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I’m delighted to welcome back KAREN MARSHALL with another superb Guest Post addition to our ADHD Insights series. Once again her writing aligns closely with Pianodao’s commitment to evidence-informed, reflective piano teaching, and I hope readers will find her practical ideas both thought-provoking and useful.
Supporting neurodivergent pianists
Adaptive teaching has become an established principle across education in recent years and is widely recognised as an effective way of supporting neurodivergent learners. Rather than creating entirely separate lesson plans for pupils with additional needs, the aim of adaptive teaching is to adjust in the moment, or plan ahead so that every child can access a rich, rewarding curriculum.
But let’s be honest: as instrumental teachers, we’ve been doing this since the year dot! One of the great strengths of one-to-one music teaching is that we already provide every student with a bespoke learning experience.
Having spent years bridging the gap between classroom experiences and my private piano teaching, I often ask myself: how do we take these academic ideas and make them truly work in an instrumental lesson?
Unlocking metacognition
The answer lies in managing cognitive load and unlocking metacognition. Don’t let the educational jargon put you off. These are simply practical concepts that can completely transform our teaching.
Educational psychology has long explored these ideas through the lens of self-regulated learning, and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has produced an excellent guidance report that synthesises the evidence in a way that translates particularly well to piano teaching.
Think of it as a three-legged stool supporting your student:
- Cognition: this is where the brain does the hard work of learning—reading notation, memorising a phrase, or coordinating a tricky rhythm.
- Metacognition: this is “thinking about thinking”. It is the learner’s developing ability to self-monitor and ask themselves, “Why do I keep getting stuck in Bar 4, and what can I do to fix it?”
- Motivation: the crucial spark: the drive, emotional regulation, and willingness to actually use these strategies when practice becomes challenging.
The EEF’s evidence review suggests that developing metacognition and self-regulation can have a significant positive impact, making it one of the most consistently effective classroom approaches when implemented well. It transforms students from passive learners into active participants in their own musical development.
So, how do we bring these ideas to life without making our lessons feel like a science experiment?
The first principle from the research is simple: embed metacognition directly into your teaching. You cannot teach “thinking skills” in isolation. We don’t give separate lectures on how to practise. Instead, we build these metacognitive moments naturally into the lesson as we teach.
Embedding metacognition
To make this practical in your everyday teaching, let’s explore how these ideas can be applied across the three stages of a student’s learning cycle.
1. The Planning Stage: Setting the Scene for Success
Before a student even touches the keys to practise a new section, we need to help them map out their approach. For a neurodivergent student, whether they have dyslexia, ADHD, autism, or dyspraxia, an unfamiliar page of music can feel overwhelming.
Cognitive load theory, famously pioneered by John Sweller, reminds us that working memory has a limited capacity. When an unplanned page presents too much information at once, the cognitive load becomes too high and learning stalls.
Instead of saying, “go home and practise line three”, we need to teach students how to plan. Ask them to look at the music and identify the landmarks. Where is the highest note? Are there any repeating patterns? Which section looks the trickiest?
While we must be careful not to pigeonhole students by their diagnoses, certain practical strategies can target specific processing barriers:
For some students with ADHD:
the planning stage might involve breaking a piece into tiny, achievable goals using colourful sticky notes. We might say, “Today we’re only going to plan our strategy for these two bars.”
For many learners with dyslexia:
the plan might involve colour-coding the structure of the piece, highlighting repeated sections in green and contrasting sections in orange.
For pupils with dyspraxia or coordination difficulties:
Planning might focus heavily on scanning for physical landmarks or layout shifts before attempting physical movement.
By involving students in this planning process, you are actively developing their metacognitive skills. They learn how to analyse a challenge and formulate a strategy before beginning.
2. The Monitoring Stage: Navigating the Middle of the Journey
This is where the real magic begins to happen, both during the lesson and, crucially, at home. As students learn to monitor their own thinking, they begin to develop genuine independence.
Monitoring is all about self-awareness. It is the ability to notice when something has gone wrong and understand why, rather than simply repeating the same mistake over and over again.
Many neurodivergent students find working memory or impulse control particularly challenging. When they make a mistake, their instinct is often to plough ahead or restart the piece from the very beginning, hoping it will somehow correct itself the second time around. Our role is to gently interrupt that cycle.
When a student stumbles, resist the temptation to provide the answer immediately. Instead, ask guiding questions such as “what did you notice just there?”, or “where did your fingers begin to feel muddled?”
If a student is struggling with a large leap, encourage them to monitor the physical movement involved. You might ask, “did your hand travel a long way? Can you feel any of the black keys around the new note?”
By encouraging students to articulate what is happening, you help them develop an internal monitor. Simple visual tools can also be highly effective. A traffic light system works brilliantly on the page:
- Red dot: “I need to stop and look closely here.”
- Amber dot: “I’m getting there but need to take care.”
- Green dot: “I’ve got this under control.”
This type of visual monitoring can help students remain grounded and may reduce frustration when the music becomes challenging.
3. The Evaluating Stage: Looking Back to Leap Forward
The final stage of the cycle is evaluation, which takes place after the task has been attempted. This isn’t about assigning a grade, giving a mark, or simply saying, “Good job.” It is about helping students evaluate whether the strategy they chose during the planning stage actually worked.
If a student struggled with a rhythm but successfully used clapping or rhythm words that you introduced together, be sure to highlight that success. You might ask, “the clapping strategy, or using rhythm words, worked really well there. Why do you think that helped your brain understand the rhythm?” This connects the strategy directly with the successful outcome, strengthening both confidence and motivation.
Equally, if a strategy doesn’t work, that is valuable learning too. If a student tries to memorise a passage simply by playing it ten times and still can’t remember it, pause to evaluate together.
“We tried repetition, but it didn’t quite stick. What other tool do we have in our toolkit that we could try next time? Perhaps we could look carefully at the music, draw the shape of the melody in the air, and sing parts of it.”
This approach completely reframes mistakes as useful feedback rather than failure. For neurodivergent children, who often experience a constant stream of corrections throughout the school day, transforming the piano lesson into a safe space for curiosity, reflection, and experimentation can be truly transformative.
They learn that a wrong note isn’t a failure: it is simply another clue in solving the musical puzzle.
Further Reading & References
• Education Endowment Foundation (2021, 2025): Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning: Guidance Report
• Marshall, K. (2026): Music and Neurodiversity: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Parents
• Sweller, J. (1988): Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning
• Zimmerman, B. J. (2010): Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview
Karen Marshall is an experienced music educator, author, and neurodiversity specialist with over three decades of classroom, instrumental, and private piano teaching experience. Having recently completed secondary school teacher training, she has written over 30 publications, focusing on making music education accessible to all learners.
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