The last few years I've had several nonverbal students and it has been amazing to learn how to better teach them as their music teacher and to see them make so much progress in both their musical and verbal skills through my class! Today I wanted to share a few tips I've picked up along the way through my experience working with non-verbal students in the elementary music classroom.
1. Nonverbal participation opportunities
One of the great things about music class is that there are, in fact, so many nonverbal ways for students to fully participate in activities and communicate their learning.
-If students are singing, include motions- preferably simplified sign language. If that's too complicated for some reason, at a minimum you can have them show the steady beat by patting on their laps with the music.
-If you are asking students to identify something, provide a way for students to answer nonverbally. Usually I use a simple gesture or hand signal for different response options, but sometimes I have cards with visuals that students can use. The great thing is that when you use a nonverbal response option, you can have all students give an answer at the same time instead of asking students to raise their hands and call on one student! So for example if I want them to tell me what instrument they heard, I give them cards with pictures of instruments and ask them to hold up the one they hear. If I'm asking them to identify the meter/ how many beats are in a measure, I have them show the number on their fingers. If I want them to identify if it's in major or minor (or any other multiple choice response), I tell them to hold up 1 finger for major, 2 for minor (etc).
-If you are working on a performance, incorporate an instrument or movement prop that they can use to add another element to the performance (and have the other students also play the instrument or use the movement prop as well).
The great thing is these strategies are beneficial for ALL students: multilanguage learners can figure out the English vocabulary through the nonverbal signals, adding more elements to a performance increases the level of challenge and musicality for every student, and everyone benefits from incorporating kinesthetic learning and being asked to answer every question instead of waiting for a classmate to raise their hand.
2. Repetition
I have seen so many of my nonverbal students begin to be able to sing along with songs because I repeat the same song over and over again! My most successful song is the one I use at the end of every lesson before we line up. I have been using the same song every day for 2 years now and students sing, play egg shakers, and move with the song. My nonverbal students of course can move and play their egg shakers, but after hearing the same song so many times, several of the students have started singing the words along with us, which has been so exciting! But even with songs I do for a few weeks I find often they will pick up a word here and there and approximate the sounds if the song is highly repetitive. Repetition is so important for developing verbal skills!
3. Simple choice opportunities
One of the reasons I use the song I do at the end of class with egg shakers is because I go around the room before we sing the song with my box of egg shakers and ask students what color shaker they want. This is a great opportunity to get them to use their communication devices because colors are generally already loaded into their devices, but because they are motivated and because it is, again, repetitive, I find many of my students learn how to approximate the sounds for their favorite color and can start verbalizing the color they want without the devices as well! I've even asked the speech-language pathologist what sounds they are working on and identified a color word that we think they can approximate and prompt the student to say it by modeling the word while pointing to that color shaker as well.
4. Pointing to chin
I learned this from watching some expert teachers and speech language pathologists: pointing to your chin while you say a sound/ word and then pointing to their chin can be a good cue for getting them to try saying the sound. If I know they can say a word, when they try to point to something or use their device I will get their attention, point to my chin while I say the word, and then point to their chin. I use this cue a lot if I am doing an echo song as well, by pointing to my ear when we are listening and pointing to my chin when we are echoing.
**selective mutism
I also have had a few students over the years with selective mutism, so I want to mention a quick note about that as an aside. In the case of selective mutism, I am primarily using the first strategy on this list of providing nonverbal response opportunities, including even having a dry erase board where they can write things if needed (especially in the older grades), not the other strategies that encourage verbalizing. With selective mutism, trying to get them to verbalize in the classroom setting can often backfire. Let them start talking if and when they're ready, but in the meantime provide ways for them to fully participate and learn so they feel comfortable in your classroom!
**communication devices
One more note about assistive communication devices, or Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems: I used to put a lot more thought and time into incorporating the use of AAC devices in my lessons for students who had them, and if a student is just learning to use one and one of their primary learning goals is to become more comfortable using it, I still do. But I've found that my students love that they can fully participate in something without needing a device, and it's way less distracting- and more musical, because we (literally) don't miss a beat waiting for the device- when I can find strategies like these to get them involved without them. Then I also don't have to worry about if they remember to bring them to class, or if the device is charged and working!
There is so much more to say about this topic and I am BY NO MEANS an expert in this area- these are just some strategies that have worked for me. I hope this is helpful for other music teachers who may encounter the opportunity to teach nonverbal students for the first time, and I'd love to hear any other ideas you may have in the comments as well!
For general tips for teaching self-contained special education music classes, click here. For strategies for inclusion in the elementary music classroom for students with special needs, click here.
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