Adaptations in the Classroom: Accommodations
and Modifications: Part I
By Alice-Ann Darrow
Alice-Ann Darrow is Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy at Florida
State University. Email: aadarrow@fsu.edu.
or this issue and a later issue, I would like to
F address possible adaptations that can be made
in the music classroom for students with dis-
abilities. Many students with disabilities need some
sort of adaptation in their educational program to
be successful in a general or special education set-
ting. Adaptations are any adjustment in the environ-
ment, instruction, or materials for learning that
enhances the student’s performance and allows for
at least partial participation. Adaptations should be
made for individual students based on their specific
learning needs and should be based on their
strengths as well as their weaknesses.
Although the Individual with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) does not specify what
accommodations and modifications must be made,
there is a general agreement as to the definition of
these terms.
An accommodation is used when the teacher believes
that the student can achieve the same level of partici-
pation or accomplishment as the rest of the class, but
just needs some additional support. An accommoda-
tion allows a student to complete the same assign-
ment or activity as the other students in the class, but
the student is offered a change in such things as for-
matting, setting, amount of time needed, or type of
response that is required.
When making an accommodation, a teacher
might give the student extra time to learn a skill,
extra peer support during class, or additional
instruction after class for the student to participate
and achieve at the same level as the other students
in the class. An accommodation does not change
the nature of what the assignment is or what the
test measures or the final skill that the student
develops. This can also be called a remediation
approach, as the teacher is working to remediate the
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student’s difficulties so that he or she can perform
the same tasks as the other students.
Other students with severe disabilities might not be
capable of or expected to achieve at the same level or
learn all of the same information as the rest of the
students. If this is the case, the teacher might develop
a modification to help the student participate and learn
at the highest possible level for his or her individual
abilities. A modification is used when the student is
not able to complete the same assignment or partici-
pate in the same way as the rest of the class due to
the nature of his or her disabilities. A modification
changes the standard of participation or the extent of
what an assignment or test measures.
A student needing modifications might be asked
to complete a part of an assignment rather than the
entire assignment or participate partially in a music
activity. In this situation, the teacher will help the
student compensate for his or her limitations by
assigning an alternative activity that is within the
abilities of the child. This might involve creating a
simple rhythm for a child who cannot manage a
complex rhythm, creating a percussion part if the
child is unable to play a recorder with the class, or
offering a nonverbal child an accompaniment part
to play rather than singing.
This can also be called a compensatory approach,
as the teacher is modifying the experience to compen-
sate for the student’s disability. The goal is to have the
student participate in the educational experiences at
the highest level possible for the individual student.
Teachers need to be aware of the student’s strengths
and abilities—what the student can do, not just what
he or she cannot do—and build on these abilities
when creating educational modifications.
There are many ways to make adaptations to
enhance the learning abilities of students with dis-
abilities. Adaptations may involve changes in the way
the teacher delivers instruction, alternative means for
student responses, variations in the environment, or
curricular changes to meet the student’s needs
(Ebeling, Deschenes, & Sprague, 1994; Kochhar &
West, 1996). General adaptations can be utilized in a
variety of ways in the music education class and
music therapy session. Several types of adaptations
are presented here as a foundation for music educa-
tors and music therapists to create individualized,
appropriate, and effective accommodations and
modifications for their students. Remembering that
IDEA mandates individualized education for stu-
dents in special education, some students may need
very few of these adaptations while others might
require a variety of accommodations or modifica-
tions to benefit from their education.
Adapting Instructional Strategies
and Curriculum
Participation—Vary the level of participation that is
expected of the student. Partial participation occurs when
the teacher adapts the level of participation or
extent to which a student is involved in the activity.
Partial participation is one of the basic principles of
inclusion. Most students with special needs attend
music with their same-aged peers; however, stu-
dents with severe disabilities might not be able to
participate fully in all of the activities of the music
classroom because of their level of functioning.
The teacher can create opportunities for partial par-
ticipation that build on the students’ abilities and
provide the best possible learning experience.
Partial participation might involve having a student
who has severe physical disabilities only play in the
rhythm section of a song arrangement rather than
participate in the singing and movement sections. A
student with autism might have difficulty with over-
stimulation in music class when many loud instru-
ments are being played. The student could leave class
when the noise level increases or could listen to music
with headphones during times of overstimulation.
Input—Adapt the way that instruction is delivered to the
students. Teachers can vary the ways that material is
presented to students by using visual aids, hands-on
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learning, active participation, and cooperative group
exercises. By using a multimodal approach to
instruction, teachers are able to build on the
strengths of the students and compensate for areas
of deficit. Music learning fits naturally in a multi-
modal approach to instruction. Music activities can
utilize auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic
modalities. Children can learn music through
singing, moving, playing instruments, reading, creat-
ing, and listening. Teachers can use all these
approaches to instruct the students and enhance
their understanding of the material.
