Disability Services

We offer a variety of programs that support continual development of social skills, communication and overall wellbeing through music, for children and adults.

The power of music supports social and emotional wellbeing: When everyday life is filled with challenges or unbearable anxiety, stress can be caused by the smallest change to routine. We believe musical fun can be the difference between coping or not coping.

 With more awareness of mental health issues and the debilitating impact that mental health can have on our overall health*, making music is more important than ever as a valuable resource that can have a hugely positive impact on us all. Learning an instrument, singing, dancing and sharing music with others, can provide any of us with the happy feelings that help us to look after our own mental health and particularly those who are more vulnerable such as those who already have life impacting conditions or syndromes.

Our dedicated SEN Director, Jude Oularé, oversees staff training and the delivery of services to clients with additional needs.

JDT Music Academy is a Registered Day Service Provider with Norfolk County Council.  Please contact your Adult Social Services team for more information about comissioned services.

Please see our list of available disability services below from JDT Music, Dereham

Music Makes Me – SEND Adult Group Music & Movement Activity

Drumming, singing, dancing and musical choices; MMM is all about celebrating life through music.

Playing drums is simply fun, when the music plays it’s impossible not to tap and play along, so a fantastic stress buster. When it comes to singing, there is lots of evidence of the impact on the brain, so each individual has a named microphone and can take turns to sing out for all to hear if they wish, and just experience the pure joy that singing offers. Dancing is another way to release a number of difficult to understand emotions, and can be modified to suit mixed abilities, which is particularly impactful when dancing as part of a group.

It is important we all feel respected and listened to, having an opportunity to share our personal preferences and taking turns gives us the opportunity to practise social skills and feel included in a community. Sessions follow a routine to support clear expectations for the participants and, in doing so, reduce potential anxiety and provide the environment to have fun and feel safe.

Shooting Stars – SEND Adult Group Performing Arts Activity

Social and emotional skills are often challenging for people with special education needs and Drama is a great opportunity to practise and develop these life skills in a fun and very natural way. Shooting stars aims to build confidence as individuals, whilst working as part of a team to create the scenery, stage costumes, make up, learning about all the behind-the-scenes theatre jobs as well as preparing to become performers themselves in at least one performance per year that will take place at JDT.

Arts Award – Children or Adult individual Qualification opportunity

Learning new things and challenging ourselves helps us to not only develop new skills, but to also discover unknown talents and most impactful of all, increase our confidence and self-belief. The Trinity Arts Awards are recognised awards that can earn UCAS points, so are a respected form of leaning. Each award follows a similar structure, but gradually increase in the demand of evidence of research and experience.

The award is very adaptable to individual needs with no restrictions on the format of how evidence is collected, so for example if a young person struggles to write, they can create a video blog to show their learning journey. This flexibility makes an Arts Award a great opportunity for everyone, but particularly for children and adults with learning difficulties or as an alternative qualification for those who have found other educational certification schemes too stressful or unsurmountable.

At JDT we have supported students who are interested in a variety of creative arts from animation to composing and are happy to support the individual in any creative art that they show an interest in.

Musical Minds – Dementia Choir & Café

Singing, Signing and socialising is what Musical Minds is all about. Singing as part of a group creates happy feelings: whilst people with dementia will often struggle to remember what they did in their recent experiences, the body will retain the feelings experienced in the activity. As science has proven, music and singing stimulates areas of the brain such as memories and emotions, so singing together can create a positive feeling that can impact overall mental health and well-being which will continue beyond the session.

Signalong – Signing Training and Support

Signalong is a keyword signing system, designed to support communication by simplifying the spoken language. Not being able to communicate personal wants and needs leads to understandable frustration. At JDT we want to support a signing community, so people who don’t have the verbal communication can be understood equally which requires as many people as possible to create that 2-way understanding.

We use Signalong to accompany our singing, particularly in Musical Minds, as it is a great introduction to Signalong, simply learning the basics such as toilet and drink can have a huge impact on someone’s life, who would otherwise go unheard.

 Communication can be effected for people with SEND but also for those who have suffered a stroke or are living with dementia and Signalong can be empowering particularly where speech has been affected. It is important that everyone has their voice heard and their personal needs met, it can be a life changing language to learn.

JDT Music Academy is a Registered Day Service Provider with Norfolk County Council. Please contact your Adult Social Services team for more information about commissioned services. 

Link to Community Mental Health Survey