How I Developed Singing, Playing Percussion Instruments, and Dancing with my Autistic Students.
I decided I wanted to be a bit more adventurous with my class of 9 autistic students. I was an avid rock'n roller for many years and I thought I could use some of my experience to expose them to a different genre of music- and I knew they would have fun.
I searched for music that was easy to understand, had repetitive choruses, had opportunities for the children to sing, play instruments and learn a simple dance routine.
I found Ricky Nelson's "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It." Perfect for teaching autistic students to sing, play percussion and dance.
There are different versions of this song available on youtube. I used a version with a slower beat but still sung by Ricky Nelson.
First: Listening to the music and listening to me sing the chorus only.
Then: Distributing a sheet of words with symbols( I used Writing with Symbols program) and reading it through with the students. We also put th music on and the children could choose to sing along or just follow the words and pictures on the sheet.
Then: Singing the chorus as a group and learning when to stop and start. I started to give the students opportunities to sing individually to the class, or with a partner/s.
Then: I demonstrated playing a percussion instrument to the beat in the parts other than the chorus, then putting it down and singing the chorus at the right time.
Then: The students had an opportunity to choose and request the instrument they wanted, play it at the right time, and stop at the right time in order to sing the chorus.
Then : I gave opportunities for students to request an instrument from their peer and the we practised the song and instrument playing a different instrument. I always remembered to ask if anyone would like to perform in front of the class. All children became enthusiastic performers!
The children became so good at this as they stopped exactly at the right time when singing and playing the instruments. They had learnt their cues well.
Then: I told the children we would be learning to dance the Rock'n Roll and they just beamed! Dancing was exciting for them.
The steps were simple: facing the child and holding hands, we moved 2 to the right, then 2 to the left. Repeat it.
-I held one hand and swung them under and then twirled them around with the other hand.
-holding hands again, we moved 2 steps forward to meet each other and then 2 steps back. Repeat this.
-then we started again.
The singing helped the children with their fluency as I noticed how they struggled in the beginning and later they were confident and fluent. I always let them make decisions as to when they felt confident to sing at all, or sing in front of others.
This was such a fun activity and there was lots of laughter- I did not want the lesson to stop! I also thought it was important to introduce the students to activities whch would broaden their opportunities to have a range of leisure activities as they got older.
Try to be adventurous with your students and always build on fun.
Happy singing, dancing and instrument playing!
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