Exceptional Learners Deserve Music, Too!

Dear Friends of Exceptional Children,

Thank you so much for showing your continued care by supporting GITC's work making music accessible to ALL learners. This is such a huge effort when you think about how many decades students with exceptional needs have been left out of music education and denied access to opportunities to learn to play an instrument. With your help we at GITC are able to continue our efforts to help all children to express themselves through music. Music Education is catching on, especially in regards to addressing Social Emotional Learning. But adapting instruments and creating new ways to play requires advocacy and demonstration as well as training to create gradual change.

Thanks to you, this winter we are able to offer two special online training courses for teachers, specialists and support staff.  One is aimed for training teachers of students with what are classified as “mild/moderate” challenges. That course, taught by special educator Terrie Catlow, is focusing on resource and reading recovery with adaptive music. The other course, also taught by Terrie, is focusing on building phonological awareness, reading and writing skills through the Power of Song. Also, because of your generosity, we have been able to supply these students with ukuleles and adaptive music supplies. Thank you so much!

We are also extremely encouraged and excited to share with you about GITC’s collaboration with the department of Home, Hospital and Transitions Support (HHTS)  of San Diego County, including our home school district. This relationship will continue to grow, bringing adaptive music to students in 12 different programs through faculty trainings throughout the school year. The HHTS  faculty serves a wide range of students, including those who are homebound and those who are dealing with emergency health situations from all over this large county. We will be training their faculty and are helping them to develop specialized Home Music Kits, created with each of their student’s needs in mind. With your help, our impact is expanding!

A little encouragement goes a very long way to make someone's day or give them hope. Thank you for encouraging all of us at GITC with your generosity. Your participation helps us spread the joy. We are very grateful for your help.

With you, for all the children,

Gail Wingfield

Director of Development