I have a student who has Down Syndrome, and while she is generally a very good student, I struggle every week to make it through the 30 minutes of the lesson.

I can't keep her at the piano for more than ten minutes because she quickly loses interest or gets frusterated. What I have been doing is giving her a small worksheet that takes anywhere from five to ten minutes, then we go over her music at the piano, then with the time that is left I do various things: sometimes I play for her, sometimes we play a game... However, I feel like she really isn't learning anything when I play for her, so I try to keep it to a minimum, and when we play games she is either not very cooperative, or she gets so into it that she doesn't want to wrap it up when the lesson is over.

I guess my question is what to do to make sure she gets a full 30 minutes where she is learning, or is it okay to cut a lesson short by five minutes or so when nothing productive is going to happen?

I have 2 students with problems that aren't as severe but they do have definite attention problems. I am probably the only one around who will work with them so I have been very open from the beginning with the mothers. Sometimes we have to have "fill-ins" but their mothers are so happy to have me that they agree with anything I do. Just listening to music is good for them sometimes. One of the girls will do anything I want if I promise to play something special for her at the end of the lesson. That's nice for both of us.

If it's a real struggle to teach a 30-min. lesson, you might consider (if mother is willing) having her come for two 15-min. weekly lessons. Two shorter lessons per week might be much more productive than 1 long one, particularly if she has problems retaining information.

Listening is part of learning, so don't apologize for including it in the lesson time. In addition to playing for her, you might want to have her listen to CDs.

Hope this helps.

I have a sister-in-law who has Downs. They are all the same in some respects, and all different in other respects. I'd try to stick with the 30min., but not on the bench.

My SIL loves listening to CD's. Perhaps try giving your student her own collection - maybe the instructional type so the piano-playing is "upfront". And let her put them in and play them herself. Try encouraging her to sing along, or clap along, or march, waltz, swing, etc. Does she have a CD player at home? If so, all the better. Assign her some home CD time.

Another thing that works well with my SIL is anything that resembles matching games. Try using cards of some type and have her match like in "Concentration", or a version of Solitare, or anything you can think of. This is how they teach them math and other things in school. Or try a version of card games, like "Fish". Or how about creating musical stickers (You can print images onto sticker paper and cut them out.) and have her paste them onto the matching image on a worksheet? Or create black and white images and give her a set of colored pencils or markers of her very own and let her color in the images.


Let us know what works and what doesn't. I think it is fascinating to teach these kids. They have intelligence locked in there - it just doesn't work like everyone elses.

[ 01-30-2003: Message edited by: Lilla ]

I would love to hear more ideas. I have a boy with ADD who can't play one song from the PA primer without stopping to say something or something will pop into his mind and distract him. I don't know if I'm the right teacher for him, but I don't have the heart to let me go. He looks so forward to his lessons and when he gets something he actually plays it well. But I need something to do during lessons away from the books. His progress is obviously slow, but as I explained to the mother we can't expect more than him just enjoying it. I think the reason why he enjoys lessons so much is because he gets one on one attention something, his cousin tells me, he does not get at home.

Anyway it is quite a challenge and some lessons we end a little earlier because his attention just isn't there. 30 min. can be a long time to grasp someone attention.

She actually requested that we play "Go Fish" with her flashcards. I had never thought to do that before, but the few times we played it worked pretty well.

When I play for her, if it's something she has never heard before she sits quietly then when I'm finished she always says, "That was beautiful, Amy." But if I play something she knows, she jumps around the room and sings along (usually so loud that I can't even hear myself playing).

I do have another question. For Christmas she had the Faber pretime Christmas book, and she finished the entire book. She really enjoyed playing out of it (I heard Jingle Bells so many times :)) She also has already finished the Pretime Favorites book.

Should I keep her interest and motivation up by letting her go through more of the pretime books, or should I continue to teach her new material by letting her advance (head towards level 1)?

Right now she is still in the primer level, but she has been learning new notes, staccato, playing two and three notes at the same time, and a few other things. She has been playing since last January, and she is reading very well. I hesitate to keep her in the primer longer than necessary, though, since it already takes her longer than the average student. I could combine the two by giving her new material and review material, but when she learns new material I have to keep all of her other work at a minimum or she gets burnt out.

So the question is: when teaching special needs students, what comes first, learning more in order to get better or having fun with what they already know?

Sounds like things are going pretty well. Yes, they all sing loud. My SIL is hilarious - she puts her headphones on and sings loud enough for the whole neighborhood - tone deaf no less. I'm not an expert, but because their learning level is limited, at least for progressing on any single item, I'm tempted to say go for the fun and keep her interested. Add harder stuff a little at a time to test the waters. But if you hear otherwise from someone with more knowledge - I may be wrong.

[ 01-31-2003: Message edited by: Lilla ]

Amy, I think "all of the above" works best for ALL students. Consider breaking down assignments into these 3 basic categories for repertoire:

1. Pieces that are sight-playable.
2. Pieces that require 1-2 weeks max.
3. Pieces that require 3-6 weeks to master.

For most young beginners, any piece that takes longer than 6 weeks to learn and play with control and up to tempo is simply NOT worth it for MOST children! I don't think there can be "too much sight-playing" at the early levels, plus I imagine that a special needs child would ESPECIALLY benefit from the success and pleasure of repeating many favorite pieces that come effortlessly.

I agree with John.

I have a little update on my student. She has been working very hard on "A Frightful Night" by Mary Leaf, and is playing it really well. At yesterday's lesson, she handed me a note (told me she had a surprise for me :)). Here is what the note said:

3-6
Dear Amy,
(my student) played the piano for us at school today. She did a wonderful job!!
-signed by three teachers

I'm so proud of her! She played Frightful Night for her class, and then she played it again this week to try out for the talent show, but she doesn't know yet if she got in (I think she will ;)).