The purpose of this book of short essays is to introduce readers to practical approaches to music and movement with children affected by varying degrees of hearing loss, and some other conditions, supported by an outline of the theoretical principles underlining these approaches. It opens with the personal histories of three deaf musician-teachers, and closes with a series of reports of successful practice in a variety of environments with children of different ages. The Foreword is provided by the ever-generous Dame Evelyn Glennie. Teachers of children with special needs, music and speech/language therapists are likely to form the most appreciative audience for the book, but there is also much on offer for readers outside these professions, including students, parents, dancers and musicians. Originally published in German, the contributions of the 17 authors from Austria, Denmark, Germany and Italy have been translated into English for this edition, which also includes five chapters by English-speaking writers.

Part 1: Viva la Musica! sets the scene with Helga Wilberg's account of becoming a music and dance teacher in a secondary school for hearing children; as the title of her essay asserts, ‘With my Hearing Aids I'm actually quite Normal’. Elke Bartlmä, who from early childhood loved to dance but only began to realise at the age of 12 that the “rumbling” vibrations she experienced when she did so were what hearing dancers conceptualise as music, describes her musical training and eventual triumph over the bureaucratic obstacles that might have prevented her becoming a teacher of children with special needs, and for the deaf and partially hearing. Finally Paul Whittaker – profoundly deaf since birth – tells his story, and that of Music and the Deaf, the UK charity he founded and has run for more than two decades. This charity has provided opportunities for deaf and hearing-impaired musicians to enjoy music, through collaborations with orchestras, opera and dance companies; to learn music via curricula devised specifically for young people with hearing loss; and above all, to make music with each other and with hearing musicians.

The second part of the book, Theoretical Principles, is – it has to be acknowledged – rather heavier-going than Part 1. Georg Feuser, the author of ‘“All Men will Become Brothers . . .” – Time and Rhythm as Basic Processes of Life and Understanding’, is well-known in Austria, Germany and Switzerland for his highly influential ‘general (integrative) pedagogy (. . .) derived from developmentally logical didactics’ (p. 41) first introduced in 1981. In this chapter he uses the work of Mimi Scheiblauer (1891–1968), the Swiss pioneer of music and movement with children who have impairments, to frame the argument for interdisciplinary and multi-professional co-operation in the interests of building inclusive education, with reference also to Einstein, Piaget and Buber. In ‘Development. On Realities that Open up Possibilities – on Possibilities that Create Realities’, Sigrid Köck-Hatzmann extends Feuser's ideas, also focusing on the work of Scheiblauer, and reflecting in addition on a teacher whose name is likely to be more familiar to an English-speaking readership, Anne Sullivan (1866–1936), who taught Helen Keller. Again, Köck-Hatzmann cites a range of philosophers and scientists from Galileo, Descartes and Newton to the 20th century theorists of dissipative structures, synergetics, autocatalytic hypercycles, chaos, system theoretic-cybernetic, autopoiesis and self-reference, some of whose names (e.g. Prigogine, Haken, Eigen, Maturana, Varela and von Foerster) may also be less familiar to some English-speaking readers than others (e.g. Lorenz, Mandelbrot). While the other two chapters in this section of the book are also essentially theoretical, Helga Neira Zugasti's ‘Rhythmic Musical Education – a Basic Instrument to Support Development in Educational Work’ sets out principles based on the author's own practice, inspired by Dalcroze and others, and Ulrike Stelzhammer-Reichhardt's ‘Between Music Pedagogy and the Natural Sciences – Perspectives on Researching Music Perception (in People with Hearing Loss)’ reviews what is currently known about the processing of sound, including music, by people with hearing impairments and those with cochlear implants.

