MUSICAL EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENCES: A PATH OF EXPRESSIVENESS AND FREEDOM

Abstract

This article presents the results of doctoral research carried out in 2022 and 2023, that aimed was to describe and understand the musical experiences of three children with Intellectual Functional Difference from Apae in São João del-Rei (MG), from a theoretical perspective. methodological approach from Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology. Phenomenology is a philosophical approach based on the lived experience of phenomena, which requires the researcher’s deep immersion in the investigated reality. Phenomenology advocates for the description of events through an analysis grounded in lived experience and the intents of the subjects, including those of the researcher. The research was carried out through participant observations in music workshops led weekly by the researcher and recorded in field journals. Semi-structured interviews with the children's mothers were conducted to understand the children’s profiles. The music workshops were based on improvisational activities, using the body as the main means of various forms of musical expression. The findings indicate that children with functional differences can learn more effectively when their assorted ways of being are respected.