"To have autism is like having a short in a computer. I know what I want to do, but my body gets confused and it does not correctly carry out the order my brain sends it. I take in information, but my body scrambles the output" (Young, 2011, p. 164).
There is much research around the social and communication challenges that people with Autism face, but movement differences also present challenges. Motor planning impacts on speech, play and social interaction, and interaction with the environment. The music element of rhythm can help children to prime and prepare for movement and to continue to move. Rhythm provides temporal information to the brain about time and helps children organise movement. Auditory Rhythmic cueing is used to organise movement.
Auditory Perception and the ability to synchronise a beat are connected with the language development of young children (Williams, 2018). Children who can adapt and synchronise to a beat are developing skills of self regulation.
Children with better beat synchronization skills at 3-4-years-old show more stable speech processing patterns in the brain than those with poorer beat synchronization. (Woodruff Carr et al. 2016).
Music and movement are familiar tools for early childhood educators. Auditory perception can be linked to other music elements such as pitch and timbre, dynamics and tempo. Stopping and starting are also very important concepts linked with sound and no sound.
Supported music lessons may reduce the challenge of fine motor planning and attention. A music therapist will work towards a regulated child before commencing a learning event. The concept of "the musicians advantage" is a body of evidence supporting the non-musical skills that can be developed through formal music instruction.
When trained musicians are compared to non-musicians, they consistently show enhanced skills in a range of non-musical areas including language, cognition, and motor control, along with enhanced neural plasticity and structural brain development (Hyde et al. 2009; Lui et al. 2012).
There is much research around the social and communication challenges that people with Autism face, but movement differences also present challenges. Motor planning impacts on speech, play and social interaction, and interaction with the environment. The music element of rhythm can help children to prime and prepare for movement and to continue to move. Rhythm provides temporal information to the brain about time and helps children organise movement. Auditory Rhythmic cueing is used to organise movement.
Auditory Perception and the ability to synchronise a beat are connected with the language development of young children (Williams, 2018). Children who can adapt and synchronise to a beat are developing skills of self regulation.
Children with better beat synchronization skills at 3-4-years-old show more stable speech processing patterns in the brain than those with poorer beat synchronization. (Woodruff Carr et al. 2016).
Music and movement are familiar tools for early childhood educators. Auditory perception can be linked to other music elements such as pitch and timbre, dynamics and tempo. Stopping and starting are also very important concepts linked with sound and no sound.
Supported music lessons may reduce the challenge of fine motor planning and attention. A music therapist will work towards a regulated child before commencing a learning event. The concept of "the musicians advantage" is a body of evidence supporting the non-musical skills that can be developed through formal music instruction.
When trained musicians are compared to non-musicians, they consistently show enhanced skills in a range of non-musical areas including language, cognition, and motor control, along with enhanced neural plasticity and structural brain development (Hyde et al. 2009; Lui et al. 2012).
Rhythm and Movement for Self Regulation
RAMSR is an evidence based course for developing regulation in children between the ages of 2 and 8 years. This is a short course available through QUT.