Music Teachers Need Your Help

There is a present lack of communication between resource teachers and music educators who work with learning disabled children. The possible reasons for this inadequate professional cooperation are divergent schedules and a lack of knowledge as to each other's long and short term goals. An overview of the music curriculum is offered as a beginning step in achieving awareness of these goals. In addition, there are specific problems LD children may have with the music educator's curriculum. They may have problems with music texts because of the excessive visual material or confusing formats. The ability to receive auditory input and respond motorically is used in primary music classes while in intermediate grades there is often auditory and visual input with a precise motor response expected. Resource teachers can aid music specialists by sharing the knowledge regarding a child's normal intelligence and by apprising the music teacher of the child's specific learning strengths and weaknesses which have applicability to music class situations. This is, unabashedly, a plea for help! It comes from a concerned music educator, one of the "special " teacher