Success Music Studio

ADD

 

color coded hand icons for music - girl pianist

 

The archive contains posts about teaching ADD students music.

 

ADD

 

A Deficit of Attention?

Do you want to know a secret about ADD? It is not a deficit of attention. In fact, students with ADD have excessive amounts of attention.

 

Sensitive to their surroundings, the person with ADD has problems with random stimuli. Namely, a ticking clock can become really distracting when a student with ADD tries to study.

 

If a noise suddenly happens in the room, it can become very hard for the person with ADD to ignore it. Because they have too much attention, everything grabs their focus.

 

This makes it hard for ADD students to keep to a task. It gets even harder when there are new and fun things to distract them.

 

Filtering Sensory Data

Sorting out sensory data remains an issue. However, what appears to be a self-control issue in school, can become an asset in the real world. Let me give you an example:

 

apple, diet, female

 

What color is the apple?

 

If you said red, look again. Does it just look red?

 

When you look closely, you can easily see many colors across the skin of the apple. Dark cloudy patches, white and yellow spots, and a brown stem all appear on the surface of the apple. If you said the apple looks red, then you unconsciously filtered out the other colors to quickly label it by its main hue.

 

This type of sorting does not come easily to students with ADD. Nonetheless, the talent to look beyond the simple label to see all of the colors that appear on the fruit remains a critical skill if you wish to correctly paint a picture of the apple.

 

Therefore, the student with ADD can easily connect together outwardly unconnected information, because they do not quickly filter out seemingly unrelated data. This tendency helps fuel their creativity.

 

Curiosity

Curious George always gets in trouble because of his curiosity. However, it turns out he would have made a good scientist (or he would if he was human).

 

Similarly, students with ADD often get in trouble for being distractible. However, they are also creative and interested in diverse topics of learning. They have a sense of curiosity about them, an important trait for scientists.

 

“One of the most important qualities of a good scientist is curiosity. Curiosity makes a scientist ask why things happen. It makes him or her eager to learn more or test an idea” (Spectrum Science Grade 3 8).

 

ADD students are observant. True, ADD students have a hard time with filtering. However, the flip side is that they may just discover something that no one else noticed before. Kinda like Einstein did with the speed of light.

 

Creating and interpreting music needs this type of curiosity and creativity as well.

 

© 2021 Geoffrey Keith

 

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What Exactly Is Dyspraxia and Its Impact on Learning Piano - Child Playing Piano

What Exactly Is Dyspraxia and Its Impact on Learning Piano?

Does your child have dyspraxia and wants to learn to play piano? Are you a music teacher of a “clumsy” student? Because dyspraxia affects motor skills, it can have a huge impact on music lessons. However, with the correct teaching strategies, students with dyspraxia can successfully learn to play the piano. Keep reading “What Exactly Is Dyspraxia and Its Impact on Learning Piano?” to find out what it is and how to deal with it. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.

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50 Essential Music Symbols Explained in Less Than 5 Minutes

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How Easy Is it to Teach a Down Syndrome Child an Instrument?

Do you need advice on how to teach a music student with Down syndrome? Teaching a Down syndrome (DS) kid an instrument can be a special, heartwarming experience. However, to be truly effective, you need to have effective teaching methods. Keep reading “How Easy Is it to Teach a Down Syndrome Child an Instrument?” to learn how to be effective. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.

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How to Color Code the Elusive Alto Clef

Do you have a child or a student who struggles to read alto clef? Are you confused about how it works? Why is the alto staff so elusive for most musicians? Because instruments rarely use it. In fact, only one instrument reads from it regularly. Even the closely related tenor clef is used by more instruments (sort of). Keep reading to learn how to color code the elusive alto clef. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.

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Do you have a musical prodigy on your hands? Do you need information about how your musical child or student learns? Musical giftedness can emerge as early as one to two years old and usually appears before age six. It’s characterized by a rage to learn. Keep reading “What Does Prodigy Mean and Do They Have Elite Musical Talent?” to get examples of this shocking musical ability. Estimated reading time 5 minutes.

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How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement)

Does your child want to learn how to play the piano? Do you want to know the best way to teach piano hand placement? Finger placement on the piano keyboard is an important skill that should be taught at the earliest stages of learning. Keep reading “How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement)” to learn how it works. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.

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The Gifted Dyslexic and Insight Learning (Part 4)

Have you ever wondered if you’re gifted and dyslexic? Or are you a parent of a child who’s gifted and dyslexic and want more information. Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize giftedness. Ronald Davis states, “This would commonly be recognized as daydreaming or simply not paying attention. The student is actually paying attention but has shifted to an imaginary world that is more interesting” (“The Gift of Learning” 38). How is this a sign of giftedness? Keep reading “The Gifted Dyslexic and Insight Learning” to learn about the last of our four dyslexic strengths. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.