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Autism/reading music versus playing by ear

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Expert: - 8/1/2007


Question
Greetings, all!  I'm new to this list.  Does anybody have any thoughts on the relative advantages of teaching an autistic student piano by reading at the outset versus playing by ear, or some combination of two?

Answer
Hi

sorry for not answering sooner.

I don't know if there is a "rule of thumb" for that, but for me it's pretty impossible to learn playing a piece of music by ear, whereas I've never had any problems with reading music, and can even read a full score and "hear" the music in my head. With alot of effort I can learn a tune by ear these days (but it needs many, many repeats, and it's clearly no fun), but I strongly prefer learning music through seing the score (plus I rarely forget music I've seen once, but will forget nearly anything I've heard once).
But then, this may be just me. I'm an extremely visual person, and my auditory processing is usually not very good, which means that even listening to another person talking and trying to understand what they say may take alot of effort much of the time.
I've read most people with autism are visual learners, although some people with Asperger's are rather auditory learners. I don't know if that's true, and you should try to find out how he learns best, before you start teaching him. You could ask his parents if he easily follows spoken instructions, can remember them easily and similar things, or if he finds it easier to understand subjects in class if they are illustrated by drawings or pictures, and if he prefers to read about a subjects than to listen to a teacher or other adult talking about them.
If he prefers the "listening" approach, it may be a good idea to teach him playing music by ear, if it's the other way round, you should teach him to read music first. Also, a combination of the two could be a good approach (and if you try both, you'll see quickly which one he prefers, and learning to read music as soon as possible is always a good idea).
Hope this helps, you are welcome to ask more questions.
C.

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

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As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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