Musical Connections: Nurturing a music culture in specialist autism provision

The session focuses on key learning from a 3 year project supporting music-making in Autism Resource Bases within mainstream schools. The programme has been developed and led in partnership with Music Hubs in Liverpool, Harrow and Somerset. There will also be sharing about the ongoing AHRC-funded research collaboration between Live Music Now and University of South Wales which builds on this pilot work. This research is funded by the AHRC Hub for Public Engagement with Music Research at the University of Southampton.

What key themes will be discussed?
The importance of taking a creative approach to music-making
Why incorporating young people’s interests is key to success
The challenges we encountered around staff development in the settings
The importance of developing relationships and safe spaces for young people
What are the learning outcomes and key takeaways?
A grounding in what we mean when we talk about autism, and specialist autism provision
An overview of our key learning
To have developed understanding of the importance that taking a creative approach holds, and why it’s important to focus on young people’s interests and preferences

This session will be of particular interest to:
Those working with or designing projects for autistic children and young people