Ed Sheeran is known for many things, but a stammer resolved through rap is possibly the least of them. After years of unsuccessful therapy, Sheeran would put Eminem’s music on repeat: “I learned every word of it back to front by the age I was 10. He raps very fast and very melodically, and very percussively, and it helped me get rid of the stutter,” he told Time Magazine.
Sheeran is clearly onto something. The power of music - rhythm, tempo, melody - is increasingly recommended in helping pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and can help pupils to overcome barriers in language, emotional regulation and concentration.
Perhaps the paradox of successful musicians with dyslexia explains why. In a performance industry which demands memory, mastery of complex notation and perfect rhythm, the process of repeatedly listening to music actually grows many of the brain’s main processing capacities that underpin learning: sequencing, memory, auditory discrimination and auditory processing. In other words, stronger auditory skills benefit the brain and counter areas of dyslexic deficit, as shown in research (Dr Katie Overy and Emma Moore, 2017).
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So how can we harness the power of music outside of specific music lessons?
1. Overcome any fear
If you’re not pitch perfect, or hate singing, don’t worry: basic rhythms, movement and recorded tools will also hit the spot.
2. Play calming classics
Once established as an entry routine or for independent work, calm music reduces anxiety and can bring cognitive, language, mood and concentration benefits, particularly to minimally verbal autistic pupils. Slower, calming rhythms have also been shown to reduce physiological arousal and stress during social interaction (Azevedo et al., 2017).
3. Boost recall through rhythmic call and response
Pupils with memory difficulty in GCSE English? Bring oracy back and use playground line-up to repeat lines of poetry with gesture, emphasis and rhythm like Cumberland Community School. Coupled with careful analysis in class, this creates poetic earworms that help enormously in exams.
4. Set a metronome ticking
Learners struggling with terminology or retention of vocabulary? Harness rhythm and initial word sounds to boost their recall in short, frequent drills. Use a free online metronome as a backing track to bring focus, give the definition rhythmically then loudly “cue in” the initial syllable sound of the target word. Hold it and wait for the class to give the rest of the word as a choral response.
So, for example, in primary science:
“Water vapour turns into a liquid….Co….”
“-n-den-sa-tion!”
This also works well in modern foreign languages with verb conjugation.
5. Link word sounds and shapes
Get pupils saying the phoneme sounds of words out loud chorally, always while tracing their shape in the air (or on the desk) to link letter shapes, sounds and spelling in one multi-sensory hit. This boosts whole class recall while particularly helping pupils with dyslexia.
6. Stamp syllables in rhythm
Break longer multisyllabic words down into their phonological parts to help dyslexic learners. “Syllable stamp”, click or tap the beats of important words; this is especially helpful with unstressed vowels that can be isolated and shouted or sung in a “spelling voice”, for example, in ‘per/ma/nent’, over-enunciating the ‘a’ and final ‘e’ in the last two syllables.
7. Musical mantras to boost attention
Where concentration is a difficulty, use echo clapping or vocal alternatives to get pupils’ attention back, whatever their age - these need volume and confidence more than musical skill:
I said a boom-chicka-boom (I said a boom-chicka-boom)
Scooby Dooby Doo (Where are you?)
Hakuna (Matata!)
Who you gonna call? (Ghostbusters!)
8. Sing times tables and number bonds
Use melody in maths to support learners with memory deficit but be selective and make sure each is distinct (many maths songs are tuneless). Use no more than five songs (for the tougher times tables) and give the class a starting sound or just the first line, allowing them to take it from there.