In Part III, Practical Principles, seven practitioners tell us what they do, why, and how they do it. Multiple-sensory methods deriving from Orff are outlined by Shirley Salmon in ‘Music as a Form of Dialogue for Children with Hearing Loss’. Claus Bang reports on ‘A World of Sound and Music – Music Therapy and Musical Speech Therapy with Deaf, Hearing Impaired and Multi-Handicapped Children’ in a Danish school, emphasizing the role of music as communication and describing the use of Sonor tone bars, movement and improvisation. Giulia Cremaschi Trovesi provides a poetic account of her 40 years' experience of delivering ‘Music Therapy with Deaf Children’ informed – at least to some extent – by neuro-linguistic programming, an approach that some may find questionable. As an adherent of the social disability model, I have to admit I was a little startled, too, by the footnote on p. 144: ‘“Gioco” (game) derives from “gioia” (joy) [. . .] How could the parents of a handicapped child feel joy?’ She continues ‘. . . a handicap can equally be a resource’ but I am not sure that this compensates adequately for her bald assertion on p. 141, ‘Deafness is terrible’; I fear many deaf parents reading this would feel patronised, if not offended. Naomi Benari's chapter, ‘Inner Rhythm’, by contrast, is a straightforward description of the way she developed a new method of teaching dance to deaf children, with practical suggestions for focusing their attention, becoming aware of their pulse, and using vibration and notation to learn to move not just rhythmically but musically. Lois Birkenshaw-Fleming, like Salmon, applies the ideas of Orff but in the form of ‘Music and Auditory-Verbal Therapy’ for children with cochlear implants, and Kent Lykke Jensen presents case studies of ‘Contact and Development through Improvisation in Music Therapy’ with two autistic children. In the last chapter of this part of the book, Wolfgang Friedrich and Marion Honka report on a German–English–Spanish project to create sign language songs for deaf children and those with hearing impairments (‘SiLaSo’) that was in progress in December 2007; (German-speaking) readers may be interested to see how this developed at www.silaso.eu/ueber_silaso.html.

The final part of the book, Fields of Practice, combines theory and practice with case study. Christine Kiffmann-Duller writes on ‘The Significance of Music in Early Learning Programmes’ with reference to ‘rhythmical-musical work’, ‘feeling music’ and ‘hearing music’ to facilitate ‘audio-pedagogical learning’ in two young children with hearing aids. ‘“Now I Can Hear the Grass Grow” – Orff Music Therapy with Children following Cochlear Implant’, by Regina Neuhäusel, Ursula Sutter and Insa Tjarks, presents a complement to Lois Birkensaw-Fleming's chapter in Part III, and Katharina Ferner and Ulrike Stelzhammer-Reichhardt describe a programme entitled ‘Music and Language – an Impulse Project for Families with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children’ that for several years permitted ten families to spend a week at a summer school specifically designed to help facilitate communication through music. A forerunner to the SiLaSo project is outlined by Wolfgang Friedrich in ‘Songs in Simple Language’, and Shirley Salmon argues for ‘The Importance of Play-Songs in Inclusive Teaching’, providing a brief history and rationale before listing the specific purposes they can serve and suggesting a variety of complementary activities for use with young children. The last two chapters focus on work with older children. Christine Rocca writes on ‘The Emerging “Musical Self” – the Role of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Approach for Teenagers at the Mary Hare Schools for the Deaf’. While this remains based on improvisation, the fact that so many students now have cochlear implants and/or use digital hearing aids has made it possible for them, in addition, to learn orchestral instruments, to play in ensembles and to put on ambitious musical productions. Finally, Wolfgang Stange describes his experiences in contemporary dance, and the workshops he ran with Sri Lankan students with special needs.

The variety of perspectives taken by the authors of this collection is both a strength and a weakness. Dancers, musicians, parents, students, teachers and therapists alike will find something to interest them, whether this is a personal account of lived experience, a synthesis of theories to underpin a new programme, a report of a successful project or practical advice. Inevitably, however, some chapters will be less relevant to some readers than to others. This is partly because there are differences as well as commonalities between children and young people with hearing loss and other forms of special need such as autism and Down syndrome, and partly because the functions and purposes of different kinds of music and movement may be specified in different ways according to practical necessity and theoretical – and indeed cultural – background. Again, while the international (albeit largely European) nature of the book provides the opportunity to learn about a range of approaches, and the majority of chapters are well written and/or well translated, some readers may find certain parts of the book more accessible than others.

Although the book is amply illustrated by photographs, some chapters (e.g. those by Feuser, Salmon and Zugasti) derive from lectures originally enhanced not only by video sequences but also audience participation. It would have been good if more web-links could have been provided for the video sequences (sadly, the reader can only imagine what might have been gained from taking part in the exercises demonstrated during the lectures). Other chapters (e.g. by Birkinshaw-Fleming, Friedrich and another by Salmon) include materials such as songs and activities that parents, practitioners, teachers and therapists are likely to find useful when working with children.

I have just used the word ‘working’ but what comes over to the reader in chapter after chapter – and perhaps this is one of the most successful aspects of the book – is each author's commitment to playful communication through music and movement, and the ways in which this can best be facilitated so as to enable every individual, whatever their situation, to fulfil their potential for self-expression. While the achievements of deaf and hearing-impaired musicians and educators such as Glennie, Wilberg, Bartlmä and Whittaker may be seen as exceptional, as well as extraordinary, they also provide inspiration: with appropriate guidance – such as that outlined in this collection – many more young people may come to enjoy participation in musical and particularly social activity.