Flexible choice boards— sometimes there are reasons that you need to be able to change or remove the choices on a choice board. In this tutorial video we show how to create your own with velcro or magnets.

Recording buttons— these items can be useful communication and engagement tools in the adaptive music classroom, especially for children who are nonspeaking or minimally speaking. Our Teacher Resources page includes specific products that we have tested ourselves for quality and usefulness.

Updating vocabulary— “nonverbal” is a very common term that is often misused to assign deficits to students that they don’t actually have. We urge everyone to replace this term with “non-speaking.” Learn more in this video and this set of graphics.

Neuronormativity means having a discriminatory expectation that everyone has a neurotypical brain. We shared a real-life example of this phenomenon from a local classroom.

Paint shaker 3D printing experiments— Jen designed a cute and functional 3D-printed music shaker shaped like a paint can, and Jess experimented with various fillings. Here are videos on how to 3D print your own shakers, how she set up the experiment, and a demonstration of the results. The 3D print plan for the shakers is included in the Paint Shake instant download bundle.

Tickles can be a popular adaptive music class activity for certain student populations, but they can also be problematic if not handled with care. This month we discussed it on the blog and in a video.

Accessibility isn’t only for students— we’re trying to move music publishing to include more ready-to-use tools for student engagement in their activity books, starting with our own materials. Teachers deserve easy access, too.