Special Needs Teaching Archives

by Tim Topham

Feel more confident today teaching for special needs, with our tips, classroom strategies, method advice and more

by Erin Parkes

What is a teacher to do in those 'I've had it!' moments

by Cathy Hirata

Learn one teacher's encouraging perspective about teaching special needs students

by Kristen Raney

This post in the last in our series on Special Needs Piano Teaching. I hope that you’ve found this month’s conversations and articles helpful in your teaching. Please let other teachers know where to find this information and share links to it so everyone can benefit. Today’s guest post is from Kristen Raney, who talks about her experience as ... How to Engage Piano Students with Sensory Processing Disorder

by Tim Topham

As a piano teacher, you probably consider music to be your area of expertise. But we also have to wear so many other hats as well. When a student with special needs walks into our studio, we need to understand their diagnosis so we can teach them better. Sometimes we can feel completely in over our ... TTTV060: Unpacking Autism with Clinical Psychologist Lydia Meem

by Tim Topham

Today’s article is the result of an email I sent to this Friday’s Podcast guest, Lydia Meem from Autism Understanding, asking for her thoughts on strategies for teaching music to students with special needs. Lydia is a clinical psychologist. While she doesn’t teach piano, she has extensive experience working with children and adolescents with autism and other developmental ... Autism and Music Teaching: Tips from a Clinical Psychologist

Plans & Pricing

by Tim Topham

When you’re teaching students with special needs, sometimes you need to stray off the beaten path a little. We need to learn how to teach each child, the way they need to learn. We need skills that will help us to reach students before we can teach them. Karen Nisenson is a music and art ... TTTV059: Integrating Music Therapy and Art Therapy with Karen Nisenson

by Tim Topham

Sometimes all it takes for a student to be successful in their piano lessons is for the teacher to reframe what success means. Not every student is going to be able to play Beethoven sonatas…which is why Susan Bessette is measuring success in smiles. After Susan retired from teaching in the prison system, she couldn’t ... TTTV057: Measuring Success in Smiles with Susan Bessette

by Tim Topham

Teaching students with special needs can be an extremely rewarding experience, but it has its challenges. If you’ve been approached by a parent of a child with special needs, you may have been too intimidated to take them on. You may have felt that you weren’t prepared or qualified to deal with their unique learning ... TTTV056: Scott Price on Special Needs Teaching

by Tim Topham

Have you ever taught a student with special needs or learning difficulties? Do you have a student right now who is on the Autism Spectrum? In today’s podcast epidsode Thembi Shears shares her fantastic insights into teaching students with ASD or ADHD. Thembi talks about what these terms mean, the difficulties you may encounter, and how ... TTTV008: Tactics for teaching piano students with ASD & ADHD – Thembi Shears