Programs & Services:
Music Program

Our Music program for children with a vision disability has been reintroduced. Blind Children's Learning Center challenges each child  to achieve his/her potential. The educational environment encourages the development of self-concept and the ability of each student to cope with his/her disability. Music addresses both left and right side of the brain simultaneously and it affects the growth of a child’s brain in many ways.

This program is based on listening to music as an active discipline, rather than a passive activity. Basic distinctions, such as high and low variance of pitch, direction of pitch, dynamic ranges, and tempo variations, have been shown to provide insights beyond the obvious musical references that help the students relate more thoroughly to the world around them, both spatially and emotionally. It is our goal to help the children acquire deliberate listening skills along with many other abilities.  

Grace Kim came to BCLC in the fall of 2007. Her first goal was to establish a protocol for the students to “ready” themselves to listen. Quiet and stillness must precede the first note of music heard. During the listening class, the children are instructed to sit still in their chairs while the music is on. It was hard for many children to sit still for more than 15 seconds in the beginning, but we have seen dramatic improvements in their attention span after only 3 months.

Students are now able to listen to a two minute music piece with very few disruptions. 

With the help of music, we are able to reduce mannerism such as rocking, rubbing eyes, or other self-stimulatory behavior we see in some of the children. We have teachers sitting behind the children to guide them and keep them focused during each listening class, thus decreasing some of the mannerisms and diverting their attention to the music. Ever since the first day of class, all the children reacted in their own way to different styles of music. Some will smile at the sound of a guitar and some will frown and tense up at the sound of orchestrated symphonies. Music gives the children a means of emotional expression by stimulating them.