Author: Lee Stockner

Lee D. Stockner is the Owner and Creator of Occupational Octaves™. Since 2013, Occupational Octaves Piano™ has been used worldwide to empower learners with Autism and other special needs to independently play classical music at the piano. Taught mostly by Special Educators, Music Educators, and Music Therapists, the empowering factor behind this method is the “Special-Needs-User-Friendly New-Language-of-Music,” created by the program’s creator and author, Lee Stockner. The system, which utilizes colored letters and ten colorful rings worn on student’s fingers, also means being “Non-Music-Educator-Friendly,” enabling various teachers & therapists without music experience to be easily trained. By teaming with UnitusTI, a cloud-based curriculum and data analysis application, Mr. Stockner wants to empower educators from numerous backgrounds to use the piano to accomplish the optimal and often mandated goals for a particular student. “Each special needs student has an Individualized Educational Plan, or an IEP, which defines specific goals for developing and improving their functional lives. If a student’s goals include increasing concentration, strengthening fingers, expressing emotion, improving ocular movement, or one of hundreds of others potential targets, the piano is an incredibly rewarding place to achieve them” says Mr. Stockner of his vision for the future of music in schools. “Furthermore, by teaming with UnitusTI and transforming Occupational Octaves Piano™ into a cloud based curriculum with built in analysis tools, schools and organizations can reduce the amount of time their staff spends on the paperwork that is automatically generated and easy to access via phones, tablets, or computers, save costs by going paperless and wireless, and unite teachers and parents, both of whom can access the curriculum to maximize learning in home and school settings.”