Specializations

Hand Mobility Problems

Mobility problems can hinder guitar playing, but not necessarily. We have been successful in getting students with hand mobility problems to play songs through modified guitars and tunings.

Perhaps not playing on stage behind your back, with your teeth, or setting your guitar on fire, but you can plausibly be able to play at least some songs.

After all, that's the goal, and nothing feels better than accomplishing something you thought you could never do.

Students with Special Needs and Traumatic Brain Injuries

This is an area that needs to be approached carefully. Not just anyone can teach a child with special needs. For one thing, special needs children are NOT one-size-fits-all students.

Unfortunately, some lesson programs do not realize that and can put these students in grave psychological danger.

The same applies to students with traumatic brain injuries.

Because of their simplicity and design, instruments like the ukulele can be invaluable learning tools for special needs children. This is especially true with an established program like Prisha Gustina's Steps to Music Literacy (stepstomusicliteracy.com).

I am not a music therapist, but I am returning to school to become board-certified in music therapy. As we grow, we will hire board-certified music therapists as needed to our music educator ranks.

I work directly with students' therapists to achieve the best lesson and overall outcome for students with special needs.

I am also in the research stage of a secondary study on music as a second language for children with autism on levels two and three of the spectrum. Once funding is secured, these students will qualify for no-cost lessons.

An Important Note on our Philosophy on Students with Special Needs

Diagnostic labeling is a negative connotation that implies causation that implicates a person with a diagnosis, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). If a lesson program administrator or instructor promotes themselves as qualified to teach children with special needs, vet them very carefully.

I only use the term "special needs child" in context. I do not teach "special needs children," as that falls into diagnostic labeling.

I teach children. Yes, children who happen to have special needs. They are children first; THEIR DIAGNOSIS DOES NOT DEFINE WHO THEY ARE.