Music and Autistic children

Music and Autistic children seem to be a perfect team. ASD children love to create and listen to music. Many schools are now offering Music Therapy for special needs children. Music therapists along with Teacher Aids, work with the children to create music with various instruments.



If your school does not offer Music Therapy, then consult your local Autism Program Society as they may be able to provide you a contact to be able to hire someone who can give your child some private Music Therapy.

Schools are finding that music and Autistic children in the classroom can have a calming effect. We have a personal success story involving Autism and Music Therapy as witnessed by our Speech Pathologist as well as our Child Development Worker.

During a recent visit with both these therapists, our son was quite active and needed to be calmed for their session. We demonstrated for them our newly found secret for calming him.

We had conducted an experiment as all parents of Autistic children do. We thought about how we could combine music and Autistic children in a home setting. Our home version of music and Autism came about when we saw that our son was intrigued by the Apple I-POD shuffle that we purchased recently.

An I-POD shuffle is a new very small music player that is about the size of a pack of gum and that can hold from 120 to 240 songs that you download from your computer. You do not need batteries as it attaches right into your computer.

Our son was nervous at first to try it, as it is the case with most Autistic children but he instantly loved it. Our workers can testify as to how much he calmed down right in front of them. One of the therapists remarked: "We should find a way to try this with all our clients."

The nice part is that the rest of the family can use it as well. Parents can use it when they exercise or go for a walk. Warning: Siblings will try to conquer it. The Apple I-POD shuffles are reasonably priced although they are still an investment.

For more information on the I-POD shuffle just click on music and Autistic children and a new window to Target will open. Just enter in their search box "I-POD shuffle" and it will show you what it looks like as well as a full description.