PIANO
PEDAGOGY
FORUM
v. 10, No. 1/January 1, 2007

Julie Knerr
School of Music
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO 65211
573.882.3348
knerrj@missouri.edu

Discussion Group Report: "Friday Discussion Groups with Panel Presenters"
Sue Steck-Turner, Dan Craig and Cynthia Pullin, presenters

After a panel presentation by three teachers of special needs students, Discussion Groups were led by each of the presenters in order to allow more interaction with teachers specifically interested in a certain type of learning disability. The three discussion group panelists were Sue Steck-Turner, who focused on Asperger's Syndrome and Autism; Cynthia Pullin, who discussed students with Dyslexia; and Dan Craig, who dealt with the topic of ADD/ADHD.

Sue Steck-Turner Sue Steck-Turner's discussion group was organized in a question and answer format. Following are some of the questions asked by the attending teachers with Steck-Turner's answers. The discussion focused on three topics: general questions on the disabilities, parental attitudes, and specific materials and teaching strategies.

General Questions on Asperger's Syndrome and Autism

• What are some of the primary differences between Autism and Asperger's Syndrome? There are many aspects to the diagnoses of these conditions. However, Autistic children usually are higher functioning intellectually than Asperger's Syndrome students, and they are usually extremely sensitive to sound and to environmental factors such as the weather. Asperger's Syndrome students make little eye contact with people. In teaching them, much repetition is required, and few master the fine details of playing. Most children with Asperger's Syndrome are boys
• Do some Autistic students interact with other students? Steck-Turner said that she does pair some of her Autistic students and that in recitals she mainstreams all students, grouping them according to age. She said that her regular students treat her Autistic students kindly. Steck-Turner also noted that piano can be life changing for many disabled students, because it helps boost the students' self-esteem. For example, Steck-Turner said she taught a student who was missing fingers on one hand. He had trouble with relationships in school, but he inspired the students when they heard him play a piano solo at the end of the year. This kind of positive attention, plus the relationship that can be developed through music between disabled students of all types and regular students, enriches the lives of all students.

Questions Regarding Parental Attitudes

• Do you work with the parents in any special way? Steck-Turner said she checks in with the parents regularly to stay informed about the student's life. She also noted that often the child's doctors are interested in how the student is progressing in piano lessons.
• I have a student whose parents do not want to tell the next piano teacher about a diagnosis. What do you think? The new teacher must know about the diagnosis in order to teach the student well. It is important for people to learn what these students are capable of accomplishing, so that parents will not be ashamed of the diagnosis. For instance, one of Steck-Turner's students was on TV and in the newspaper after his success at Guild auditions. This kind of attention creates positive publicity for all learning disabled students.

Questions Regarding Specific Materials and Teaching Strategies

• Would an Autistic student do well with an aural approach like Suzuki? The Suzuki approach would probably be much too complex for an Autistic student. Both Autistic and Asperger's Syndrome students need an incredible amount of repetition. An example of the extreme need for repetition was presented by another teacher in the discussion group, who noted that her student was resistant to learning the white keys after having spent quite a bit of time playing on the black keys. Steck-Turner said this is probably because the student needed even more repetition on the black keys and was not yet ready to move to the white keys. She encouraged the teacher, noting the student would eventually be ready to take the next step, especially if the teacher looked for ways to make the white keys attractive to the student.

Steck-Turner noted that in addition to repetition of material, these students need the repetition of a strict lesson routine. To help learning disabled students focus, clutter should be reduced in the studio as much as possible, and especially in the learning materials. Reducing unnecessary material on the page can be accomplished by cutting a piece of music from a method book and pasting it on a blank sheet of paper. Steck-Turner also noted that most piano methods go too fast for learning disabled students and recommended Vogt and Bates' Piano Discoveries, My First Folksongs by Kowalchyk and Lancaster, or pre-school methods such as Bastien's Piano Party to meet the need for slow pacing and repetition of concepts. If suitable materials do not exist, the teacher can create materials to suit individual students in order to help each student succeed.

