sn and my beginners' orchestra - sheet music - use of - would appreciate thoughts

[whatcanmusicdoforchildren]

I hate namechanging, but have a longstanding mumsnet profile and this is a thread about other people's children........

So I've made my first "reasonable adjustment" in my new community musician role. A child playing an instrument that requires pinching motions with both hands when his condition means that only one side of his body functions typically. moved to a keyboard instrument - that was easy. The only troubling thing is that he had joined us, then given up when he realised the impact of his condition, his mum had accepted this and no-one seemed to think that it was for us to solve the problem .... makes you realise this must be going on all the time .... ties in with a poster's advice that the biggest problem is low expectations... guess this is why I've turned this into a job....

next: thinking about whether and to what extent we use sheet music. Would appreciate any thoughts, experiences or tips, especially from those with an understanding of dyslexia. My current inclination is to (nearly) always give children the option to use it but not to push it at all. I do not want it to be a barrier to entry though, whether or not you need it to play Nielson in some hypothetical future adult life....

still don't feel like me with the name change! (I suppose because my mumsnet name felt like the real me in the days when the only people I could talk to were on this board)

I think you have exactly the right inclination, always give it as an option as you don't always know whether it will be a problem at all. What alternatives can you use? My DS started learning recorder with colour coding. It did make moving on to 'real' sheet music tricky, so is there a halfway house of colour coding the notes on the usual notation?

Also look at enlarging if you have any children with visual impairments - that's one of the things I struggle with when I read sheet music or guitar tab, because my sight isn't great.

Some dyslexic students and some with visual impairments also benefit from coloured overlays because it reduces the 'glare' from the white background. Presumably this effect would be more important with music where the positioning of notes etc is much harder to distinguish. In my experience teaching English a number of students liked having work printed on a pale colour as it was easier to read, so if they find it hard to see you could both enlarge it and experiment with different colour paper.