The report describes and evaluates the work of the world’s first disabled-led youth orchestra – essential reading for music educators looking to develop their understanding of inclusive music-making.

The report describes and evaluates the work of the world’s first disabled-led youth orchestra – essential reading for music educators looking to develop their understanding of inclusive music-making.
In both the UK and the US, school music is facing continuing pressures. Yet at the same time, there continues to be growing evidence for the cognitive benefits of music learning.
Music, with its playful, spontaneous, affective, motivational, temporal, and rhythmic dimensions can be of great help for studying the aspects of time processing in ADHD.
Engaging in musical activities such as singing and playing instruments in one-on-one therapy can improve autistic children’s social communication skills and increase brain connectivity in key networks.
According to a team of researchers led by Florida International University, listening to music while studying may help some children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
In 2016, researchers in Marseille, France tested the efficacy of a specially-designed Cognitivo-Musical Training (CMT) method for children with dyslexia.
Drumming for just 90 minutes each week can improve the life quality of young people diagnosed with autism, according to a study published in 2022.
Drumming for one hour a week can help children diagnosed with autism and supports learning at school, according to a study published in 2018.
In 2018 researchers from the University of Montreal and McGill University in Montreal, Canada, published a report showing that music intervention alters brain activation and improves social communication skills in children with autism.
Research by The University of Edinburgh shows that taking up a musical instrument in childhood and adolescence is associated with improved thinking skills in older age.
Anita Holford, co-editor of Music Education Works, looks at eight ways music can support young people’s wellbeing and learning.
A School of Music professor set out to disprove the idea of a link between a students’ musical and mathematical achievement. But the results of his study proved otherwise.