Developing communicative competencies in children with functional diversity through music technology: a posthuman perspective

Abstract

Amidst growing interest and accumulating evidence that learning music can enhance the intellectual, social, and personal development of children, there remains a notable gap in addressing how it can benefit children with functional diversity. Adopting a posthuman perspective, this paper asserts that the design and use of technology can provide a viable means of developing their communicative, music-making competencies. To support this claim, we present an action research project that developed a mobile music app and applied it to the facilitation of functionally diverse children’s communication and expressive training. Through a discussion of the findings, we aim to explore how technology-aided music can bridge communicative barriers for children who relate better to the non-verbal aspects of music, an exploration that leads to a critical reflection on the nature of those institutionalised music pedagogies that focus primarily on measurable and fixed learning outcomes.