Little Soundabout: Music Resources for Young Children with Profound Disabilities

This innovative resource sets out simple, everyday activities that use music and sound to enrich the lives of young children with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Each colourful card presents ideas that parents and others can do with the child in their care, at home and when out and about.Activities are based on the Sounds of Intent framework of musical development – www.soundsofintent.org – and structured to promote an evolving sense of self, engagement with others, and an awareness of the wider world. A QR code on each card connects to specially created audio and visual materials that can be found on the Soundabout website – www.soundaboutfamily.org.uk.Features that make this an essential resource include: 48 cards that set out over 200 activities involving sound and music in an accessible way, with no special skills or knowledge needed Access to audio files, the pioneering ‘Soundabout Music Tracks’, that make music truly accessible to people with the most profound disabilitiesCreated by Soundabout, a UK-wide charity whose mission is to empower people with profound and multiple learning difficulties through music, Little Soundabout is a unique resource that will enhance the lives of all learning-disabled young children aged 0–5 in the UK and beyond. Intended for use in educational settings and/or therapy contexts under the supervision of an adult. This is not a toy.

Adam Ockelford is Director of the Applied Music Research Centre at the University of Roehampton in London. He has spent the last four decades developing a theory of how music makes sense to us all, without the need for specialist knowledge or education, and he uses this theory to inform his daily engagement with children and young people across the spectrum of ability and need. He has written over 20 books and regularly lectures all over the world. His TED talk with the musical savant Derek Paravicini (with whom he has worked for 35 years), 'In the Key of Genius', can be found at www.ted.com. Adam has been a Trustee of Soundabout for over 20 years.Victoria Furze is an illustrator, author and arts educator. She graduated from Cambridge School of Art with an MA in Illustration in 2019, since when she has continued to work on projects as an author and illustrator. She lives in Oxfordshire and also teaches drawing and illustration. Find Victoria online at www.victoriafurze.com