Behavioral Domain

Behavior as a Disability

I chose the Behavior Domain because behaviors are something that all of us as educators have, but we may not always think of it as a disability. This past year, I have had experiences with multiple students that have behavior disorders in my music classes, and it has truly opened my eyes to some behaviors being as a part of a disability, not always being on the fault of bad choices by the student. I have had successes, and failures, and want to explore those experiences and relate them to what I’m learning. I also have personal attachment, as I was once the student that would be constantly in the principals office in elementary school due to my ADHD leading me to more and more behavior issues. Many students go through the day trying to learn, but when they fall off track, they are met with negative consequence after negative consequence instead of redirection or encouragement, and are thus spiraled into worsening behavior due to their ADHD and other behavioral disabilities. That spiral looks much like the picture above, a mind of a million things that is then spit out in the form of them acting out, or bottling it up and never interacting. It's not their fault that they don't know how to express themselves, but it's part of our job to help them to do so through the power of music!

What are Behavioral Disabilities?

Behavioral Disabilities are disabilities that cause the student to struggle due to social and coping skills. From the Music Educators Journal, an article titled Behavior Disorders: Strategies for the Music Teacher states “[children with Emotional or Behavioral disorders] demonstrate severe and pervasive difficulty establishing or maintaining positive interpersonal interactions”. 

Article Summary

The article establishes a problem right away with students with behavioral disabilities partaking in music class: “There are some particular demands common to all music classes, however, that can turn this well-meant social experience into a time of frustration and emotional trauma for the EBD student, not to mention the educator”. It is extremely important to make sure that the music classroom is not just a free-for-all, but a structured classroom with opportunities for creativity and music making. The article stresses the importance of the music educator being involved in the process of creating goals for your music class, since odds are the music classroom is one of the only classes that they are out of their typical room for. This way, expectations for the student with a behavioral disability are clear and explicit for the special education teachers, as well as the parents and student taking part in the IEP team. 

The article also lists some strategies once they get into your classroom:

• Simple rules clearly accessible and stated in the classroom

• Clarity and consistency with rules and processes.

• Taking care if positive teacher attention/praise is effective, particularly in those that have disorders that thrive on being corrected for negative behaviors. 

• Generalization: Implementing behavior supports/rules/positive consequence from the special education classroom in your music classroom. 

• Identifying in secondary academic deficits that a student with a behavioral disability may have paired with their primary disability. 

The author closes the article by pressing that for the best results, the music educator cannot leave it to chance. Great attention, careful planning, and communicating with the special education teachers and IEP can create a strong team to support the students. 

My experience in tackling Behavioral Disabilities

Firstly, a good ice breaker at the start of the course is extremely important. At the start of the year, when many teachers are forcing students to share one fun fact about themselves, I play a game called “Spectrum” . You may have seen the concept on Youtube as it was quite viral at one point. 

       

Screenshot of "Spectrum" Video from Jubilee Youtube Channel 

I choose this game over other ice breakers because it’s very simple: I play a song for them on the speakers, and they move to the left side of the room if they like it, the right side if they dislike it, and in the middle if they are indifferent. I then open the floor for students to share out after they are done. Through this game, even if students are never going to speak, they can still share their opinions. They can also see who they may agree with through the class. Say I play a country song, and a student with a behavioral disability doesn’t want to speak to anyone, but loves country music. They move to the left side, not thinking that any student would move with them. Suddenly, they may find that a group of students in their own clique may have moved alongside them. I would point this out, and see if they listen to the same artist. This creates a small bond between those students without them ever having truly interacted. 

Secondly, I also do an activity after this where students create a playlist of songs based off of a theme or an emotion that is given to them (depending on the intellectual ability of the student). This allows the student to isolate themself where they are comfortable, but they are still able to explore and grow their love for their own music. With those two activities, they have suddenly developed the opinion that they can grow more in their attachment to their own music, and they did it all without hardly leaving their comfort zone.

Lastly, I try to include one activity per instrument where a student can apply their instrument to music they personally enjoy. Even students with greater behaviors care about themselves, and every student I have had loves to talk about or listen to their own music (and of course, not my old man music). For example, when I play ukuleles with my classes, I do a final project to show the skills they learned. This final project consists of being able to learn a song using tab, or chord charts, using a song of their choice (with approval of course). At the start of this year, a student that had been struggling greatly with taking care of the ukulele and staying on task due to distracting others acted as though I had just flipped a switch. They immediately went online to the website I told them to use, looked up their favorite song, and began working feverishly to learn it so they could play it for themselves and their parents. This activity was one of their favorites, and it grew their love of music while meeting their needs.

Bonus Resource!

Link to an article from the “Teaching Exceptional Children Plus” journal: Teaching Exception Children Adaption Tool Kit

Part of the "Behavioral Adaptations" section from the Bonus Resource!

This resource is called “An Adaptation Tool Kit for Teaching Music”, and includes a toolbox of adaptations for each category of disability under IDEA. In this, it lists some adaptations for student with Behavioral Disabilities. This supports the idea of a clear, consistent set of rules that are easily visible always. It also supports a solid follow through, so that students can see there is a clear and complete way that discipline is taken care of in your classroom.