He’s a cutie, about four years old, energetic and alert. And very quiet.  He didn’t speak when he came into my room but he was fascinated right away by all the stuff in it.  The media specialist had noticed it first, that this child, who is autistic and does not speak, seemed to perk up any time there was music involved in her lesson. So this morning during my plan time was this grand experiment where I would get a chance to meet him  and see if I had anything in my room that might catch is attention.

We started out simply with a Quaver music video and some rhythm sticks for all of us to  play a steady beat to the music.  He copied out movements right away, but then I noticed that he was rubbing the sticks on his face.  I occurred to me that he probably liked the smooth feel of the painted wood on his face, much like my son used to like the feel of fabrics in his hand. So I immediately went to instruments with different sounds and textures. The cabasa was my first choice with the beads scraping on the metal sheet underneath.  He could feel the beads and hear the sound and really seemed to like it.  So I went to some mini maracas  which he tried to “unscrew” to see what was inside.  So now I knew he needed instruments that had texture AND he could see how it works.  So we tried a frog for him to scrape, but the cabasa seemed to be the big hit.

So as he was walking around the room, I pulled out a xylophone, took off the cover and handed him the mallets, showing him how to hit the bars.  A big smile broke out on his face and he said “xylophone.  X.”  His para looked at me and asked, “did he initiate that?” to which I responded positively.  Then almost immediately after, he looked at the ball of the mallet and said “yarn. Y.”.  This child has all kinds of information but it’s locked in his head.  Maybe he doesn’t feel like he has to speak.  Maybe he just doesn’t want to. But the excitement we felt when he spoke using the instruments was wonderful.

What is it about the power of music that speaks to kids and apparently allows them to speak to us?  As I was speaking to some of my older students this week who were nervous about singing by themselves, I reminded them that singing was something they did naturally when they were very little.  They made up songs and dances and didn’t worry about what people thought, but somewhere along the line, someone told them they couldn’t sing or didn’t sing very well, or maybe they just decided they weren’t as good as one of their favorite artists and so they became self-conscious.  Making music comes naturally to human beings whether it’s making up your own songs or banging on pots and pans.  Children should always be encouraged to continue these things.

So back to my little autistic student.  Seems he also has a love for letters, so I’m thinking about working with my media specialist and creating an alphabet with instruments so he can experience the texture and sound while learning the letters.  Hopefully the combination will encourage him to keep verbalizing what he sees and hears.  It’s fascinating to try to get into the mind of a child, regardless of his or her circumstances, but this one particularly so.  My fear is that this child, who obviously needs to walk around and “experience” things through touch and sound will be hindered from doing so because it is not the norm in a classroom setting.  We think we need to teach all children to sit quietly to learn and that it not necessarily the truth.  Yes, it’s a great skill to learn, to sit and listen, but children, like one of my own sons, can surprise you.  They may look like they’re not listening to you at all and be focused on something else entirely, but when you ask them what you just said they can spit it out verbatim.

This child has obviously been paying attention somewhere, he just chooses not to spit out the information when requested.  So perhaps we need to entice the child to show us what he knows by creating an alphabet that engages him.  So, the experiment will continue and we’ll see if music and texture can change things for this child.