Count Me In!: Resources for Making Music Inclusively With Children and Young People With Learning Difficulties

This engaging, practical resource sets out twelve original projects for making music inclusively with children and young people of all ages who have special abilities or needs, including those with profound and multiple learning difficulties, those on the autism spectrum, those who have a vision or hearing impairment, and those with social, emotional, and mental health needs.

Created by leaders in the music and special needs field working with music industry professionals, Count Me In! includes projects with a wide range of musical styles and genres, and there is an accompanying website with hundreds of freely downloadable audio files. The resource is based on the Sounds of Intent framework, which encourages teachers and others to target activities at their pupils’ and students’ particular levels of musical development. The pieces of music are ‘deconstructed’ into separate activities that are individually targeted at sound-makers, pattern-makers, motif-makers and song-makers so that all young people can join in at the same time.

Count Me In! is a must-have resource for class teachers, teaching assistants and other non-music-specialist staff supporting children with learning difficulties in special and mainstream schools and colleges, as well as musicians from music services, music hubs and other arts organisations who visit schools. It can be used without needing to be able to read music, though there are scores in simplified and standard notation, as well as chord charts.

Adam Ockelford is Professor of Music at the University of Roehampton and has worked with children and young people across the spectrum of ability and need for the past four decades. Adam is the founder and chair of The Amber Trust, which supports blind and partially sighted children in their pursuit of music; founder and chair of Sounds of Intent Charity, and a trustee of Live Music Now, which uses music to enhance the lives of those experiencing social disadvantage.

Sophie Gray is Head of Inclusion at the Services for Education Music Service in Birmingham. She has over twenty years of experience in the field of music education, primarily in special schools, with expertise in working with children and young with profound and multiple learning difficulties. She is also a lecturer on the Postgraduate Certificate in Special Musical Abilities and Needs course, offered by the University of Roehampton.

Jon Cohen is an award-winning UK-based record producer and arranger. Working with artists across genres, Jon has an international reputation, with fifteen No.1 classical/crossover albums, a winner of the Classical Brits album of the year, and sales of over three and a half million albums. For the past few years, he has collaborated with Adam on a range of innovative projects, producing high-quality music specially designed for learners with special musical abilities or needs.

Max Mai has over twenty years of experience of programming and web design for a range of prestigious commercial clients, including Mercedes Benz, Siemens and the travel company Berge & Meer. His son, Mika, is a multitalented instrumentalist, despite being visually impaired and on the autism spectrum. Max and Adam have collaborated on a number of projects, including the production websites for The Amber Trust.