One of the fun things about running a site like Mumsgather Finds is you get to know a lot of very interesting people, all of whom are passionate about something in their lives. Today, I would like to talk about one of them. She is a piano teacher who has a few years experience giving piano lessons to autistic children. She has a Facebook page called the Autistic Piano Teaching Diary where she documents her journey in learning and teaching kids with special needs.
Browsing through her FB page, I can see that she keeps herself updated by attending courses, reading a lot, and trying out various techniques to help her students. She shares them freely too on her FB page and on YouTube. For example, she made these cute chord charts to help her students recognize and learn the music chords easily.
A good teacher is one who is passionate and one who never stops learning. Her passion is to keep trying new methods that suits the children's learning way.
Here is another poster that is on her page. It says Piano not only grooms musical skills but more. It extends attention span, physical abilities and musical expression. If you wish to let your autistic child learn instruments but have no idea how or where to start, she can be reached on FB.
Here are some expert tips from this driven piano teacher:
"If parents wish to guide their kids at home to learn piano, it is not hard but the attention span is the most challenging issue. Just be direct and show them how to play the tunes. They don't necessarily have to recognize the ABCDE keys on the piano. Allow them to play the tunes by visual imitation or memory. That is fine because most kids will work on the sound and the keys. Once the kids have some idea on how to make sounds on the piano, they will have more confidence playing it."