Apraxia with recorder music lesson

[Anonymous]

MCPS requires recorder music class at 3rd grade. My apraxia kid struggles with it. She can talk really well, so probably no one notices that she has apraxia or oral motor problem. Should I reach out to music teacher? What would I say?Can you fail a music class? She has been all As, and she is concerned about getting a not A in music class.

[Anonymous]

My DS has apraxia and he had no issues with the recorder. Is the apraxia newly diagnosed? DS had severe apraxia and speech therapy twice a week from the age of 18 months until sixth grade.

[Anonymous]

I find it unlikely that she would fail. The standards are pretty low - if she puts the instrument in her mouth and follows what the group is doing she is probably fine. My experience with MCPS elementary art/music/PE is that kids only get less than an A when they refuse to do an assignment, it's not skill-based.

[Anonymous]

1. No one cares about recorder. Please take it from me, pianist, with a violinist teen DD and a choral singer teen DS. We were all crappy at it! My daughter started the violin at 3, she could read music, etc and still hated the recorder. My son with a speech delay, ADHD/ASD and several learning disorders wasn't worse than her at the recorder

2. No one cares about grades in elementary. Just make sure your kids read and can do math as well as they possibly can. Tutor them yourself if you have to. Make sure they get the basics of good writing as well. Ideally, you want your kid in compacted math by 4th grade, and to have enough skills in ELA that they are recommended for a foreign language in 6th, instead of taking that other English class, digital whatever.

[Anonymous]

The other kids will play so badly that her bad playing will not be noticeable. I have no idea why they bother with recorder. It's actually hard to play properly. A nightmare to teach.

This is how it will go:
FWEEEEET! FWEEEEET! FWEEET FWEEEEET FWEEET!

Then the teacher threatens them if they don't stop it. Then they fweet some more. It's hell.

[Anonymous]

Op here. She has global apraxia, not only oral. She can't blow balloon. When she plays recorder, it is a ton of saliva instead of air blowing into the mouthpiece of a recorder. Her oral muscle seems weak. She also has fine motor weakness that she can't cover some holes of recorder fully, it is painful to see and hear her playing recorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. She has global apraxia, not only oral. She can't blow balloon. When she plays recorder, it is a ton of saliva instead of air blowing into the mouthpiece of a recorder. Her oral muscle seems weak. She also has fine motor weakness that she can't cover some holes of recorder fully, it is painful to see and hear her playing recorder.

Most kids aren't very good at it and its painful to hear, very painful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. She has global apraxia, not only oral. She can't blow balloon. When she plays recorder, it is a ton of saliva instead of air blowing into the mouthpiece of a recorder. Her oral muscle seems weak. She also has fine motor weakness that she can't cover some holes of recorder fully, it is painful to see and hear her playing recorder.

Four things.
These lessons are graded on effort, not achievement. She'll get an A.
All the kids do awful on the recorder, and spit out saliva, I promise she won't stand out.
Many children with small/slim fingers can't cover the recorder holes. My two kids couldn't do it. I TAPED the back hole shut
Is she in occupational therapy for the oral motor weakness? Maybe she should be? If she graduated from therapy but has residual issues, you can continue to practice the same exercises that she did in therapy.

[Anonymous]

^. but by all means contact the teacher to explain! It never hurts. Say your child has an oral motor weakness due to apraxia and that you are concerned she might not make the same progress as the other students.

[Anonymous]

I would ask for percussion as a substitute. It's not worth it. Recorder is stupid and everyone hates it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. She has global apraxia, not only oral. She can't blow balloon. When she plays recorder, it is a ton of saliva instead of air blowing into the mouthpiece of a recorder. Her oral muscle seems weak. She also has fine motor weakness that she can't cover some holes of recorder fully, it is painful to see and hear her playing recorder.

Four things.
These lessons are graded on effort, not achievement. She'll get an A.
All the kids do awful on the recorder, and spit out saliva, I promise she won't stand out.
Many children with small/slim fingers can't cover the recorder holes. My two kids couldn't do it. I TAPED the back hole shut
Is she in occupational therapy for the oral motor weakness? Maybe she should be? If she graduated from therapy but has residual issues, you can continue to practice the same exercises that she did in therapy.

Omg...I never think of taping the back hole shut. With duct tape? Does that work at all?