Music Education On Wheels (MEOW)

Music is a beautiful thing.

I work with autistic kids, doing in-home behavioral therapy. The boy I work with the most frequently is a smart, adorable, 8-year-old who is non-verbal. He doesn’t talk in full sentences, or even in full words most of the time. Today while he was on a break, I asked if he wanted to listen to music. He shrugged and went back to drinking his juice.

I only have about 10 songs on my phone, so I started to play Panic! at the Disco’s The Ballad of Mona Lisa. I asked if he liked it and he just smiled at me. So I paused the song and asked if he wanted to keep listening. He pointed enthusiastically at my phone and said “More!” I continued to play the song and he started to jump around and dance in time to the music, and when I started singing along in a silly, exaggerated way he started to mimic my singing. He especially seemed to love the ‘Whoa ooohh ooohh ooohh ooohh, Mona Lisa’ part. I’ve been working with this boy for a year and I had never heard him intentionally sing or hum along to music before.

We went on to listen to Spotlight (New Regrets) by Patrick Stump and Oh, Love! by William Beckett and he was having so much fun. Clapping along, dancing, jumping, laughing, and just being silly.

One of the biggest obstacles that children with autism face is learning how to engage and interact in their environment. And for the 15 or so minutes we were listening to those songs, this kid just lit up. He didn’t have to think about anything or worry about how he was going to communicate and he couldn’t stop smiling.

Funny pictures of the day (77 pics)

The Psychology of Music