Promoting access, participation, and success for children with Cerebral Palsy in Arts Education Programmes of Music

With the aim of promoting the access, participation, and success of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) in Arts Education Programmes of Music, in 2018 we started a project using Action Research methodology. To this end, we have already carried out: initial awareness training for music education teachers; the characterization of the child with CP that gave rise to the study; and three integrative literature reviews to find out the state of the art in this area. As a result of this work, the need arose to highlight the needs of parents and professionals working with children with disabilities (hearing, visual, motor, intellectual, and communication) concerning their participation in artistic-musical activities. To this end, interview scripts were drawn up and validated by professionals specializing in the fields of technology, music education, school inclusion, and health. Based on these scripts, between January 2021 and January 2022, we interviewed 14 music professionals and 14 parents of children with Cerebral Palsy. All of them authorized the audio recording and processing of their interviews through informed consent. The interviews were transcribed and validated by the respective interviewees. The content of the interviews was analyzed using webQDA software. The results show that teachers are unaware of methodologies and strategies for working with children with CP in music teaching, there is a lack of Assistive Technologies to facilitate communication and participation by children with CP and there is a lack of adapted instruments. In addition, they pointed to a lack of human resources to support all the needs of these children, including basic needs, as well as a lack of teacher preparation. The results demonstrate the need to promote teacher training in this area and the need to implement changes in educational policies to transform Art Education into an inclusive education.