Dr Shannon Coates will be keeping us company over the next two weeks to help us understand how we can build neurodiversity-inclusive voice studios. Shannon is a singer, voice teacher, and educator who began developing training and educational resources specifically for independent voice teachers. She works with smaller groups of teachers in an eight-month training called the VoicePed UnDegree that runs each year. This week, Shannon helps us to understand the terminology of neurodiversity, and we start to explore how we can be inclusive for the likes of dyslexia and ADHD.

KEY MOMENTS 

‘Not being associated with academia doesn't mean that you can’t be a specialist voice teacher’

‘In the process of working with my own children I also began to see some of those similar things in the studio’

‘Practising the new thing is always in my brain, I want to get into it and the novelty of it, ADHD singers will love it’

‘No matter who we’re working with, the most effective reframing is asking what they focused in on and found interesting’

RELEVANT LINKS & MENTIONS

• (Column) Neurodiversity in the Voice Studio, Clinic, and Performance Space: Using a Neurodiversity Affirming Lens to Build More Inclusive Spaces for Singers: Part 1, Current Understanding of Neurodiversity by Dr Shannon Coates; Journal of Singing (2022)
• (Podcast) Singing Teachers Talk: Ep.152 ‘Tomayto, Tomahto’: Understanding Singing Terminology with Line Hilton
• (Podcast) Singing Teachers Talk: Ep.104 Teaching Singers with ADHD with Colin McGee
• Tera Sumpter: https://terasumpter.com/ 

ABOUT THE GUEST 

 Shannon is a singer, voice teacher, and educator with nearly two decades of experience running a successful independent voice studio. She develops training and resources for voice teachers worldwide, focusing on inclusivity and neurodiversity. Shannon holds three vocal performance degrees from the University of Toronto and offers subject-specific training, including Neurodiversity-Affirming VoicePed and Contemporary Voice. She promotes best practices in teaching and advocates for inclusive voice spaces through social media. 

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Guest Website:

• www.drshannoncoates.com

Social Media:

• Instagram: @voiceped
• Facebook: @VoiceAndTheArtofTeaching 

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