There are many
benefits to using music with people on the autism spectrum.
One of these benefits is that Music provides the structural
regularity that children with autism need. Within that structure
it is possible to expand that child’s repertoire of
functioning. Depending on the child’s placement on the
autism spectrum I find that music assists with communication
in different ways. For the child at the severe end, music
is often the means of communication. Often, as I start a music
session for children at this portion of the spectrum, the
excitement and pleasure of music is clearly visible.
For the moderately involved child, music
can serve as a carrier signal for verbal communication. One
child, while having no functional communication, had a storehouse
of holiday and children’s songs in her head. I only
found this out one day when I didn’t play the last note
of a song. Not only did she say the correct word, she sang
it at the right pitch. My only wish is that I would have been
able to continue working with her in order to move this verbal
ability towards functional communication. With limited verbal
children of this nature, it is often possible to get them
to vocalize and supply the missing words to a song they know
by suddenly stopping the song and accompaniment at points
of maximal tension. These places of "maximal tension"
(Miller & Eller-Miller, 1989, p. 65, 93) occur at the
cadences during the last few notes before the final note of
the music.
Music, for the child with high-functioning
autism or Asperger Syndrome can serve to organize the verbal
communication skills that already exist. All of my communications
with one particular child with Asperger Syndrome are sung.
If I mistakenly lapse into a typical conversational tone,
he loses focus, engages in self-stimulatory activities, and
drifts away. In addition, given sufficient interest on the
child’s part, the music sessions may transform into
fairly typical music lessons.
During our first session I created a system
where the child asked me for pieces of paper that had the
letter names of the notes. Once this series of events was
internalized I expanded the routine by having him place the
notes on the appropriate place on the music staff. This system
was expanded further by having him draw a circle on the staff
where the note belonged and write in the letter of the note.
Then he would give the note to his mother. Fine motor problems
were present and drawing a circle first helped confine where
the note should go. Asking him on which space or line the
note should go on (as opposed to a generic "Where does
the note go?") also helped. The system was expanded yet
again by having the child guess which note I had in my hand.
After guessing correctly he then had to write the note on
the staff before receiving the piece of paper.
We then took turns with him holding the
notes, with either his mother or I having to guess which note
he had in his hand. When it came time for me to write the
note in the staff I would ask him in a singing voice on which
line or space it went.
Other parts of the session were spent in
imitative drumming, and later, work on the recorder. I made
certain that we took turns in leading the imitation. This
was a good activity to do when he seemed to be fading away
and losing focus. His mother quickly caught on to our activities;
participated very well in the session and we all had a pleasurable
experience. The child has a lot of musical ability and using
the Miller Method approach, he was taught to play the recorder
and later the piano which he now plays well.
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