Learners with Cognitive Disabilities

1. Learners with Cognitive Disabilities MUS 454

2. AAIDD – American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities , definition • focuses on sub average intellectual function AND limitations in 2 or more adaptive skills, such as • Communication • Self care • Home living • Social skills • Health and safety

3. Definition • Fundamental limitations in learning and performing important skills of daily learning • Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities are not medical condition or mental disorder

4. Classification of IDD (outdated) American Psychological Association’s (AAIDD) • Mild (IQ 50 to 70) - Educable • Moderate (IQ 35 to 50) – Trainable • Severe (IQ 20 to 35) – Multiply handicapped • Profound (IQ 20 and less) - Multiply handicapped

5. AAIDD • Intellectual functioning & adaptive skills: • Academic skills, self-help, communication, social interactions • Psychological & emotional considerations • Psychological well-being, emotional stability • Physical health & etiology considerations • Health issues & issues related to personal safety • Environmental considerations • Need related to family & community

6. Causes Prenatal causes • Chromosomal disorders • Down Syndrome (trisomy 21) • Williams Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Prader-Willi Syndrome • Developmental disorders of brain formation • Parental exposure to drugs or alcohol, rubella • Low birth weight • Anoxia ( lack of O2) • Head injury from accident, abuse or trauma

7. Characteristics • Comprehensive disability • Learning problems • Memory • Language development • Problem-solving • Motivation (learned helplessness) • Social, behavioral, and communication problems • Severe IDD often coexists with other disabilities • Show video of Carlyn

8. Environmental influences • Fetal alcohol syndrome • Poor nutrition • Lead paint • Lack of stimulation from caretakers

9. Adaptive skills • Conceptual skills: • Receptive and expressive language, reading & writing, money concepts, self-directions • Social skills: • interpersonal, responsibility, self-esteem, gullibility, naiveté, following rules & laws) • Practical skills: • eating, dressing, toileting, mobility, using transportation

10. Assisted Living Home

11. Adaptive skill areas • Refer to page 163-164

12. Traumatic Brain Injury, TRI MUS 454

13. Gabby Gifford

14. Traumatic Brain Injury • Leading cause – Accidents • Next – Falls • Violent incidents: child abuse, shaken-baby syndrome • Watch video (on calendar)

15. Brain injuries • Cognitive abilities: Focus of attention, concentration ability to learn, memory, problem solving, perception, and abstract reasoning • Social skills: Relating to others and being socially appropriate, low frustration tolerance, erratic behavior, low motivation • Language and motor skills: Negatively affected • Help to regain some skills, but many deficits in functioning maybe ongoing

16. Music Education • May have 20-30 students + student with severe disabilities in an inclusive classroom • Is the student a “full-time” member of the class? • IEP – social goals? Physical goals? • Music class is his/her favorite class? Respond positively? • Integration? Popular class among students w/disabilities?

17. Music therapy • Refer to the chart on page 174

18. Students w/IDD & TBI may or may not have problems in the music classroom. • Each child is different in abilities and needs • Many students may excel in music since the information typically is presented through auditory, visual and kinesthetic means • Social problems: frustration, difficulty with peers, and lack of attention or hyperactivity • What should we do in a music classroom? • View IDD Music Classroom video

19. Expectations • Early Childhood + Lower elementary? • Upper Elementary? • Discuss expectations with classroom teachers, special ed teachers & music therapist.

