May 31 2008
Music and Autism
Yahoo News is carrying a story today about Oliver Sacks, who will be appearing at the Harlem Abyssinian Church during the World Science Festival. Sacks has a new book out called Musicophilia: Music and the Brain, and in it he explores how people with certain neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and autism positively respond to music.
This is particularly interesting to me because I know at times, Gus has done well with music as a sensory aid. Even this past week, his teacher used music to calm him when he was getting upset about people talking in the room. Whenever he’s having a bad episode of crying and confusion, soft classical music can soothe him enough to make it to bedtime. And other times, he just enjoys it so darned much! I might approach his teacher about trying to use it more in the classroom.
I think I may also have to check out the book and perhaps review it here. What are your thoughts about the prospect of using music as a healing method?
All of this talk about music made me think of the movie August Rush. Have you watched it? It’s a fantastic children’s movie that both my husband and I enjoyed very much. If your child loves classical music, I think he would love this movie. Very well done. The ending was a bit over the top, but other than that quibble, I give it two thumbs up.
Much better than The Bee Movie that I just watched, anyway. I work at the library, and saw that one come through. I thought, “Oh, I should watch it and see if it’s any good.” When it finished, my husband and I turned and looked at each other.
“I feel like I just lost IQ points for having watched that movie.” He nodded his head. “That was one of the dumbest movies I’ve watched in a very long time.”
Oh well - at least we got it for free from the library!
I would have been upset if we had paid money to watch that dumb thing.
Sorry, that was very off topic, even for me. LOL!!! I mostly came on here to tell you that I enjoyed your blog - you’ve got a natural talent for writing!! - and to suggest checking out August Rush and watching it with your son. I think the whole family would really enjoy it.
Have a great Sunday!
Havs
http://nonfictionlover.today.com
Thanks so much, Havs, for the movie rec (adding it to our Netflix Queue) and for the kind words! And I’ll definitely avoid The Bee Movie!!
My son really does love classical music. On his morning bus ride, I often hear that he can identify most of what the driver plays and is often humming with or without music