Using an App to Teach Body Awareness through Music and Movement to Students with Multiple Disabilities

This manuscript reports a design-based research effort to develop an app that promotes body awareness among children with visual impairments and additional disabilities. A multidisciplinary team has been developing the app known as Body Awareness through Music and Movement (BAMM). The app is embedded with features grounded in structure movement routine theory. The research effort examines whether a well-designed intuitive user interface can enhance body awareness of students who have visual impairments and additional disabilities when used within the itinerant teaching model. A prototype of the app has been presented at an international conference where attendees reacted positively to the possibility of using the tool to support body awareness. The prototype was used with one participant through a multi-sensory approach. Initial findings indicated that the use of the app provided structured movement.