Some students have disabilities that make it nec-
essary for the teacher to vary the ways that material
is presented. For instance, a student who is deaf
might need visual cues such as directions written on
the board or a chart with the words and melody of
the song. That same student would need the teacher
to deliver instruction facing the class (as opposed to
talking when writing on the board) so the student
could use residual hearing or speech reading to
enhance learning.
Output—Adapt how the students can respond to instruc-
tion. A student might be able to answer a question
verbally or through movement rather than in writ-
ing. Some students use assistive communication
devices or communication books to respond to
questions rather than using verbal or written
responses. Similar to the adaptation of varying the
input by the teacher, adapting the way a student can
respond also fits in naturally in a music setting.
Rather than write a response to rhythmic notation,
a student could demonstrate understanding by mov-
ing to the rhythm patterns. A student with no
speech could respond to whether a melody goes up
or down by playing a glissando on a xylophone
rather than giving a verbal response or singing.
Difficulty—Adapt the skill level, the type of problem, or
the rules on how a student may approach a task. Most music
classrooms are made up of students with a variety of
skill levels related to music. Music tasks can be made
less difficult for some students by giving alternative
but complementary tasks, such as having some stu-
dents play only on the strong beat or steady beat
while other students are playing a more complex
rhythm pattern. Difficulty can also be adapted by
having some students play an instrument that has an
easy part (egg shakers) along with students who are
playing a more difficult melody line on recorders.
Time—Adapt the amount of time allotted for completing
a task, taking a test, or learning a new skill. Some stu-
dents with disabilities will need additional time to
be able to complete the same task as their peers.
The music teacher can work with the general educa-
tion or special education teacher to arrange for
extra time for learning a skill or completing the
task. Students might take time during a free hour,
study hall, or lunch to work on the music skill.
Teachers might structure additional time in the
classroom for individual students—or for all of the
students—to master a new skill.
Size—Adapt the number of items or amount of materi-
al that a student is expected to learn or complete. Some
students might not be able to answer all the ques-
tions on the weekly music worksheet, but they can
answer a few of them. In an active music-making
situation, some students with disabilities might be
able to learn one or two of the rhythm parts but
not all the rhythm parts for a particular song.
Alternate goals—While using the same materials for all
students, adapt the outcome expectations or goals. Students
with severe disabilities might be included in a music
class primarily for socialization and interaction with
typically developing peers. Although they can par-
ticipate in music at some level, their goals would be
related more toward socialization than music learn-
ing. Other students might be several grade levels
behind their peers in music class and not have the
level of skill to achieve the same goals as the rest of
the class, even though they can participate in some
or all of the activities.
Substitute curriculum—Provide different curriculum or
instructional materials to meet the individual student’s
goals. Some students are not appropriate for full
inclusion music class because of the severity of
their disability. Students with disruptive behaviors
who endanger other students or negatively impact
the learning of others might be better served in an
individual or small group adapted music instruc-
tion or music therapy setting.
An excellent example of a substitute curriculum
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is found in the following true story. A student in
Wichita, Kansas, signed up for high school orches-
tra. He had always wanted to play a stringed instru-
ment. When the student came to class, the director
was surprised to find that the student could not
read music, but perhaps was even more surprised to
find that he could move neither his arms nor legs.
The director called a friend, a music therapist,
and she sent him information on a client who had
used a computer with a mouth stick to compose
music. The orchestra director went to work and set
up a workstation in one of the practice rooms. The
student came to class everyday and worked through
a music reading program on the computer. After
finishing the program, he told the director he would
like to learn something about arranging music for
strings. The director gave him several books to read
and a number of scores to study.
The student, who was, as it turned out, very
musical, wrote a beautiful suite for string ensemble.
The high school orchestra premiered the suite on
their spring concert. At the conclusion of the piece,
the orchestra invited the composer to come on
stage and be recognized by the audience and his
peers. This student was not participating as other
students were; nevertheless, he was making a mean-
ingful contribution to the ensemble. His director
found a way to adapt the curriculum such that this
student’s talents were not lost. All students deserve
the opportunity to participate in music learning.
Sometimes all that is needed to facilitate their par-
ticipation is some creativity and a willingness to
explore new approaches to teaching.
(Adapted from Adamek, M., & Darrow, A. A. (2005).
Music in Special Education. Silver Spring, MD: AMTA.)
References
Ebeling, D., Deschenes, C., & Sprague, J. (1994).
Adapting curriculum and instruction in inclusive classrooms:
A teacher’s desk reference . Bloomington, IN: Center for
School and Community Integration—Institute for the
Study of Developmental Disabilities.
Kochhar, C. A., & West, L. L. (1996). Handbook for suc-
cessful inclusion. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publications.