 Dr Deborah Amend and Jennifer Petry at the 2025 OHMI Conference How do you motivate students who are not allowed in the same space as traditional students? That was a key question posed by music educators Dr. Deborah Amend and Jennifer Petry when they spoke at OHMI’s Annual Conference & Awards in March 2025.
Both educators are also parents of children with adaptive musical needs and are well placed to know how to encourage such motivation. Their experience has led to two major developments: firstly, the creation of a space uniquely available to adaptive musicians – CAAMC (the Cincinnati Adaptive Arts and Music Camp); and secondly, the creation of a Music Adaptation Plan (MAP) for every child in attendance. CAAMC students attending over the last ten years have been invited to inform Deborah and Jennifer’s research on what motivates them to play music. Motivating factors for children with adaptive needs Whilst what motivates one individual does not necessarily motivate another, musicians would often report that putting on their own concerts where they proved themselves capable was highly motivating. When a musician adapts their playing, it can often create a different and individual sound they can uniquely call their own. Seeing the results of your hard work paying off was also high on the list – not only because it meant being able to play more difficult pieces but also because the journey to becoming more accomplished was fun. Conversely, the vibe from others that it was ‘a chore’ to have to move adapted equipment on their behalf, was hugely demotivating. Musicians often came back to their experiences of CAAMC being a key contributor to their own motivation levels. It was cited as an important space where each musician could learn their own adaptations by watching others. It was also somewhere where they knew, and appreciated, being pushed – where ‘missing a limb was not an excuse!’ They also indicated that often they gave up because they did not sound good. Individual musical ability aside, the instrument itself needs to be good enough to enable the musician to progress to the highest level they might choose. Added to that, even an instrument perfectly suited to a musician at the start of their musical journey may become less suitable over time. Unlike their traditional counterparts that may have changed little over the centuries, adapted musical instruments are often new, sometimes bespoke and should continually evolve. The importance of a Music Adaptation Plan (MAP) Every child, regardless of whether they play a traditional or adapted instrument, should have a music education plan. The need simply becomes even greater for adaptive students as many of their needs are bespoke, while others may be pedagogically traditional. Teachers often make the mistake in thinking that all needs are adaptation-oriented when in fact many of them are not (for example, left-hand technique development pedagogy being standard). The MAP plays an important part in tracking an instrument’s (and its adaptation, or “connective equipment”) suitability over time. As a child physically grows, gets more advanced in their playing and as they adopt new genres, so too will their expectations of an instrument and it is likely to need further adaptation. It soon became apparent that how to best complete the plans was subject to interpretation by the music teachers completing them. Deborah determined to introduce a more standardised approach and set about mapping the data captured from 27 MAPs, according to:
The MAP has proved useful in guiding the teacher in areas to consider for adaptive instruction while also emphasising what is traditional technique. An outcome of Deborah’s research was that once the adaptive manner of playing was created, traditional technique and instructions still assumed a larger role in the student’s education. In some cases, once the adaptation was created, everything was traditionally taught. A collective approach to adaptive music-making A MAP for every child may be a key outcome of CAAMC, but the effectiveness of these plans starts with the camp’s commitment to combining the knowledge and expertise of multiple voices – student, parent, teacher, occupational therapist and engineer – to identify the best solution. The student will know what they enjoy playing. The parent will know what motivates their child and how far they can be pushed. The teacher will understand the pedagogy for the instrument, the repertoire and what an instrument is capable of. The occupational therapist will know what the child is physically capable of. The engineer will know which tools, materials and manufacturing process may present the best option. The musicians at CAAMC benefit from an instrumental lesson every day with a teacher, with an occupational therapist providing insights for the creation of any adapted devices. Engineer volunteers from May We Help (a Cincinnati organisation that provides free custom-made solutions for people with disabilities) captures requirements at the start of the week, returns with solutions mid-week, and then assesses their suitability at the end of the week once a child has had time to become familiar with and use the instrument or piece of enabling equipment. Parents are involved at every step of the way. The final solutions for the year are filmed so that the student and parent are fully versed on what the instrument can achieve and how it should be positioned. This video, together with a MAP, is an important resource for a student’s music teacher back home (families travel significant distances to attend the camp so the plan gives teachers as much information as possible to give them the confidence to teach adaptive students). Creating MAPs that are informed by multiple experts gives each student, together with their teacher, the best opportunity to advance their music-making and, as Jennifer points out, their motivation only serves to “drive the map higher and higher”. Further information CAAMC (the Cincinnati Adaptive Music Camp) 2026 will take place 19-24 July, 2026 at Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY. Recordings of Jennifer and Deborah’s presentations at the OHMI Conference & Awards can be accessed at:
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