I can’t prove it right now, but I’m more and more thinking that Charlie may well have perfect pitch.
Though without a piano or cello teacher (I’ve followed a few leads, but with no luck, yet), Charlie has still been practicing, and has often asked to “play cello” in the later afternoon, before he and I go on our usual walk. Last week, after I took the cello out of its case, a few strums on the strings revealed that it was really out tune. As in, really, the D way way too low, the G unidentifiable, the C low, and …read more

When Charlie was taking piano lessons once a week (from this teacher), he practiced almost every day. In the beginning, when he was just learning to identify the keys and read the notes, practices were 10 to 15 minutes and sometimes less. Charlie’s teacher emphasized that he hoped that Charlie would enjoy playing the piano, and not see it as some chore that he had to do, so we always (well, we always tried) to end on a good note. (I was not trying to pun.)
After about 9 months, when Charlie was clearly learning to read the notes and starting …read more

8 to 11 year olds who studied either piano or a string instrument for a minimum of three years outperformed children with no musical training in auditory discrimination, finger dexterity, verbal ability and non-verbal reasoning. Science Daily reports on a study published in the October 29th PLoS One.
Yes, Charlie has been practicing……….

I’ve been teaching some of my Latin students how to scan Latin poetry—-how to figure out the meter by identifying long and short syllables, elisions of vowels, when there’s a pause for a breath (caesura). One student commented that he likes scanning more than translating and it is a different sort of way of dealing with a language, looking at the sounds and syllables of words and not so much their meanings.
I talk about scanning as attending to the music of the poetry, to its sounds, more than to its sense. I’ve often noted that Charlie’s always had an …read more

Today’s Scientific American reviews the new study about autism genes in 88 Middle Eastern families and emphasizes that the genes found are “linked to a heightened risk of autism” and, too, that these genes are crucial to a child’s ability to learn.” Noting that marrying second and third, and even first, cousins is not unusual in the Middle East, Scientific American points out that studying such families enables researchers to
track recessive genetic traits (caused by mutations that only affect individuals with two copies of the flawed genes). Such traits occur far more frequently in inbred families than in others.
Six …read more

13-year-old Thomas Gonzales plays trumpet, trombone, baritone and flugelhorn and has accepted an offer to be a professional member of Mariachi Nuevo Ensueño in Azusa, California, the June 15th Whittier Daily News:
Michelle Lazar, founder of Coast Music Therapy, a San Diego-based agency for children with special needs, said that while the topic has yet to be widely studied, there does seem to be a positive correlation between autism and musical talent.
“Part of the reason individuals with autism tend to excel is because of the structure that music provides,” she said. “It’s very comfortable to them.”
It’s definitely a correlation for Charlie, …read more

I just got back from Commencement at the college where I teach. We don’t have the facilities to hold the event on campus and it’s held some distance away down the Garden State Parkway. I’ve been teaching at my college for three years now and have gotten to know some students fairly well: So exciting to hear their names called for prizes and to get their degrees, to see them walk (some smiling from ear to ear, some thoughtful at the solemnity of the occasion, some waving wildly to family and friends) across the stage and shake the President’s hand.
A …read more

My son Charlie does not simply like music. It’s simply an essential, and natural, mode that he expresses himself with and just something that he enjoys. He did music therapy when he was 2 1/2 years old and enjoyed hearing someone sing and play the piano to him and try to get him to play maracas and bells. But the effort to teach Charlie to actually play an instrument and read the notes has most shown how music is a medium that Charlie is drawn to.
When he was about 6, Charlie singing “Frére Jacques” was a sign that he was …read more

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) coordinates research and efforts pertaining to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The IACC met this past Monday, May 12 in Washington, D.C. I had attended the November 2007 meeting and learned a great deal and was hoping to attend this May meeting.
Jim had an event planed Monday night—-and then Jim heard that the event was (maybe) not going to happen, so I wrote a statement and submitted it and thought I might go, and then Jim heard that the Monday event might happen. Our Mother’s …read more

Hope you got the perfect gift for Mother’s Day—-Margaret Lenahan has. Her 16-year-old son, James, was diagnosed with autism around the time that he turned two; today, he is a junior in the Ryken program for special needs students at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, and a member of the varsity B basketball team for the Xaverian Clippers. From today’s Staten Island Advance:
Get this clear: He’s no sympathy case. He’s a teammate.
“He’s a tough player. He’s really strong. He pushes kids around,” says Tim O’Toole, Joe’s son [Joe O'Toole is another coach] and a Fastbreakers forward. “And when he boxes …read more