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A gem from Tivo
We've got our Tivo setup to record anything about autism/autistic and while usually this ends up recording a goofy movie or some incredibly boring PBS show, it gave us a real gem this week. The show is named Musical Savants (Discovery Health Channel) and features 2 blind boys with severe learning disabilities who are musical savants.
Their lives have little to do with the autism we experience on a daily basis, but they are absolutely fascinating. One simiilarity I did see was how the younger boy covered his ears when he heard too much or heard unfamiliar sounds, even new music. However, when 'his' music was playing he never had to cover his ears.
Grant (our 7 year old) puts his fingers behind his ears to block out the sounds, or is to change the sounds? Maybe someday we'll find out, but he can't explain it to us yet. Sometimes it's obvious what the noise is, but more often than not, it's some mystery known only to Grant.
Back to the show... it was mesmerizing to watch these boys' abilities at the piano. At one point, they had the older boy working with a small orchestra. Each instrument was playing a part of a different chord (15-20 different notes). The boy was able to hear all of the sounds at once and play them back on the piano. Since he clearly can't play more than 10 notes at once, he played them as an arpeggio.
If you have a chance to catch the show, it's worth your hour (or if you have Tivo, worth your 40 minutes). It's a great glimpse into the incredible complexity of the human mind.
1 comment:
The show sounds really interesting. I'll have to watch for it both as a musician and the mom of an autistic child. Little frog puts his fingers in and around his ears too. We noticed a distinction between covering his ears, which he will do when there are too many voices or too much talking, and putting his fingers in his ears, which he tends to do when he is really enjoying himself. My first theory was he was giving himself more proprioceptive input to allow him to be more "here" for what he was enjoying. We've recently started a HANDLE program which includes an excersice called "chocolate ears" which is a variation on a cranio-sacral therapy proceedure that releasees tension in the connective fascia in the cranium including the vestibular system. I wonder if the kids figured this out on their own.
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