Piano for Students with Special Needs

Dr Micaela Nathan provides tailored piano lessons for children who are neurodivergent, have cognitive differences, and physical disabilities – Autism, Dyslexia, ADHD, OCD, Downs Syndrome, vision impairment/total blindness, and depression.

Learning is guided by principles and techniques of music therapy and adapted to each student’s specific needs. Piano is the preferred instrument for these students. Some gain benefit on the other instruments offered, however piano has been shown to be a superior medium for special needs students to improve psychophysiological co-ordination and emotion regulation. An essential requirement for special needs lessons is that a parent attend each lesson. It is very beneficial for parents to see the student/teacher interaction, understand what is taught, and how they can support their child in home practice. 

Students with Special Needs

Benefits

Learning piano is a way to – 

• promote social interaction

• develop a sense of the self

• improve hand/eye co-ordination

• differentiate musical tone colours

• develop imagination and creativity

• express inner thoughts and feelings

• reduce anxiety and minimise meltdown

• refine fine motor function and dexterity

• develop kinaesthetic awareness of body

• recognise and manage sensory overload

• connect auditory and kinaesthetic pathways

Why Piano?

Piano is the ideal instrument for special needs children, combining musical development with therapeutic benefits. The way special needs children learn music differs from neurotypical children and requires an instrument that generates multi-sensory co-ordination. Having a visual of the piano keyboard sets up a picture of shapes, the pattern and colours of these shapes, and the structured sequence of represented notes. Whilst this is a natural development for any piano student, it is especially important to develop the visual picture for special needs students. When looking at or only feeling the piano keys (blind, visually impaired), students learn how the 12 note octave on the piano is a repeated pattern that corresponds with what they hear and feel. Students are taught to memorise the one octave pattern through their visual, auditory, and tactile /kinaesthetic senses. They learn that movement along the one octave pattern to the right or the left of their body corresponds with high to low pitch respectively. The keyboard becomes a concrete representation of organised musical tones that facilitates visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic memory, thus automaticity in playing.

Learning the piano strengthens the cortical functions in the visual, auditory, and motor/somatosensory cortices of the brain. With time, a link between these areas develops by way of neuroplastic changes in the brain. Neuroplasticity is when, through frequent and repeated input via one or more sense, the brain generates new neurons (neurogenesis) and pathways, stronger connections between neurons, and increased density and remodelling of the neuronosynaptic space through dendritic arborization. This reinforces and expands the areas of the brain that govern a specific cognitive, emotional, or physical function. Whilst this is a natural progression for anyone learning a musical instrument, it is especially important, in fact life changing, for children with special needs.