The main findings of an Italian national research: statistics 2020/2021

In the perspective of a gradual improvement of school inclusion, music is considered a strategic exeprience to effectively respond to the needs of pupils with disabilities and specific learning disorders (SLD). In Italian schools, music is present in the nursery school and in the first cycle of education. It allows to positively face the challenge of inclusion by promoting a development that integrates linguistic, cognitive, motor, and socio-affective aspects, by motivating participation to collective activities and by helping to build respect for differences. Currently, in the first cycle school, the access of students with disabilities and SLD to musical instrument courses in music secondary schools (SMIM) is a particularly controversial issue since an elitist vision of music teaching is still working and, in fact, it excludes these students. In this framework, this paper presented a national research aimed, in one hand, to explore the practices of assessment and teaching for students with disabilities and with SLD widespread in SMIM and, in the other hand, to identify "essential guidelines" for the construction of a inclusive models of instrumental teaching.