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I do not discriminate against students with disabilities, and I have taught a few students who were autistic. Two of them were mild, so their lessons went normally without much modification on my part.

I had a third student who was more challenging, and he also had impaired fine-motor skills to make things more complicated. He liked music, and I enjoyed working with him. But his parents ultimately pulled the plug on his piano lessons because he's not making much progress. He has a ridiculously brilliant younger brother who's really good at piano, so the parents just poured all of their time and energy that direction.

It is actually more rewarding to teach these students with challenges. It certainly beats the "expensive babysitting" jobs I have, week after week, with spoiled, rich kids who were forced to take piano lessons.

Jennysb, you ask a big question - with so many learning disorders, and seem to want a generalist answer. In short, I'd say the same as Saranoya - do your research and find out what makes them tick. Some dyslexics students read better through a screen than the printed page, others need to wear tinted glasses and some prefer to have things printed on blue paper (there are so many different kinds of dyslexia, so your best bet is to adjust according to the students' needs).

ADHD (incidentally ADD no longer exists in the current DSM)also depends on the student - people seem to think that it always involves a talkative, hyperactive child who bounces around the room, but it really is more about the way that child (or adult) might process things. In my experience, students with ADHD respond well to routine - I find that having a checklist of activities in the lesson works. Another thing that works is breaking up the lesson and involving the student with variety of activities so that they don't need to sit still for the whole time.

The thing is, I have found that these tried and tested techniques are not exclusive or helpful with students who might have learning disorders - they work really well with students who don't have such disorders - so it goes to show, we are teaching individuals with different needs!

Great discussion on this thread, and much broader than Jenny probably intended.

As it happens, I just came back from a Texas piano teacher congress, where one of the sessions was a part of this very issue - teaching studio piano to an autistic child.

One of the speakers was the mother of a now 25yo son with Asberger's Syndrome. The challenges in raising him were enormous. Another was a piano pedagogy professor who deals with disabled learners. Actually the two of them gave much the same talk a year earlier in Los Angeles at the MTNA convention.

I think this is a grass-roots movement among piano teachers, accepting such students in our studios. The high-powered teachers of young competitive pianists likely won't bother with such marginal learners, but some of us find them interesting and equally worthy of our time.

Thank you all for your varied insight! I have enjoyed hearing from each of you. As has been noted, this topic took off in a direction other than I intended! But everything has been very helpful.

My goal in looking into this was simply because I was asked to teach this dyslexic kid. And then I started thinking of my good friend with a daughter with Downs. Being new to this forum, and fairly new to teaching, I thought, "what if I could pass on the JOY of making music to these special people, and in so doing find a niche in this world of piano teaching?"

Don't you think that these precious ones would gain so much more in life for love of music and the wonder of accomplishment? I don't want to be idealistic, some will never be able to learn, but that's true in the whole spectrum of humanity.

I'm willing to try. I plan to research a bunch this summer and go from there. I'm not sure if I will charge more or not. I never thought about it until you all brought it up. Not to say I agree or disagree. My initial inclination is to keep a flat rate until I really know what it takes. My husband may have other ideas, too.

Thank you for sharing from your experiences and giving your opinions, it has been helpful!

Can I resurrect this thread?

I am going to be teaching an autistic girl starting tomorrow. I do have some experience with autism since I work as a SLPA as well, but of course every individual is different.

Experiences, anyone?

How old is she? Can you find out from her mom or dad what subjects in school she's really good at, and what she struggles with?

Each person with autism is so different, but there are a few things to keep in mind that will help:

- Be patient. It may take a bit longer to switch gears in the lesson. I have a high school student who is highly functioning, and sometimes I will instruct her on what to do, then ask her to play. She needs to shuffle around for a bit before getting going, so I just wait until she's ready.

- Have a structure, and try to appeal to her learning style. I think some autistic kids have more trouble than others with learning from a different style than what they are inclined to. Not impossible, but it's harder for them. Sometimes it can't be avoided.

- A lot depends on where on the spectrum she is. It may be good to have the parent in the room for the lessons so that they can see what you're teaching her, and help her with practicing at home.

- Be sensitive and observe. I'm sure you do this anyway, so really it's not very different. You can see what works and what doesn't right away, and just make a note to use that or not the next time.

