Today I stumbled across this article about teaching piano with autism and how rare and challenging it can be and how it can be adapted. Sometimes I take it for granted that I had to learn how to engage with kids who learn a bit outside the box, and that not all music teachers may feel equipped to take on the challenge of these extra needs. The beautiful thing about music therapy is that this is what a music therapist goes to school for, and so today I'd like to share a personal story.
When I was in University I was working as a Behavior Interventionist, and one of my families acquired a second hand piano. This instrument intrigued my client and the parents, being aware of my training, noticed the interest and asked if I could nurture it in a more structured manner.
The first few times we sat at the piano I noticed straight away how my client was going up and down the keyboard noticing the relationships to the notes and was fascinated when I played basic songs. However,. this client had significantly delayed language and was not able to process long winded verbal instructions or directions and quickly became frustrated.
So...how do you explain to someone that cant process so much verbal information that the notes on the piano are related to those tiny black squiggles on the page?
You break it down of course.
Since this child had strong social imitation skills, liked repetition, and has been taught play skills via video modelling successfully in the past, I used an ipad to film my hands on the keys playing the wheels on the bus with a very simple chord accompaniment in the left hand. I showed it to my client who immediately grabbed it out of my hands and began to watch it over and over.
I was not surprised at all when a week later as I was checking my morning emails. There was an email from Dad with a video link, and darned if the kid hadn't memorized the entire piece and was playing it completely independently, just from watching my hands. The power of thinking just a little outside the box.