Another annual review, another year gone by

[silverfrog]

and dd1 is still making fantastic progress

once again we had no LA representation (long may that last), and spent the hour purposefully discussing dd1's strengths and weaknesses.

her progress continues steadily. she works hard constantly.

we are very proud - it is almost the equivalent (if there wans't the 'waiting for the updated statement' aspect) of a Very Good Parent's Evening

[silverfrog]

Yes, it does add another date to look forward to/dread!

We quite enjoy ours, but then we have never had a review with anyone from the LA present, no reassessments, nothing. They seem to just leave us alone, thankfully.

It's nice to sit and thoroughly go through all dd1s progress, although we do have a meeting each term to do this anyway. Good to see all the gains in graphs/VB MAPP scores etc though.

[IndigoBelle]

Great to hear how well DD's doing.

How's the little one?

[StarOfLightMcKings3]

Let's celebrate over coffee in the new year silver!?

[devilishmangerdanger]

That's great silver (devient's xmas NC) may I join you in the celebrations with Pipin, could do with some fun

[silverfrog]

thanks everyone

she is doing so well, we are very proud of her. she is working at level 1a/2c for literacy and numeracy, which is brilliant.

we are still trying to work out how best to progress with more music tuition for her - as some of you will have seen from the recent video I posted, she is reasonably talented and so we would like to explore this further.

Indigo - nice to see you back . ds doing well, and charming everyone on both school runs. recent(ish) picture on my profile.

would love to join you all with the champers, but I can't drink while feeding - even the smell of it gives me a hangover , so you'll all have to live it up on my account too.

Star - definitely need to have that coffee. will be heading your way next week sometime (as is my last week before dd2 breaks up) so could pop in if you are about?

[lingle]

"we are still trying to work out how best to progress with more music tuition for her - as some of you will have seen from the recent video I posted, she is reasonably talented and so we would like to explore this further."

how old is she now silverfrog?

iirr you said that she needs to build up trust with a music teacher before any progress can be made?

[silverfrog]

she's 8.

it's less about trust, more that she needs to 'gel' with someone (if not at school/ABA) before she will work with them

her biggest problem is her language disorder - trying to explain stuff to someone who doesn't understand is tricky, as you know.

she can pick up (and retain) single line melodies on a keyboard quite easily. and she sings (boy does she sing!), and will eg harmonise with a song playing on her iPad, or transpose pitch/key to suit her voice, or even sometimes to suit her mood/play around with the sound and effect.

[lingle]

would she do call and response with you Silverfrog?

I am teaching "Rudolph" in ensemble this year. You sing "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer". They play "had a very shiny nose". You sing "And if you ever saw it". They play "you would even say it glowed".

This exercise presses all the musicianship buttons for the 4-10 age group and DS2 and I did an awful lot of call and response when he was non-verbal.

Basically what I'm thinking here is to try to adjust what you and the other trusted adults are doing musically in order to increase the range and depth of musical responses. A sort of musical equivalent of Hanen.

[lingle]

when I watched the Adele video, she seemed to have a very complete version of the song in her head. I think they call that audiation - the core skill. I suspect that many kids with ASD struggle because they have superior audiation and "hear too much" so the compromises that less-skilled people around them are making sound wrong/painful/not something you can join in with.

[silverfrog]

interesting, lingle.

she used to not be able to tolerate anyone else singing with her - probably due to over-accuracy on her part, athough could also be down to wonky sensory issues - if she sings she can't hear/hears she can't sng, iyswim, as she is happy to listen to imperfections in singing when she is trying to learn a song. she is currently back in a phase where it is ok to sing along with her, and she enjoys singing together after school.

we did do a lot of call/response both with singing and storytelling when she was younger, but not singing/playing call/response. that is certainly something to think about.

she is intrigued by the voices on her ipad, and asks me who they are, where they are now/what they are doing.

she will pick out songs on the radio too and sing along (one of her earliest vocalisations was 'beeee beee ceeeee raaaaaaadiooooooo twooooooo' ) - it can be surprising to hear what she sings along to having heard it on the radio, and she has started requesting songs for her ipad when she hears them in the car.

she knows the note names, and can place/find them on a keyboard. she struggles with two hands/chords due to motor skills deficits, btu we are going to be working on that next (probably just a root note for left hand, rather than a chord)

mostly I just wish I could easily help her fulfil whatever potential she has with this - we have a houseful of musical instruments and music, and dd2 is learning cello currently, with choral work about to follow - I just happened across my mum's old school recorder books when I was 6 or so and taught myself to read music etc etc - wish it could be so simple for dd1 too.

[lingle]

Do you feel note names are important here? I take it you aren't introducing standard notation?

I have an issue with both note names and standard notation - they move away from music as a language into English as a language. They require the child to absorb steps that aren't logical (the gap between E and F is only half the size of the gap between F and G but you need outside knowledge to accomodate that - there is nothing in the note names or the notation to show you that).

Of course some children take to them smoothly but there are reasons - good reasons I think - why standard notation is not on the national curriculum until age 11.

I'm just wondering whether more aural methods might be preferable here.