While we are resurrecting old threads...


That "ridiculously brilliant" piano student has blossomed into quite a musician. I guess my foresight is 20/20.

haha.


Thanks Morodiene for your response. She is 5. Turns out she's not very verbal.. maybe barely. From my first lesson she seems like a visual learner. It was hard getting her to find black keys and white keys.. mom had to help. Not sure if it was a color thing or a not wanting to listen to me thing. She kept pushing my hands off the keyboard when I was improvising with her. I tried to have her clap back rhythms to me, which didn't work very well. She did take to putting playdough on middle C and playing it, so I'll need to think of ways to incorporate more playdough in our lessons...

I may have turned to the dark side, but I'm also considering using Synthesia with her, if only to teach her the keyboard layout and get her familiar with rhythm because she wasn't able to play with me in rhythm, teach her long notes and short notes. I just downloaded the app and it shows at least that much. Kinda cool, really :P

Someone else also suggested I try teaching rhythm with play-dough like this, forming rhythm blocks
http://www.susanparadis.com/wp_susan/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Rhythm-Blocks.pdf

Mom said she's not into coloring but likes waterpaints.. hm.. not sure I want to do that.. it'll be super messy.

I also found some materials called I Can Do It! Piano Book, that are made for special needs kids, but I can't find a ton of information on them. Is anyone familiar with those? http://www.kapokpress.com/

Maybe you could send her home with a worksheet to watercolor. (Ech--little kids and watercolors! My daughter loved watercolors and she even named many of her creations "the green witch melting")

I am way better at working with special needs kids than I am at playing piano and I am always pleased to offer input--either on the forum or via PM.

When you say "she is not very verbal" it is important to remember that her receptive language (what she understands) may be greater than her expressive language (what she says) or it may not.

If she's not attending to black/white keys, you might try calling them little/big or short/long or by providing a visual to support your words (pictures of black keys and white keys) Point out that black keys are all the same shape and white keys are not all exactly the same shape.

Maybe her watercolor worksheet homework is a line drawing of a keyboard. How she paints it could be useful feedback about her perception of the keyboard. If the entire keyboard and the whole paper becomes 'the green witch melting' she may be at a different level than if she paints only the black keys.

https://www.xkcd.com/222/

There is a triad to the autism spectrum that includes the difficulty with social awareness, an unusual sensory input processing, and difficulty with executive function.

If you've met one person with autism, you've... met one person with autism.

Yes, they each have their unique quirks, but they do relate to the specific areas TimR mentioned. Just how one deals with them will vary.

I'm guessing that this girl understands colors very well, so something like piano - which is devoid of colors - might be a bit more difficult. What if instead of playdough, which is messy, you took colored sticky tabs and placed them on the keys. They won't leave a residue, and you can get a variety of bright colors, one for each key. Then perhaps start by calling out the color names and having her play the corresponding note. I'd limit myself to the C major 5-finger keys.

Once she can find them easily and quickly, then maybe shift the same colors to a higher C major position or lower, and repeat. Point out where "blue" happens to be in relation to the black keys, and "red", etc. Then see if she can find where another "blue" might be on the keyboard.

I'd probably hold off on finger numbers for a bit until she can get this orientation down. It may be a case where you color in the notes on the sheet music with the colors that correspond on the keys, and have the parents take home these same colors to use for practice. I wouldn't work with one method book, but rather draw from several since you'll probably be parked in this for a little while.

Once she can work without the colors (or if she can't work without colors but is very good at it), then introduce finger numbers. Hopefully by that point you will understand another facet of her learning style that will help aside from colors.

This may be a start for you, though.

Heather-- yes it does seem to be that way a little bit..

On the contrary, I just talked to a lady who teaches a lot of autistic students, and she has found that 75% of her students have absolute pitch! And the ones they don't, are the ones she suspects are misdiagnosed. Very interesting really. Aside from interesting though, not sure how I would use that strength to teach.

I'll see how she does with colors , thanks Morodiene.

Thanks for your input! I'll see if she responds better to "long" and "short" for the black and white keys. I talked to another teacher who teaches special needs children piano, and she says she doesn't teach them fingering because they get it confused with counting. Fingering is often the very first thing that I teach to children, after how to sit at the piano, so I'm not sure where to go from here.