Comments on: Music-ability

By: Do you know Jongwen, little guy?

Do you know Jongwen, little guy? — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:07:57 +0000

[...] repeatedly gave me the bag—and seems to rely on so many other aspects of language, from the tone and pitch of words to, indeed, gestures. Toward that end, researchers from the University of British Columbia [...]

By: Autism Vox

Autism Vox — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:02:52 +0000

[...] to talk, for Charlie to speak and express his desires and thoughts—his body language, the tone and melody of his warbling and hums. The sound of his voice, with words and wordless, makes for [...]

By: Autism Vox » Autism Is Global

Autism Vox » Autism Is Global — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:42:21 +0000

[...] have happened? I have speculated about whether it might be easier for Charlie to have had to learn Chinese, a tonal language; Jim and I found a special spirit of community at an autism center founded by [...]

By: Lisa/Jedi

Lisa/Jedi — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:27:07 +0000

Brendan & I both love codes, so learning the phonetic alphabets has been like learning a code- which most people we know don’t understand, hence the secret part. He’s fluent enough in the hiragana to read his lessons, so we’ve moved on to the katakana alphabet. They are essentially the same sounds, but different symbols. Pokemon names are written in katakana, so we’re using his japanese cards & calendar pages as practise, with the added bonus that many of them are similar to their english names or the animals that they resemble, so it’s like the “surprise inside” the cereal box when he sounds them out.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:30:56 +0000

I so admire Brendan’s learning Japanese — I’d like to learn it too, someday…how did he do with the notion of using a totally diferent system of writing?

We have not yet gotten to where Charlie plays with both hands—-that would be a fine feat of coordination! I played the viola, which meant I had to learn a third (the alto) clef. Very confusing and requiring some brain re-training on my own part.

By: Lolasmom

Lolasmom — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:49:55 +0000

I am envious of Charlie’s musical abilities! I studied the violin for years, but the piano is a mystery to me. Not only do you play one thing with the right hand and another with the left, but in a different clef? Too much for my brain to handle!

By: Lisa/Jedi

Lisa/Jedi — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:12:08 +0000

I love the idea of language that engages the musical part of our brains One thing that is becoming pretty clear to me is that Brendan’s receptive japanese is better than his expressive, in that he’s obviously getting what is said to him, even though he struggles a bit to make sentences with what he’s learned. What he does love, though, is learning words & concepts in japanese that he can use to name his legos & their “moves”, such as “dragon-wind-sword”. He’s had me label some of his lego guys (in hiragana) with the japanese names that he’s given them, each name carefully chosen by him to suit their characters. So much fun…