Piano teacher needs help with enquiry from parent - child has dyspraxia

[twentypence]

Music teacher at a primary school I teach piano at asked me about lessons for a child with Aspergers. I said fine - pass on my number.

The mum left me an answerphone message in which she said her dd has dyspraxia.

I wondered if anyone had any thoughts or experience of piano for a child with dyspraxia.

my son has dyspraxia and is learning to play the piano. Sorry I can't give you the teacher's perspective, but he is really enjoying it. I think the biggest problem she has, is not his ability to move/coordinate his fingers but his ability to sit still and concentrate for a period of time. In my ds's case he has issues with concentration, fidgetting etc. He has pretty poor handwriting, but he seems to be doing really well at piano. The other advantage (at least in his case) is that he gets extremely enthusiastic about things and is very demonstrative - I think this means that he gets really involved with the lessons, and the teacher finds it really enjoyable to teach him.

Depeds on how the child is affected. ds2 has dyspraxia but is a whizz at computer games so his hand-eye thing for that is fine. Yet he can't catch balls or ride bicycles.
You'd have to assess on the spot I would think. I'm having keyboard lessons and have multiple sclerosis. We just have to take it slower and know my fingers sometimes do their own thing. Also doing keyboard so left hand can just do chords and nothing complicated! ds1 is learning piano and plays peices where the melody switches hands back and forth. I'd never be able to do that as my left hand is much worse.

ds2 has dyspraxia and learnt the piano for a while. I think it is seen as a good - well in our case was - to help build up strength in the hands.

He quite liked it, but it was hard for him tbh, and in the end he decided to have singing lessons instead because really we needed to find something he liked and was successful at, because we have to practice so MANY other things, that the piano really wasn't one of them!

Key features - get them sitting straight at the piano, you may need to prompt the child to sit in middle of piano stool with feet hanging down. Playing both hands at once can be tricky, certainly worth concentrating on one hand at a time, and then using both. DS2 has a good sense of rhythm and this is helpful but finds it difficult to use both sides of his body at the same time - AND to sit straight in the middle of a chair too!

Break down your instructions and suggestions into small, bite size chunks. Then repeat. Don't overload with information. And don't think because he doesn't do what you asked, that they don't understand what you said - they do understand, but sometimes it's hard to sequence things properly and to ACT on the information which they understand intellectually.

Talk a lot - I mean verbalize things as well as demonstrate them - my ds2 finds this very helpful.

she may have AS and dyspraxia? They often go together - in which case other advice will be important too!

That's great thanks.

We were recommended the piano by Ed Psych for DS2 with Dyspraxia - I don't think his progress is particularly fast (poor concentration span as much as motor skills) but it has undoubtedly helped him a lot with muscle tone and co-ordination.