Teaching with Music

I came across this article online that I thought deserved a blog post.  The article was found on a UK news website called The Independent in the Science section.

According to the article, learning an instrument enhances the brain's sensitivity to all sounds, including speech, say researchers.  Interpreting the nuances of speech are conveyed in the subtle changes in the human voice.  By learning musicality, one can learn to develop skills that help children process speech.

I started researching about learning through music and found a ton of resources that put music at the center of a child's education.  The Learning Through Music Consultant Group in Minnesota believes that music broadens and deepens understanding of literacy, numeracy, and higher order thinking skill.

Suzanne L Burton, PhD from the University of Delaware wrote an article on building learning centers that are music based.  She says, "A music-based learning center may be created to strengthen and build connections with content areas such as dramatic play, art, science, social studies, and language arts as well as encouraging musical expression and experimentation".  In her article, she outlines how to build music-based learning centers, complete with an outline that goes through goals, activities, and materials you can use in the centers.

The Autism Research Institute has an article on their website that says music can help children succeed in the areas that autism impairs---communication and interaction.

According to musictherapy.org, Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional.

For children on the autistic spectrum, music gives them a chance to focus.  Oftentimes, a child with autism is overstimulated by sound in the environment that they are unable to focus on what is being said so they become distracted.  Music has a way of holding a child's focus, keeping them from getting distracted.

Songsforteaching.com is a website that lists songs in many different categories to help children learn.  They have a section of songs specific to teaching goals that many autistic children share.

A great article on music therapy, it's benefits and how it applies to children on the autistic spectrum is found here: http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Music_Therapy_for_Autism

Literal thinking

There are a lot of examples where my son has taken things very literally.  Just today, he went to lay down for a nap at 2:17.  He told me he was going to get up at 2:27.  Well, he fell asleep and woke up at 3:25.  He was screaming for me and when I went into the room, he was in tears about how it passed 2:27.  I tried to talk him through it, calm him down, etc.  He stopped crying, but wouldn't get out of bed.  He started crying again and I couldn't get him to calm down until I changed the clock to read 2:27.  He watched me change it and that didn't bother him.  But, he couldn't get out of bed until it said 2:27 on the clock.

Autism and Literal Thinking
Autism children, especially Asperger's take metaphorical things literally.  They don't understand things that are meant to be jokes (like go break a leg) even when explained to them.  They can't comprehend a "figure of speech" and how it relates to a situation. 

Abstract thinking is often taken for granted. There are many abstract concepts such as time, relationships, multiple representations, non-verbal communication, inferences, social interactions, and idioms.  An average person is able to understand many of these with no problem or a simple explanation, but those with Autism, Asperger's or PDD may have a difficult time understanding it, if they ever understand it at all.  If someone is going to be taught about abstract thinking, a verbal explanation is often not enough.  Physical representations or reptition is often used to help those literal thinkers how to comprehend something that is abstract.    For my son, John, time to him was what the clock said---not the actual time it was.  He was satisfied once the clock read what he wanted it to.  Often times, the passage of time has to be shown in a visual representation for it to be taught to a literal thinker.  By using a calendar to show when something is happening, they are able to understand that they must wait.

Why Occupational Therapy Works for Kids on the Spectrum

Occupational Therapy is one of the treatments for kids on the Autism Spectrum.  The main reason for occupational therapy is that children can work on fine and gross motor skills, as well as overcome some of their sensory processing difficulties.

A developmental delay in gross motor skills might mean the child can't ride a bike, may run in an awkward manner, or may have difficulty kicking a ball.  Therapists use organized play to work on these gross motor skills.  If a child has severe delay with gross motor skills, then physical therapy would work better.

A developmental delay in fine motor skills might mean the child has trouble feeding themselves, getting dressed, or writing.

Occupational Therapy can help with self care issues and academic skills.  They may work on writing, cutting with scissors, as well as developing the muscles required for those skills by playing with play dough, stringing beads, and squeezing sponges. 

The goal of Sensory Integration Occupational Therapy is not to teach behaviors or skills, but to help with neurological processing deficits, teaching them to adapt to the environment around them. This could include teaching tolerance to different textures, loud noises, and bright lights.  It involves determining what kind of sensory issues a child has and helping him/her get the sensory input they seek in a controlled environment.

With Sensory Integration, the therapist will be helping the child manage his/her body in space.  An OT can also help the child with communication and interaction with others through therapy known as Floortime, where the therapist gets down on the floor and Plays with the child.  The therapist works on transitions from one activity to another if transitioning is an issue with the child. Determining strategies that work can help outside of the therapy session when the child is at home, at school, and in the community.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Apraxia is a neurological disorder that results from poor motor planning.  Physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech therapy can help kids with Apraxia.  Developmental Apraxia of speech interferes with the child's ability to produce different sounds needed for intelligible communication. 
 The child may know what he/she wants to say, but the area of the brain cannot "motor plan" appropriately to make the muscles of the jaw and mouth move appropriately to make the sounds.    Even when trying to correct them, the child cannot figure out how to make the correct syllables and sounds.  Some signs of apraxia include children who have very limited sounds they can make, intelligible speech that doesn't "clear up" with time, inconsistent speech errors, frustration with speech correction attempts, ability to say short words but can't string a series of words together, drops ending off of words, can imitate sounds better than plan them on their own, etc.

