If your child is on the autistic spectrum, can you tell me their experience with music?

[Lovebumps]

Hello

I am currently writing an assignment on music and autism and things to consider when holding a music session.

I would really appreciate to hear if your child enjoys music, their age and if they have access to music, do they attend music classes, do they play, do they sing, do they go to group music sessions or are they one on one?

What do you think should happen to make your child willing to particpate in a session. Do you think having a visual schdedule of the class would help, them knowing the songs or practicing before singing in a group, have visual supprts like photos or objects.

What about noise levels and instruments?

Thank you for your help.

rushed typing, excuse mistakes

ds1's 11yo and ASD. He has been brought up in a musical household, dh and I met through orchestral playing. He adores classical concerts, has been attending them since he was 4, and plays violin at a fairly basic level using suzuki method.
IMHO (from working in asd services for most of my career) group sessions are a totally different kettle of fish. You need to be clear whether you want to use them for stimulation or relaxation (and be very clear that you separate the two) and take account of the sensory input you are planning to deliver and how you are going to control the other environmental sensory information which would very easily overload many children with asd. The traditional sessions billed (often inaccurately) as "music therapy" often involve a lot of uncontrolled and unmanaged auditory overload and it's something I personally feel quite strongly about.
That said, you could do lots of research about auditory processing and control all the visuals and movement, and still be no wiser.
The best session I ever saw was by a music specialist who had, like myself, 18 years as an asd specialist. She used African drums, tamba, and no rattly stuff like triangles or tambourines. she modelled a lot of the session, and encouraged the group of 8 children (teens, all classical autism) to replicate the short rhythm. Following this, she worked on a group expression but they were well used to the way she worked and could respond with excellent control. She chose themes for each block of a few weeks, like the weather, walking, "saying goodbye" - that was a fantastic one using the desperately needed area of social skills and something finishing, and they waved a goodbye in the 'rests'. Awesome if done right. Absoulute hell if not.

ds is 5 and has aspergers. He loves music but only on his own terms. He hums and sings all day and can reproduce tunes he's only heard once really easily. But he hates music lessons at school and insists on having the volume really low on his own cd's. I think he would enjoy learning an instrument but suspect it will only be successful if it is on a one to one basis.

Really intense. At the moment he's obsessed with music, it's all we do, all we talk about, only recorded music, dance music mostly. He's never been able to bear music as background, so when he used to like music in the car we'd have to turn it off if anyone was also eating a packet of crisps, for example.
Some music he's very scared of, weird flat chords, if that makes sense, atonal kind of stuff?
Used to burst into tears as a baby when he heard church bells. We've had years where he can't bear to hear music at all. He's 13, pretty hf now.

my ds is 9 and has ASD, again he loves music but very much as a solo event. He hums and dodo dahs (thats what we call it no words just sounds) all day long. He also loves his own music but we had to buy him headphones as he listens to the same song over and over and it drove us nuts. I think in a room full of others with instuments it would become a sound overload and he would like it one bit. He always tells me to stop singing and hates anyone else trying to.

Interesting question; I have an 8yo DS on the spectrum. I would say he is hypersensitive to music (well, anything he hears).
The music in shopping centres,for instance would often (as a baby, it would always) overstimulate him and he becomes hyper. I have to be very careful where I go to church- olde worlde organ music will either make him very angry or very sad. At a family funeral he was devastated by the music before the service.
He has been to group drumming sessions- as Mrs Shrek describes- it was a nightmare- he tipped over. Became very disruptive and was thrown out (I told them in advance grrrrrrr).
Saying all that he has responded well to Therapeutic Listening- Baroque worked especially well. He attends guitar lessons and loves it.

To answer your question:- if I was to bring him to music sessions, I would need to know that it was a small group size, that the teacher was aware of sensory overload and how that presents; what to do about it. I feel that simple rhythms and melodic phrases would be easier for him to understand and that he may need to spend longer at that stage that NT children. Listening to short bursts of more complex music (early Mozart? baroque?) and discussing the message to practice social skills.

I could have written your post, monstermissy! My DS2 (8) has asperger's. Loves music, picks up tunes very quickly but probably wouldn't participate in a group, although he'd enjoy the music and doesn't mind it loud. He's not keen on having lessons as he just enjoys tinkering about and when he asks questions about musical notes etc, DH helps him. He absolutely hates it when anyone sings along to a song on the radio - he wants to just enjoy it but doesn't get how everyone else can't help but join in!

My DS (11) ASD sings all the time - he can hold a tune and repeat back very well. He did at one point attend group keyboard lessons but found when everyone was practicing the noise and bum notes caused sensory overload and he couldn't cope with it - we are currently on a waiting list for one to one lessons.
His school has had lots of African drumming lessons. He has not managed to attend. He says the sound goes right through him and he can feel it in his stomach and chest. He used ear plugs and ear defenders and was in a ball in the corner after a minute unable to cope.

This year a lot of their lessons are on a computer where they wear individual headphones. This is proving to be a great success.

Singing lessons are also difficult - sensory overload problems again when learning - partly the volume , but more the repetitiveness and his issues when other people are out of time or singing the wrong notes ( note different if it is him at fault!!!). Shame really he has a great singing voice. - Also the choice of songs is not the sort of thing he likes so he pays less attention. - One of the most successful lessons was apparently by a supply teacher who taught them an Abba song. He came home having remembered all of the words and gave a fault free rendition. His TA said she had never really heard him sing and was surprised how good his singing voice was.

Looking at the replies so far - I would say you would have issues with sensory overload, but it seems that different children react differently to different instruments.