In my own life, both of my girls have been in the Early Childhood Music program. And although neither of them have any language delays or special needs, I have seen their language skills sky rocket and I believe it is a result of Early Childhood Music. We know that music helps language skills, I learned all about that in graduate school. So it stands to reason that music would help autism as well.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book and check out the ECM website for more information!
Here is the complete Link to the ECM website: http://www.
The link to purchase the book and get more information on the book is at: http://www.musichelpsautism.
“Music Helps Autism”
By Denie Riggs
Founding Director,
Early Childhood Music®
April is Autism Awareness
Month. At this time last year (2012),
I purposely watched news broadcasts as they featured autism therapies of various
types. I may have missed something, but
neither I nor my staff heard anyone feature the power of music against autism, yet
we have testimonies and music research behind us, proving that music helps
autism! I realized that I needed
to share the incredible successes that we have experienced with our non-traditional
approach to music.
It’s taken me a year, but we have
just released the book, Music Helps
Autism, in time for Autism Awareness Month 2013.
Thank you for letting me share a little information with you.
I am a traditionally trained
piano teacher who in 1998 began writing a non-traditional approach to piano for
preschool children called Early Childhood
Music®~ Give Them the Best Start (ECM).
This approach to music has been incredibly successful, measured by the successes
of our students and of our schools. Serving
under the corporate umbrella of Perfect
Praise, Inc., we currently operate an ECM school in Huntsville, Alabama,
where we weekly teach hundreds of students, while our preschool curriculum is being
taught by licensed curriculum schools internationally.
The Research
When preschool children actively
engage in music, especially at the piano, their brains wire differently, creating
enhanced brain function for the rest of
their life! That enhanced brain
function enables accelerated academics, and so much more, with both musical and
non-musical benefits.
Our Academic Tracking Record
Music contains incredible
power. The benefits of participation
with music are strong, and the younger the children become engaged in it, the
better for their development.
In 2004, we began tracking the
academics of our 7- and 8-year-old Early
Childhood Music® graduates.
Since that time, almost every child who begins
early and continues to graduate, receives straight A’s in school at the time of
their graduation.
Typically our graduates are in second grade, with
most reading at fourth-, fifth- and sometimes sixth-grade levels at the time of
their graduation. Our graduates are leaders in their schools, sports teams and churches.
These children are confident performing in front of their peers and on stage.
Our students take these academic and leadership qualities out of our music classrooms, becoming amazing citizens in every aspect of their lives.
The non-traditional approach of our ECM curriculum that
works amazingly with preschoolers … works wonders for children with autism and
other special needs. Many of our ECM
graduates with autism have the same incredible characteristics listed above!
Our Special Needs Department
Working closely with an autism
specialist in our city, in February 2009, we expanded our Early Childhood
Music® program to include Music4Me,
a department designed especially for children with special needs. We have witnessed incredible success. Children’s lives are being changed by the
power of active participation music with the benefits being both musical and
non-musical. Many Music4Me parents share their testimonies in
the Share Their Story! segments in our
Music Helps Autism book.
Language Barriers and Music
The dismaying autism statistic
indicates that 40% of children with autism do not speak.
We have had several children enroll
in our Music4Me classes who were non-verbal. Music’s power was engaged and in most cases, the
children quickly began singing along
to the songs, and then broke through into language. Of all of the benefits received by our
students, this one is probably the most exciting to me personally. This one
ability changes their life forever!
For example, the very first student
who enrolled for our Music4Me classes
was non-verbal. Here is her Share Their Story! testimony from our book.
(Her name has been omitted for privacy.)
“A 3-year-old girl, diagnosed with autism developmental delay mainly
with language, enrolled in our Music4Me program.
She fell in love with our Rhymes and Rhythms CD and wanted to hear it
all the time. Her parents purchased
additional CD’s and played them in the car, in the house and everywhere she spent
her day. Within a few weeks, she
broke through verbally by singing along with the CD. Then her language development progressed very
quickly. By the end of the spring (3
months later), her preschool teacher said
that she had almost caught up with her peers in her language development”.
Here’s another Share Their Story! testimony shared by a
grandfather, who says ‘he almost wrecked his car’ when his non-verbal grandson
started singing “The Goodbye Song” as
they headed home after music class!
“I just wanted to tell you how excited we are that we enrolled our
3-year-old grandson in Early Childhood Music®. He suffers from Apraxia of Speech. In fact, when we started the program about
six weeks ago, he was not speaking any complete words at all. Suddenly, we noticed a change. On the way home from his class, he began to sing—not
perfectly, but close enough that I noticed he was singing ‘Goodbye, goodbye;
it’s time to sing goodbye.’
He has gotten much better since joining the (music) class. I was so proud of him. He loves to play around on our piano at
home. He even gets out the sheet music
we have and points to the notes. But
most of all, we are so appreciative that he has started to use more and more
words.”
Music has incredible power over
our brains, our bodies and our spirits. Active
participation with music is fun, it’s inexpensive and it was created by God to
enhance our lives … so it works!
You Can Help
Our book, Music Helps Autism, establishes Four Levels of Musical
Participation. I share the scientific music research behind each level and then
offer specific practical application for each developmental age from bouncing
babies up.
Although, principally written for
caregivers, I have included an Appendix
for Teachers. This chapter shares
how to bring our non-traditional approach elements and curriculum into music and
piano studios, into autism and language centers, into preschools and day cares,
and for use by other interested professionals.
It would be easy for a
professional to offer the first three levels in your home or office
environment. Then, Perfect Praise, Inc. is developing on-line tools to offer Level 4,
Piano Therapy, with on-demand internet classes.
We are seeking individuals who will
catch the vision of the power of music to work with us internationally. With the right approach, music can change the
lives of children with autism in your sphere.
Our goal is that every child, no matter where they live, be given the
opportunity to be changed by the power of music.
Changing lives; how wonderful for
them … and wonderfully rewarding for you.
About the Author:
FaceBook: Music.Helps.Autism and
Denie.Riggs
Websites: MusicHelpsAutism.com
and EarlyChildhoodMusic.net
Book: Available on
Amazon.com and will be released in readers late April