The information below is taken directly from www.aprakia-kids.org.

What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a motor speech disorder. For reasons not yet fully understood, children with apraxia of speech have great difficulty planning and producing the precise, highly refined and specific series of movements of the tongue, lips, jaw and palate that are necessary for intelligible speech. Apraxia of speech is sometimes called verbal apraxia, developmental apraxia of speech, or verbal dyspraxia. No matter what name is used, the most important concept is the root word "praxis." Praxis means planned movement. To some degree or another, a child with the diagnosis of apraxia of speech has difficulty programming and planning speech movements. Apraxia of speech is a specific speech disorder.
The act of speech begins with an intention to communicate.  Next, an idea forms, outlining what the speaker wants to say.  The words for the desired message are put in the correct order, using the correct grammar.  Each of the words are comprised of a specific sequence of sounds (also called phonemes)and syllables that must be ordered together.  All of this information is translated from an idea and information about order of sounds into a series of highly coordinated motor movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, and soft palate. 
The brain must tell the muscles of these “articulators” the exact order and timing of movements so that the words in the message are properly articulated. Finally, the muscles must work properly with enough strength and muscle tone to perform the movements needed for speech.
In typically developing speech, children make word attempts and get feedback from others and from their own internal systems regarding how “well” the words they produced matched the ones that they wanted to produce.  Children use this information the next time they attempt the words and essentially are able to “learn from experience.”  Usually once syllables and words are spoken repeatedly, the speech motor act becomes automatic.  Speech motor plans and programs are stored in the brain and can be accessed effortlessly when they are needed.  Children with apraxia of speech have difficulty in this aspect of speech.  It is believed that children with CAS may not be able to form or access speech motor plans and programs or that these plans and programs are faulty for some reason.

How Is CAS Different Than A Speech Delay?

A true developmental delay of speech is when the child is following the "typical" path of childhood speech  development, although at a rate slower than normal. Usually this rate is in pace  with the child’s cognitive skills. In typical speech/language development, the child's receptive and expressive skills increase together to a large extent. What is often seen in a child with apraxia of speech is a wide gap between their receptive language abilities and expressive abilities. In other words, the child's ability to understand language (receptive ability) is broadly within normal limits, but his or her expressive speech is seriously deficient, absent, or severely unclear. This is an important factor and one indicator that the child may be experiencing more than "delayed" speech.  In the case of such a mismatch in skills, the child should be evaluated for the presence of a specific speech disorder such as apraxia. However, certain language disorders may also cause a similar pattern in a child. A gap between a child's expressive and receptive language ability is insufficient to diagnose apraxia.

HBO Movie Link

Here is a link to the official movie trailer and movie info on the Autism Movie that HBO Produced.


http://www.hbo.com/movies/temple-grandin#/movies/temple-grandin/index.html

HBO Special on Autism - Great Website

Taken from : http://www.templegrandin.com/

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. Now her fascinating life, with all its challenges and successes is being brought to the screen. HBO has produced the full-length film Temple Grandin, which premieres on Saturday, February 6th on HBO. She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio), major television programs, such as the BBC special "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow", ABC's Primetime Live, The Today Show, Larry King Live, 48 Hours and 20/20, and has been written about in many national publications, such as Time magazine, People magazine, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and New York Times. Among numerous other recognitions by media, Bravo Cable did a half-hour show on her life, and she was featured in the best-selling book, Anthropologist from Mars.
Dr. Grandin didn't talk until she was three and a half years old, communicating her frustration instead by screaming, peeping, and humming. In 1950, she was diagnosed with autism and her parents were told she should be institutionalized. She tells her story of "groping her way from the far side of darkness" in her book Emergence: Labeled Autistic, a book which stunned the world because, until its publication, most professionals and parents assumed that an autism diagnosis was virtually a death sentence to achievement or productivity in life.
Dr. Grandin has become a prominent author and speaker on the subject of autism because "I have read enough to know that there are still many parents, and yes, professionals too, who believe that 'once autistic, always autistic.' This dictum has meant sad and sorry lives for many children diagnosed, as I was in early life, as autistic. To these people, it is incomprehensible that the characteristics of autism can be modified and controlled. However, I feel strongly that I am living proof that they can" (from Emergence: Labeled Autistic).
Even though she was considered "weird" in her young school years, she eventually found a mentor, who recognized her interests and abilities. Dr. Grandin later developed her talents into a successful career as a livestock-handling equipment designer, one of very few in the world. She has now designed the facilities in which half the cattle are handled in the United States, consulting for firms such as Burger King, McDonald's, Swift, and others.
Dr. Grandin presently works as a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She also speaks around the world on both autism and cattle handling. At every Future Horizons conference on autism, the audience rates her presentation as 10+.
Dr. Grandin's current bestselling book on autism is The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger's. She also authored Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships, Animals Make us Human, Animals in Translation, Thinking in Pictures, Emergence: Labeled Autistic and produced several DVDs. All books and DVD's available through Future Horizons.
Temple Grandin's work continues to inspire millions, drawing superlative reviews such as these:
"Temple is my hero. She has my vote for the person who has provided the greatest advance in our understanding of autism this century."

-Dr. Tony Attwood, world renowned expert on autism spectrum disorders