Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do you need to know what Asperger’s is? Do you want to know how it impacts learning music? Asperger syndrome is characterized by difficulties with social situations, because interpreting non-verbal communication is challenging for them. However, people with Asperger’s will otherwise have good facility with language and good cognitive abilities. Keep reading What Precisely Is Asperger’s and Its Effect on Learning Music? to find out more about what it is and how it interacts with music lessons.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission from purchases made through the links. I’ll only recommend products I use, use in lessons, or ones my students or colleagues have recommended.
What Precisely Is Asperger’s and Its Effect on Learning Music: My Buddy Randall
One of my best friends, Randall J. Currie, has Asperger’s:
- I knew Randall before he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.
- In 1992 it became a formal diagnostic term, which was around the time Randall was diagnosed.
- Before this time, neurologists weren’t aware that autism occurs on a spectrum (thus why the current term is autism spectrum disorder or ASD).
- Since then, Randall has done his sociology master’s thesis on ASD populations.
- He’s my go to for questions about ASD, helping me to understand the things I see in my lessons.
Randall makes the point that autism is a learning disability. However, it’s not an academic learning disability, but rather a social learning disability.
What Precisely Is Asperger’s and Its Effect on Learning Music: A Social Learning Disability
For most people, they intuitively pick up on the unwritten rules of social interactions:
- However, people with Asperger syndrome have problems picking up on social cues in facial expressions and vocal tone.
- This means that social interactions are a mine field of potential faux pas.
- This in turn leads to anxiety in social situations.
How does this affect studying music? Keep reading to find out.
What Precisely Is Asperger’s and Its Effect on Learning Music: When to Use Multisensory Strategies
For some students with Asperger’s, its impact is more social.
- Otherwise, they learn pretty much like typical learner students.
- I have one gifted pianist who’s studying law in college, and he needs my help with things like focusing, staying on task, and avoiding dichotomic thinking.
- However, he doesn’t need multisensory strategies for learning the music itself.
Nevertheless, other students with Asperger’s will need special multisensory strategies to help them to learn how to read music.
These are the guitar and piano books I use when I teach lessons.
For more information on multisensory teaching methods.
Therefore, the big trick is to know when it’s best to use multisensory teaching methods, and when it’s best to not use them.
- Of course, it’s not a strict either-or.
- Some students will benefit from a heavy dose of multisensory teaching aids, others will only need a light multisensory approach, and with others still, it’ll mostly be about the social aspects.
- Also, it’s important to create a safe space for the student, so he or she won’t need to worry about social missteps.
This allows your student to be able to focus on learning the music rather than stressing about the social aspects of the lessons.
Final Thoughts
Takeaway points:
- Autism is a learning disability. However, it’s not an academic learning disability, but rather a social learning disability.
- People with Asperger syndrome have problems picking up on social cues from facial expressions and vocal tone.
- For some students with Asperger’s its impact is more social but other students will need multisensory teaching strategies.
- This means that social interactions are a mine field of potential faux pas.
- Create a safe space for the student, so he or she won’t need to worry about social missteps.
Have fun teaching!
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