Jump to > Baselines | Developing music activities | Structuring sessions | Space and instruments | Tapping innate musicality | Developing social and language skills | Learning movement | Encouraging expression | Resources

Encouraging expression through music

Music, with or without lyrics, can evoke strong emotional reactions in us. Music is therefore a powerful medium for both reinforcing the meaning of verbal messages and actions, and for expressing emotions and learning about relationships when the relevant words are not known or understood.

Listening to music together can be a wonderful connecting experience for two or more people. While it is often appropriate to listen to soothing music together to help the children to relax, you can also engage children who have special needs in 'active listening' to encourage them to interact.

Here are some examples of active listening exercises. You might ask the children to try to:

• identify a song from a melody line only
• recall elements of a song or instrumental piece when it is finished
• identify characters or instruments in a song or instrumental piece
• tell the story of a song or instrumental piece.

For ideas of music to use, think of the type of music that are children's favourites, such as Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

For students who have difficulty with building relationships, it might be possible to work with them using musical stories like Peter and the Wolf to identify with the conflicts, emotions, and feelings experienced by the characters as expressed in the music. More able students could discuss conflict outcomes, changed emotions and feelings, and different ways of dealing with issues.

Children can bring their own stories to be set to music, or can be encouraged to choose an emotion or mood to use as a basis for musical expression. They could select a relevant song from their own or the school collection for shared listening and/or singing, and for discussion.

Children can learn to express themselves more readily by role-playing characters in songs, and interacting with peers in musical drama.

To encourage such expression and relationship building, you could set a story to music, with the children as actors and you/them playing instrumental sound effects as the story moves along. You could also involve the students in writing a simple musical story/play based on events or issues important to them.

Children from other classes could also be included to help with more difficult parts of the music/action, and to serve as peer supporters for the special needs children, thereby developing more relationships for them.

next: Resources