Guitarist Cheryl Lunsford said music is a universal equalizer.

Lunsford, the new music teacher at The Achievement Center in North Roanoke County, opened her class with a song as her students ran to chairs with miniature guitars and bells.

She spent 30 minutes with each of three different sessions of students as she practiced chords, songs and other musical melodies. All of the children have either attention-deficit disorder or other learning disability.

"There is no disability when music is involved," Lunsford said, with a few strokes on her guitar as her students left the classrooms.

Lunsford, who has taught music for more than 20 years, said she first heard of the center after her son was diagnosed with ADHD and enrolled in the school for summer classes.

She continues to work at her private studio, The Guitar Dojo studio in Fincastle, but she has become the first music instructor at the center to teach students to play more skilled instruments, said Elizabeth Blankemeyer, director of The Achievement Center.

Lunsford's music lessons don't just involve singing around a piano, Blankemeyer said. Students are fully engaged in the music while playing instruments in an environment where they receive one-on-one treatment, Blankemeyer said.

The school has 34 students from around the Roanoke Valley in kindergarten through ninth grade. Teachers at the school adopted the Orton-Gillingham multisensory approach to education.

The technique is based on the idea that students will discover their own academic strength by discovering through which sense they learn best.

Blankemeyer said Lunsford's class is a good inclusion in the center's curriculum and multisensory techniques.

"She's really vested in what she does," Blankemeyer said. "She's bringing in music, guitars and her expertise."

The class is also preparing for a fall event, at which students will have the opportunity to perform for their parents.

The free 30-minute concert is open to the public and will be held on Thursday at 10 a.m. in the school's cafeteria.

In preparation for the fall concert, Lunsford divided the students into two rows: One row played guitars while another group sat behind them with bells.

"They read the music and feel the rhythm," she said. "It's very natural for the children to grasp the music."