Cynthia Pullin
In the discussion group on Dyslexia, Pullin emphasized that not all Dyslexic students are the same. Some reverse numbers, some reverse letters, and some reverse both. Using color and enlarging the music print can help these students with music reading, and the teacher should experiment to find which colors work best with each student. Although Dyslexic students will have difficulty sightreading, they can become proficient at memorizing. Having the student listen to recordings of a new piece for several weeks before beginning to learn the piece can be helpful. In the lesson, Pullin suggested starting with a piece the student is successful at and enjoys and then working on learning a few lines of a new piece, alternating tasks so that the student does not get frustrated with the difficulties of music reading.

Pullin emphasized that patience is the main requirement for teaching learning disabled students and said that pedagogy students should be given opportunities to discover whether teaching learning disabled students is something that they would like to include in their careers. To help pedagogy students learn about this specialized branch of teaching, Pullin suggested having them observe teachers of learning disabled students and teach some lessons to learning disabled students if possible.

Dan Craig
Teachers in Dan Craig's discussion group completed a Quick Learning Assessment to determine their individual learning styles, whether visual, aural, or tactile. Craig then had the teachers break up into groups based on their learning styles. It was noted that half the teachers were visual learners. Craig asked the teachers in each group to discuss ways to help students learn according to their preferred learning style. Interestingly, the dynamics of each group of teachers mirrored the learning style represented in each group. For instance, the visual learners quietly perused their learning assessments before discussing strategies for teaching, the aural group read their thoughts aloud to each other, and the tactile group made many gestures while talking.

The visual learners presented the following strategies for helping students who are visual learners:

In private lessons:

• Stay in the student's line of vision.
• Make frequent eye contact with the student.
• Arrange the room in a pleasing way.
• Have the students write their assignments.
• Use pictures to illustrate concepts and ideas.
• Use post-it notes to list practice steps.
• Use colored pens or removable tape to mark places in the score that need attention.
• Construct a colored map of a piece to discuss form.
• Point to things in the score often.
• Email students.
• Use visualization and stories.
• Use paper keyboards.

In group lessons:

• Use a Visualizer.
• Demonstrate concepts away from the piano by playing in the air.
• Use a step by step approach.
• Have students observe each other.
• Use teacher demonstration.

The teachers who were aural learners suggested the following teaching strategies to help students who are aural learners.

• Teach by rote.
• Sightread familiar pieces.
• Have the student read through pieces they have already learned.
• Sing.
• Teach the sound before introducing the symbol.
• Improvise and compose.
• Use teacher demonstration.
• Perform aural exaggerations.
• Use mnemonic devices.
• Tape-record the lessons.

The teachers who were tactile learners suggested the following strategies to help students who are tactile learners. Craig noted that ADD/ADHD children tend to be tactile learners.

• Include off the bench activities frequently throughout the lesson.
• Use computer software and games.
• Have students perform expressive movements.
• Touch the student's arms to demonstrate technical concepts.
• Assign physical movements to theoretical concepts. For instance, in ear training, have students stand on tiptoes when they hear a V7 chord and relax when they hear a I chord.
• Allow students to place their hands on the teacher's hands to feel motions.
• Rotate to different pianos if possible.

Craig emphasized that instead of being frustrated by concepts a student has trouble with, teachers should focus on what a student can do well and build on the student's strengths. Because learning disabled students may take longer to master concepts, the teacher must be creative to find the best approach for each student.

Conclusion
The three panelists presented a wealth of practical information for teaching learning disabled children with a variety of diagnoses. The panelists all held the following three suggestions in common for working with learning disabled students. 1) Encourage students and provide them opportunities to build their self-esteem. 2) Be patient and individualize teaching to conform to each student's individual learning pace. 3) Be creative in finding ways to teach so that students can live up to their potential. In doing so, the lives of learning disabled students can be enriched through piano study.

© 2007 University of South Carolina School of Music