The issue of future specialists’ preparedness for organizing musical and creative activities for children in an inclusive educational environment

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of the specific activities of music educators in inclusive educational environments within school and extracurricular institutions. It determines the content of their preparedness to organize musical and creative activities for children with special educational needs. It has been found that engaging in the arts positively affects the sensory development, differentiation of perception, improvement of attention, communication skills, and speech in children with special educational needs. Two directions of music educators’ activities with children who have psychophysiological disorders have been highlighted. The first direction is work in extracurricular art-oriented institutions and specialized music schools, where children are taught music literacy, playing the recorder, violin, accordion, piano, guitar, and participate in choral, vocal, and orchestral classes according to a special methodology. The second direction is corrective and developmental work in term of preschool and general secondary education institutions. This activity aims to teach music literacy, vocals, and playing musical instruments, providing rehabilitation services to children with developmental and behavioural disorders. These include specialized methods such as art therapy, receptive music perception, motor relaxation, and integration with the rhythm of music, musical games for developing various musical abilities and correcting speech and activating thinking; drawing music and drawing to music, games with children’s noise and musical instruments, rhythmic recitation, breathing exercises, physical-musical pauses, etc. The content of the music educator’s preparedness to work in an inclusive educational environment has been identified. It has been substantiated that such preparedness encompasses personal, cognitive, activity-related, and creative components. It has been concluded that the content of the professional competence of the music educator is also expanded due to the specific enrichment of didactic, educational, valeological, communicative, methodological, aesthetic, technical, interdisciplinary, organizational, creative, professionaldigital, and integrated inclusive competencies.