Music Education for Children with Special Needs
The Radiant Spectrum (TRS) is the first and only Music Education Centre in Singapore that conducts music lessons specifically for children with special needs. Our teachers are all special education (SPED)-trained and specialise in working with children and young adults aged four to 20. We specialise in teaching students with a wide range of diagnoses, including non-verbal, selectively mute, ADHD, or students on the autism ASD spectrum.
We understand that each student is unique with their own learning needs. We first identify our students’ needs and behaviours during our Trial Assessment. Subsequent Music Lessons follow a highly customisable in-house curriculum to maximise each student’s learning potential. Our educators employ various types of learning supports and routine building during lessons.
We understand that each student is unique with their own learning needs. We first identify our students’ needs and behaviours during our Trial Assessment. Subsequent Music Lessons follow a highly customisable in-house curriculum to maximise each student’s learning potential. Our educators employ various types of learning supports and routine building during lessons.
Our Beginnings
Our Principal and Founder, Samantha Soh, has over a decade of experience in conducting music lessons and spent the latter half focusing on children with special needs. During this time, she saw how learning to play an instrument has greatly benefitted the development of her students and provided them with a meaningful lifelong skill. She also noticed that there was no music school in Singapore at that time that has a specific music curriculum that is tailored to teach children with special needs. More often than not, these children were taught as if they were difficult-to-manage students.
Thus, Samantha set out to start The Radiant Spectrum to make music education accessible to students with special needs so that they can grow and thrive through learning music.
Find out more about how Samantha started teaching and the benefits of learning piano for children with special needs.
Thus, Samantha set out to start The Radiant Spectrum to make music education accessible to students with special needs so that they can grow and thrive through learning music.
Find out more about how Samantha started teaching and the benefits of learning piano for children with special needs.
Our Vision and Mission
Vision:
To be the leading beacon of inclusive music education, fostering a nurturing environment where children with special needs can thrive and express themselves through music.
Mission:
To provide specialised music education tailored to the unique learning needs of children with special needs in Singapore. We empower our students to develop their full potential through an individualised curriculum and dedicated support.
Our Pedagogy
At The Radiant Spectrum, we adopt a 3-pronged approach when teaching children with special needs:
Scaffolded Activities and Tasks
Regardless of the background, age, or challenges encountered by children with special needs, learning becomes a successful experience from the beginning. Goals are set to be developmental and build on students’ strengths. Support is always accessible to students, so they become proficient, competent, and self-regulated musicians.
Structured and Explicit Teaching
This approach facilitates skill development through a structured three-step process: modeling, guided practice, and independent practice. Concepts and skills are broken down for easy learning, with prompting gradually reduced for errorless teaching and skill acquisition.
The acquired skills can be applied beyond the classroom, extending to home and public performance contexts.
Individualized Behavioural and Learning Supports
This includes visual and communication supports, physical structure, sensory and motor skill accommodations, positive behavior supports, and ecological assessments. Our supports cater to the unique social engagement, emotional and learning needs of how learners with special educational needs learn and process information.
Our Educators
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” – Ignacio Estrada
Music Education Therapy at the The Radiant Spectrum is conducted by our dedicated teaching team. Equipped with truckloads of patience and a combined experience of more than two decades in teaching children with special needs, our educators are driven by a common philosophy that every child has the ability to learn and it is our responsibility to figure out what the best way is. Although similar at the core, each of our teachers bring their own flair, specialisation and teaching style to lessons. Students are matched with the most suitable teacher during the trial assessment to ensure a strong therapist-child relationship.