound.

7. Post It Notes can be used as a reminder for students with short term memory to remember what they have covered in each session.

8. Recording Devices can be used within a teaching session with the teachers permission which can later be used by a student within their own practice at home to remember easily forgettable parts of the session. 

9. Coloured Pencils can be used to shade over repeated passages and shade other dynamics, sharps, flats and key signature changes. 

10. Colour Overlays can be used to enhance how a student reads music and can be especially helpful for students who find that the notes glare at them or seem to jump around the page.

I have rambled on for quite a long time and I wanted to finish this short article by sharing some useful teaching technique which I use on a day to day basis within my own professional practice. 

1. Be patient and find the best holistic approach which suits that particular student. Remember that a square peg does not fit a round hole and that one size does not fit everyone. 

2. Be imaginative and think outside of the box, by capturing your students imagination you are encouraging them to persevere. 

3. Listen to what the student has to say as they may give you hints as to teach techniques which have worked with them in the past. Try not to impose your own thoughts, idea's or beliefs onto a student. Just because that technique works for you, it may not work for your students.

4. Use colours for highlighting information. 

5. All activities within the session should be structured. 

6. Use a range of approach which are multi-sensory, try to use all the senses within a session as a student who can hear, see, read, feel, write will have a better chance of absorbing the information that is being taught. 

7. Always try to be hands on in your sessions, music is a very active activity and all opportunities to be hands on should be exploited. This will encourage the student to engage with the session and build confidence and rapport between student and teacher.

8. Consider other difficulties for example visual difficulties may present an issue and may require further support from a specialist. 

9. Dyslexic people can take up to ten times as long to complete an activity which can result in extra tiredness, stress and impact the students self esteem. 

10. Teach the student different organisational strategies such as using notes on a mobile phone, post it notes, hand written lists and email reminders. 

11. Students with additional learning needs often see the world in a completely different way and are often eager to please their teachers. 

How the teacher presents is often a huge issue for a student with additional learning needs for example, if a teacher is running behind and has had a number of issues that day if can often show even if as professionals we try to hide the problems of day to day life. Due to this a student with an additional learning need may sense that something is wrong and sense that perhaps they are the cause of that problem which can lead to the student overthinking and becoming anxious. 

As professionals we always need to reassure and support our students and be concious of how our daily lives canshow in our unconcious actions.

12. Build a rapport with your student and let them know that you understand and care and are there to support them to achieve their full potential.If you aim for the moon then you will end up somewhere in the stars. 

I hope this article may have been of some use to you all and I wanted to state that I am always willing to discuss any question you may have via my social media pages.Thank you for taking the time to read this article.