This document discusses the benefits of integrating arts into the curriculum for students with disabilities. It argues that arts like music, drawing, painting and literature can enhance, encourage and motivate these students. The arts provide alternative tools for students to better themselves and achieve their potential. When taught by knowledgeable teachers, arts can help students with disabilities communicate their thoughts and feelings. Studies show arts are linked to improved academic skills and reduced dropout rates. Specifically, drama improves language skills, music enhances language learning, and fine arts develop literacy and math skills. Technology can also help create new ways for students to stay engaged through arts and reduce learning barriers.

1. MARA University of Technology
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
PSV 703: MULTIMEDIA IN VISUAL ART EDUCATION
Lecturer: Dr. Johan @ Eddy Luaran
Assignment Title: “Learning Arts and its benefit to Students with
Disabilities”
Name: Zuraini Bt Mohamed
ID no: 2013440978
E-mail: samsulzuraini@yahoo.com
HP: 012-254 9396
Date of Submission: 09 October 2013

2. Article Review
Title:
Learning Arts and its benefit to Students with Disabilities
As cited by the National Center
for Technology Innovation an Center for Implementing
Technology in Education, students with disabilities face difficulties in exploring and integrating
art in their daily routine. Thus, it is imperative that teachers incorporate multiple technology and
strategy by teaching arts to these special children. Arts here means fine arts which includes
literature, drawing , painting , music –to utilize these alternative tools to enhance, encourage
and motivate these children to better themselves. These will positively influence and benefit
them to the utmost. This can in fact be achieved through integrating and promoting it into their
curriculum. The tools would indeed help to meet each child with different abilities to cope with
oneself and achieve their individual needs and potential to the fullest
It is imperative that knowledgeable teachers are employed to handle this daunting task of
teaching children of multiple disabilities who are struggling to communicate their thoughts and
feelings. These able teachers too should be provided with professional development and support
to learn how to impart their knowledge, play their role and the role of arts in enabling and
influencing the students to develop. The teachers can introduce and reinforce the concepts to the
various needs of all the students.
It is implicit that schools that have integrated the arts in their curriculum have discovered that the
arts have captured the attention of both the students and teachers alike. It is through the arts that
the students have gained self-confidence and self-esteem by exploring and expressing their ideas

3. and identities through these alternative mediums. They are able to boost their self-confidence as
they – the disabled students believe themselves to be failures or dropouts and have no avenue to
show their hidden talents or abilities in which they may excel. Through arts, these students’ may
be able to have an opportunity to assess their personal reflections and create a positive attitude
about them. Even their dropout rate or delinquency may be curbed and can be arrested
appropriately and thus provide a promising future for students with disabilities.
Through the arts too, students with disabilities who were unable to make connections, who were
struggling or grasp simple rudiments to academic subjects may be a good platform for them to
showcase their learning behavior. The arts too will be an avenue for the teachers to provide
individualized instruction for the multi needs of learners’ diverse nature. Arts too can be an
approach to comprehend the strength and weaknesses.
The arts also can help the students grasp concepts and make connections between academic
subjects, such as mathematic, English and science. The connections between the arts and
academic achievement, particularly when it comes to three areas, firstly is listening to the music
and spatial-temporal reasoning, secondly is learning to play music and spatial reasoning and
lastly is by using the classroom drama and verbal skills. According to The Lab School, art its
can help improve the student’s academic skills, when their watch the short of video. For
example, when the students put together a television production about what it is like to have
dyslexia at the Lab School. Different about the way of Ben, he puts together a board game and
writes a book about it. To him the arts are integral to his motivation and learning.
By using the multimedia, it can involve knowledgeable teachers who can adapt their teaching to
a learner-centered, creative process with other teachers, students and families, and provide a
classroom environment that has access to technology. In using technology for creative pursuits,
teachers can introduce and reinforce concepts that have been previously introduced by more
traditional teaching method, and in doing so adapt the concepts to the various needs of all their
students.
Many students with learning disabilities struggle to communicate their thoughts and feelings, so
the visual arts, such as painting, drawing, and music and computer graphics can give them a nonverbal way to express themselves and interact with other people. And the other word is

4. combining the arts with technology can create new exciting ways to keep students motivated and
engaged in the learning process and the world around them. And also by using the technology,
teachers also can help reduce learning barriers by working arts curriculum and technology
students’ individualized education programs (IEPs) and the general curriculum.
A several studies make the connection between the impact the arts have on academics for
students with disabilities, for example by using drama it can be develops higher order language
and literacy skills as students act out historical or literary figures, they immerse themselves in a
theme and can explore and learn about it in a personal way. Secondly is the music. It can
enhance language learning by teaching students about rhythm, pitch and sound. For example the
rhythm can helps students learn rhymes and phonological awareness and repetitive songs can
help teach academic facts to be memorized. Lastly, by using the fine art experiences it can
develop literacy, numeracy and writing skills. Drawing and painting can reinforce motor skills
and can also be a way of learning shapes, contrasts, boundaries, spatial relationships, size and
other math concept.
Furthermore, according to the writer student with disabilities can get the support they need to
learn to use the tools and features of the technology. For example, many sites have tutorials that
a teacher can use to structure learning how to use the program. What I have seen is, one of
benefits of digital or digitally-recorded art of all types is its ability to be shared far and wide and
secondly is the literacy and language of critique that are involved in sharing with peers is
valuable for students. When students’ learning online demonstrates its mean that the time youth
invest online collaborations of all the types is time spent learning to communication in the digital
(MacArthur Foundation).