Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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A few years ago I heard Karen Marshall give a presentation on teaching students with dyslexia at a teacher conference, and was so impressed by her insight that I suggested she might consider writing a book to share her expertise more widely.
Whether my words served to plant a seed or water an existing one, I am thrilled to see that the idea has at last germinated into a fully-fledged handbook. Music & Neurodiversity, recently published by Collins Music, is a 144-page “practical guide for teachers and parents”, and is in my view an essential read.
Though modest in appearance, the book is a densely packed publication that punches well above its weight, so in this review I am going to unpack the contents and hopefully explain what makes it a special publication.
First impressions
Music & Neurodiversity is a sturdy paperback with a vibrant cover printed on matt card and finished with a delightful soft-touch coating. The pages appear on bright white paper, and the book measures 21cm x 14.7cm (which is slightly larger than advertised on retail sites).
Every page is crammed with information and encouragement. The book has been engagingly designed to include icon-style illustrations throughout, while the array of information is separated into boxes, speech bubbles, pull quotes, flow diagrams, and mind maps. This layout will undoubtedly inspire readers to dip in and explore the content during short breaks, always coming away with plenty to ponder.
That said, as a reviewer trying to read it in a linear fashion from cover to cover, I was a little overwhelmed. As someone with ADHD, I find it challenging to read any book from start to finish unless hyperfocus kicks in, and I struggled with the changeable format here.
A book about people
It is immediately clear that Marshall has written in a deeply personal and empathetic way, and the opening section includes a short introduction to her own struggles with dyslexia and dyspraxia during her formative education, following which she poignantly shares her “notes to my former self…” as a child with undiagnosed neurodiversity, as a parent of neurodivergent children, and as a teacher of neurodivergent students.
This leads to her carefully crystallised “inclusive music teacher manifesto”, a series of positive (rather prescriptive) affirmations that teachers can say aloud. This is also available as a full colour download from the publisher’s website, and includes a space to sign your agreement, if you think that you might find that helpful.
The first section also introduces the first two case studies. There are eventually 25 of these in all, ranging in length and spread throughout the publication, each giving a tangible illustration of the points Marshall makes in her main text.
Teachers, students, and parents will all find these real-world stories relatable, helpful, and often inspiring. They add flesh to concepts, illustrate human challenges and solutions, and remind us continually that this is first and foremost a book about people.
Again, it’s worth noting that in three of these case studies, the author is herself the subject. Marshall openly discusses her own dyslexia, dyspraxia, and writes with commendable openness about her struggles, failures, and the support she has received.
Towards the end of the book we find a section of instrument- and setting-specific advice written by a range of notable teachers who again share their teaching experience with clarity and supportive generosity.
These touches all give the book a relatable layer of authenticity and allow for greater emotional connection with the content.
General overview
After Marshall’s warm, personable introduction, we come to the main content of the book. This covers a wide range of music education topics, as shown by the chapter headings and contents:
Identifying challenges
• The neurodiverse umbrella
• Common issues for neurodivergent students
• Co-occurrence
• The social, medical and legal models of ‘disability’
Overcoming anxiety and challenging behaviour
• Exams, auditions and performances
• In the classroom
• Dealing with challenging behaviour
• Instrumental lessons, practice and resilience
• Access arrangements in exams
Developing a positive learning partnership
• The ‘teacher, student and parent triangle’: positive learning partnerships
• Building a positive relationship with your student
Making music accessible
• Some solutions
• Multi-sensory teaching
• Overlearning (embedding)
• Personal association and pattern
• Systematic teaching
• Meeting emotional needs through repertoire
How to develop an independent learner
• Identify students’ strengths and find ways for them to cope
Tools and resources
• General teaching pedagogy
• Music-specific pedagogy
• Specific techniques and tools
Instrument- and setting-specific advice
Some final thoughts
From this contents list, it can be seen that the main thrust of the book pertains to good teaching practice, rather than offering a medical textbook or social history of how we arrived where we are today in our understanding of neurodiversity.
Exploring the content
With these general aims in mind, the opening section gives a short overview of the challenges faced by neurodivergent learners, briefly introducing Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and Dyslexia, followed by a bullet-point list of some other types of neurodiversity.
Marshall goes on to explain that due to co-occurrence (meaning that those with one type of neurodiversity have a higher statistical probability of also having another), there are a broad range of what she calls “common issues for neurodivergent students”.
She lists common challenges some neurodivergent learners may have with learning notation, playing an instrument, general learning, self-esteem and confidence, each of which she returns to with practical advice as the book progresses.
In what is such a superb book, my only real reservation concerns this section. Firstly, I think it’s important for readers to properly understand the conditions discussed, and wonder whether the information here is too slight. Secondly, there’s a danger of overstating the prevalence of co-occurrence, and offering advice which is too generalised. While ADHD has posed challenges for me personally, I cannot equally relate to all the obstacles those with other forms of neurodiversity face.
These mild concerns are quickly mitigated by the superb content which follows. In particular, the many compelling case studies deliver far more insight into the challenges that neurodiversity presents.
Marshall’s insight into effective teaching lifts the lid on a brilliant toolbox of solutions that are bound to help learners regardless of any label or diagnosis they have been given. Her sections covering anxiety, challenging behaviour, and positive learning partnerships offer not so much a template of dos and don’ts as an ethical framework from which each of us can approach our work inclusively, thereby becoming better teachers.
The extended sections which follow, covering topics of making music accessible and fostering independence, flesh out a plethora of practical strategies and solutions, while Marshall’s chapter outlining pedagogic approaches from Kodály and Orff a century ago, right up to Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory and A Common Approach in our time equally function as a whistle-stop tour of a century’s worth of pedagogic developments.
Along the way, I spotted the occasional inaccuracy, inevitable omissions, and a few views and pieces of advice with which I might differ, but taken as a whole this is superb, empathetic, wise material which I think all teachers should take their time to properly absorb.
Closing thoughts
Karen Marshall’s Music & Neurodiversity delivers an extraordinary wealth of material, including so many road-tested teaching approaches that readers can immediately put into practice, and an abundance of personal insight and human interest. I suspect it will quickly become a key text.
While some may wish for material with a sharper focus on specific conditions, her decision to take a broader view of common challenges, and to offer such positive solutions, makes this a uniquely useful, widely applicable, and undoubtedly important book.
But for me, its greatest strength is ultimately the empathy that emanates from every page. More than simply a reference manual, this is a book to revisit repeatedly: not only for its practical advice, but for the generosity, wisdom, and compassion that underpin every chapter.
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