A review on the teaching of music skills by the orff instruments technique of individuals who have mental disabilty

Music is used as a rehabilitative care tool in many diseases from the existence of human being. Besides being used as an achieving activity, the music therapy for individuals with mental disability is an important factor for teaching many abilities and concepts. While being taught the music abilities it is possible being academically educated on the other hand. Music ability requires the continuity of developmental skills as perception of movements and speech development, especially auditory perception to be maintained in harmony. The ability to play a musical instrument requires having a certain degree of fine motor skill capability. On the other hand, rhythm education increases regular movement fluency. In this study, it is intended to teach Orff instruments and to develop music skills of children by giving rhythm education with these instruments. This study was conducted with three children with the diagnosis of mental retardation. Before start practicing with children, children's level of music skills measured by special education teacher and then 13 lessons were made individually with the children. After training, children's special education skills were re-evaluated by their teachers. Six weeks after the exercising is completed, the persistency of what students learn was again measured as the same data collection tool. The Music Skills Performance Determination Form was used as the data collection tool in the study. When the research findings are examined, while pre-test scores of the individuals before the exercising were at low level, the post-test scores of the individuals increased visibly after the exercising. Whereas the retention test scores after six weeks showed a slight decrease. Key Words: Music, Music Education, Person with Disabilities, Disability Education