An international handbook of inspirational wisdom for teaching music universally to enhance the learning potential in children of all ages, backgrounds, and capabilities, An Attitude and Approachfor Teaching Music to Special Learners is a most accessible relevant reference to facilitate lifelong student learning. Its usefulness is equally versatile for music educators and classroom teachers, administrators and curriculum designers, instructional leaders in higher education as well as for parents and caregivers. Backed by research and driven by author’s passionate commitment to affect a better global future for our children, text revisions include updates in educational law, criteria for designating disability categories, accommodations, standards, definitions, trends, and notice of the significant societal strides made in the visibility and educational expectations of our students with developmental disabilities including those with autism spectrum disorders. Classroom tested inclusive music teaching and critical thinking strategies impact student success across the curriculum to help students meet grade level expectations for English Language Arts, science, social studies, and mathematics.

Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs offers a comprehensive, label-free approach to teaching music to students with disabilities. Music teachers will find practical, real-world solutions to the challenges they face everyday, all grounded in the latest theory and research on inclusion. Topics include classroom behavior, learning domains, assessment, policy, advocacy, IEPs, and socialization.

Introduction -- The Communication Domain -- The Cognitive Domain -- The Behavioral Domain -- The Emotional Domain -- The Sensory Domain -- The Physical Domain -- Unit Plans – Conclusions

Presents articles from state journals that give music teachers ideas on how to include special needs students, offer suggestions for dealing with specific types of special needs students, and address teachers' responsibilities and support under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children's identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children's natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I'm working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children's lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.