More than a million and a half children in England have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). Some engage with the National Curriculum with relatively minor adjustments. Others require more substantial modifications, both in the learning processes and expected outcomes. A minority, with severe or profound learning difficulties, require individualised learning programmes, designed to meet their needs, abilities and preferences. This is particularly true in relation to music, which our work over four decades has shown not only to have intrinsic value as a curriculum area, but as a tool to promote wider learning and development. Hence appropriately designed music education can be especially important for children and young people with SEND.
How do we make sense of music?
People in developed countries largely regard music as an advanced art form created by the few and consumed by the many. However, as research underpinning the Sounds of Intent framework of musical development (soundsofintent.org) shows, we are all musical. For certain, some have a propensity to develop musical abilities more fully than others, but we are all able to understand, appreciate and benefit from music in many different ways. These abilities typically develop in the early years: most ‘neurotypical’ babies and young children come to grasp the way music is structured and its emotional impact through consistent exposure to music, including parents and carers singing, interactive musical games at nursery, and self-directed exploration of everyday sound-makers.
Music development in learners with additional needs
Sounds of Intent research suggests those with learning difficulties follow the same music-developmental path, though usually at a different rate. Some children with learning disabilities who are on the autism spectrum may develop precociously, not only in terms of advanced listening skills but also in relation to exceptional expertise in performance. For most with additional needs, however, music development is slower than average, with milestones being reached later in childhood than is typically the case. For those with profound and multiple disabilities, some may never be achieved.
Why is this? It seems that the incidental music learning that usually features in the early years may not occur in profoundly disabled children. However, several studies have shown that targeted musical activities that match (or slightly exceed) the music-developmental levels of those with profound and multiple learning disabilities can expedite their progress. That is to say, when the implicit learning they don’t experience is replaced with explicit tuition – through the provision of ‘enabling environments’ (which include appropriate resources and staff who are trained to use them) – it may be that even those with profound and multiple cognitive impairments can acquire a higher level of musical skill than their global level of development would initially suggest was probable.
Why music for this cohort?
Some subject areas are easier to adapt than others. Music is unique in that it has the capacity to include all learners, irrespective of their abilities and needs. This is because music can be understood at many different levels, from the sensory experiences of pupils with profound disabilities and the pattern-seeking behaviours of those with severe learning difficulties, to the sophisticated aesthetic responses of mature listeners (including some of those on the autism spectrum).
We will now look in more detail at these different access points.
Music-developmental levels
Sound-makers engage with music in a sensory way. They have an emerging ability to perceive an increasing range of sounds, to make sounds deliberately and consciously to interact with others using sound. These forms of engagement may well occur as part of wider, multisensory experiences.
Sound-makers may have preferences for one type of sound or another and prefer one genre or piece of music to another on account of the particular sensory nature of the auditory world generated by a given musical style.
Sound-makers may respond emotionally to the sounds that they hear and may make sounds to express their feelings. Sounds may be an important factor, too, in their emerging sense of ‘self’ and ‘other’, and may well feature in the ‘intensive interactions’ that often occur between teachers and carers seeking to engage with those who have profound and multiple learning difficulties.
Pattern-makers are able to recognise some simple, moment-to-moment patterns created through repetition or regular change in sound, of which all music ultimately consists. The ability to perceive such patterns typically forms an important element in our understanding of the world, facilitating memory and fuelling anticipation, and thereby enabling us mentally to reach out in time beyond the bubble of the present.
Similarly, the capacity to repeat sounds and to make a steady beat gives pattern-makers control over the present and enables them to plan what they are going to do next. Most importantly, pattern-makers’ capacity to imitate others and to be aware of people copying them can provide insights into how those around think and feel: the foundations of ‘theory of mind’ and empathy.
Motif-makers recognise and create the main building blocks of music: short, rhythmic groups of notes – brief bursts of melody – known as ‘motifs’, ‘riffs’, ‘licks’ and ‘hooks’. It is groups of notes that give pieces of music their unique identities: think of a song and it will be a motif that comes to mind; the first six notes of ‘Happy Birthday to You’, for example.
As children’s musical abilities evolve in the early years, it is groups of notes that are the first elements to be stored in long-term musical memory (before complete pieces of music come to be memorised), and three- or four-year olds typically learn to re-create, vary and invent their own motifs. Through musical experimentation and play, children also learn how to connect groups of notes to form their own songs. The link between language and music is particularly noticeable at this stage in children’s development, and they may copy each other’s motifs with words and play ‘call and response’ games with their friends and carers.
Music-makers can grasp songs and other short pieces of music as self-contained entities. They recognise and can anticipate the prominent structural features such as choruses (even without the words). They intuitively respond to the general characteristics of music, such as its ‘mode’ (for example, whether it’s in a major key, with its typically happy connotations, or in a minor key, which tends to evoke sadness) and its ‘groove’ (the overall rhythmic feel of a piece).
Music-makers show a developing ability to play or sing in time and (where relevant) in tune. For instance, they may sing songs which faithfully follow the contour of the original melody (its ups and downs in pitch) but where the intervals (the distances between one note and the next) are only approximately reproduced.
Music-makers may well enjoy singing and playing with others, either producing the same part as someone else or, increasingly, able to hold their own when others do something different. They may be able to improvise solos or work with other people to create new pieces of music too.
The impact of music and the need for more guidance and support
Our research, working with others including musicians from the national charity Live Music Now, has shown how specially-designed musical activities can engage learners across the spectrum of special needs. Almost all have the potential for musical development that can be realised over time, with life-long benefits.
Previous studies, such as the two PROMISE reports (2000, 2015) and needs analysis undertaken at Services for Education in partnership with Birmingham City University, have illustrated the need for musical guidance, particularly for those working with children and young people with severe or profound and multiple learning disabilities.
A research study undertaken by Live Music Now showed the impact of using specially designed resources, based on the Sounds of Intent framework, that provided materials for pupils and students at diffierent music-developmental levels. The resources helped the musicians and school staffito look at their learners through a music-developmental lens and enabled them to offier learner-centred sound- and music-making opportunities, even in a group setting.
Based on the Sounds of Intent framework, the research has culminated in a set of innovative resources – Count Me In!– which consists of a set of print materials and hundreds of downloadable audio files. This comprises 12 projects, embracing a range of styles and genres, from hip-hop to Bollywood dance music, from Western classical music to 1950s rock. These can be used by music specialists and non-specialists alike and are suitable for learners across the spectrum of musical ability, enabling them to participate together in inclusive groups.
References and links
- Welch, G., et al. (2001) The Provision of Music in Special Education (PROMISE): tinyurl.com/327wn7kj
- Welch, G., et al. (2015) PROMISE: tinyurl.com/n5ben8bt
- Pickard, B. (2022) Count-Me-In-Report.pdf: livemusicnow.org.uk
- Kinsella, V., and Anderson, A. (2022) Inspiring sounds: Birmingham music service research report 2022. open-access.bcu.ac.uk/13546
- Ockelford, A. (2013) Music, Language and Autism. Jessica Kinglsey
- Ockelford, A. et al. (2011) European Journal of Special Needs Education. Sounds of intent, phase 2: tinyurl.com/yckvc235
- Ockelford, A., Gray, S., Cohen, J., Mai, M. (2023) Count Me In! Routledge
