Accommodating Neurodiversity in Early Childhood Music Learning and Development

This book chapter proposes a practical approach to early childhood music learning that accommodates children with autism spectrum conditions and other forms of neurodiversity. It centres on a list called "Mara's Ten Ideas for Accommodating Neurodiversity in ECMLD". The list was developed by a young woman who took part in the Music-Play Project as a child, together with an applied ethnomusicologist. Each idea is discussed through a dialogue between the two coauthors. The chapter arrives at a teaching philosophy that favours playful, child-directed, open-ended and improvisation-oriented group music-making.

Key points

• The chapter proposes a new approach to early childhood music learning and development that foregrounds the needs and wants of neurodiverse children.
• The coauthors have collaborated on neurodiverse music, research and publication projects since 2009.
• Mara Chasar took part in the Music-Play Project at age seven; the project served children with autism spectrum conditions and their families and was coordinated by Michael Bakan at Florida State University.
• The core of the chapter is a prescriptive list of ten ideas for accommodating neurodiversity.
• The proposed philosophy privileges playful, neurodiverse, child-directed, open-ended and improvisation-oriented group music-making.

Limitations

The abstract describes a prescriptive, dialogue-based chapter and reports no measured outcomes or comparison data, so it cannot tell us whether the approach improves outcomes for children. The country or setting is not stated in the abstract.