20. Domains • Help students in all domains: • Cognitive • Communication • Social • Emotional • Physical

21. Cognitive: Music activities focusing on academic concepts such as colors, numbers, letters, reading, memory • Classification (shapes, colors) • Dances (shapes, form) • Brown Bear (so-mi, colors)

22. Spatial relationship (up/down, front/back, long/short, same/different, in/out) • Grade K Curriculum: • High & low: See Saw • Loud & soft: Pop Pop Pop • Seriation (organizing by size or number) • Counting • Temporal relationships • Spatial intelligence – Bells & Orff instruments • Dances

23. Communication: • Call & response, singing: Come back home my little chick • Much slower tempo (language deficits: IDD + Language disorder) • Sing songs with slower tempi, “Twinkle Twinkle” • Listening to verbal and non-verbal cues, instruments of different timbres • Long & short sounds – Engine engine #9 • Bright and dark timbres – March of Kitchen Utensils

24. Social/Emotional: • Sharing, group activities – Ten little soldiers • Making choices, self-determination – “Welcome song” (3/4 meter, fa) • Due to student’s language deficits, attention problems, frustration tolerance, and difficulty understanding abstract ideas – “Teddy Bear” (so-mi-re) • Can be isolated or rejected by peers (work with peers) • Music classroom provides excellent environment for social interaction • Dances

25. Physical Motor: • Sensory activities, interaction with others • Coordination and motor planning • Dalcroze games (Ta, ti-ti, ta-a, same and different notes, ascending and descending) • Three little pigs, singing games

26. Visual: Use visual aids, books • Auditory: Use sounds, instruments (Orff) • Adapt a music arrangement to the level of the student. Changing rhythm patterns from complex to simple or giving additional structure or cues for a music improvisation on Orff instruments • Kinesthetic modalities: Dalcroze games, Come back home my little chick, Dances

27. Cont….. • Self-direction: • Teachers provide additional support or structure to assist the student in the development of choice making, problem-solving skills • Adaptations in the music classroom should be based on the students’ strengths as well as the students’ limitations in all of these areas.

29. Welcome song

30. Bounces

31. Strategies • Participation: • Partial participation – some but not all activities • Input: • Information should be concrete and simple rather than abstract and complex • One- and two-step directions, repetition and cues to focus on the teacher • Different modalities: Information presented via visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities

32. Learning musical concepts

33. Cont… • Output: • Fewer, simpler questions to respond to a task in music • Respond verbally or through movement to evaluate learning, rather than insisting on reading and writing test • Augmentative and alternative communication methods – Easy talker, Cards, Sign-language

34. Cont… • Difficulty: • Simplify music to meet cognitive functioning level, use color coding or write out letter names • Increase success & motivation! • Time • Need additional time to accomplish a task • Need support from peers – buddy system • Alternate goals • Expectations for these students may need to be adjusted based on their level of functioning

35. Cont…. • Students w/IDD &TBI might have problems understand directions, expectations, or consequences • Low frustrations tolerance, repeated failures, and lack of self-esteem • What should we do as music teachers? • Make activities fun and interesting

37. Learning Disabilities MUS 454

38. Learning disabilities • Describes a heterogeneous group of disabilities that may be related to reading, writing, math, or memory skills • Might have mild to severe forms of the disability • Might only have one specific disability or a combination of specific learning disabilities

39. Prevalence • Almost 2.9 million school-aged children in the United States • Over half of all children who receive special education have a learning disability , approximately 5% of all school-aged children in public schools (do not include children in private and religious schools or home-schooled children) • Learning disabilities is by far the largest category of special education

40. Causes • Central nervous system dysfunction – still not know • Strong connection between family history and learning disabilities • Environment factors: exposure to chemicals, brain damage • Alcohol & drugs

41. Problems • Visual-spatial-motor deficits • Processing deficits • Difficulty with problem solving strategies • Poor understanding of language • Social withdrawal • Possible inattention or hyperactivity • Low frustration tolerance

42. Cont… • Managing the physical space • Place that students in close proximity to the teacher or the “buddy.” • Move instruments away so that they are not distracted by the instruments • Behavior problems: • The room accommodates the student’s behavior needs, clear structure & rules.

43. Cont… • Adaptive instruments: • Make and use adaptive instruments • Orff, recorder, percussion instruments • Level of support: • Peer buddies • Let the students make choices, make decisions and take risks in music class