Teaching Piano to an Only Child
An only child presents challenges that are often times unique to that child’s situation. It will be very helpful to gain as much information as possible without preying into the families private lives. The knowledge will greatly help you understand your young student and tailor your teaching to help the child make good progress in his/her piano education.
If your young student is the only child a couple have been able to have the parents could be very protective of the child. They could try to do too much for the child because this is their only chance to be parents. The parents might expect a lot out of the child, which can make the child anxious that they might not please his/her parents. The desire to give ever advantage possible to their only child the child might be over extended and involved in too many activities. Any of these will have an affect on how the child responds to you and your teaching methods.
Once in awhile an only child is an unwanted accident which the parents tolerate as a fact of life, but they never get too much into the parenting thing. The parents in this case might have the child involved in every activity they can think of to keep them “out of their hair.” The child might be hungry for attention and try to distract you from teaching with questions and stories of what is going on in his/her life. In you they have an audience and lots of individual attention. This is a rare situation, but if you teach enough students you could have this situation cross you path.
Understanding your young students help you so much as you tailor your lesson structure to each of them. No two children are alike and each comes to you with a very special set of needs. Listening and learning about your very young student will help you greatly to be the best teacher possible to each of your students.
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