Sing a Sentence, or At Least a Phrase |
| Published: April 25, 2008, 2:36 pm |
| Tags: language, music, neuroscience, aphasia, asd, asperger, autism, barney, dvd, goodnight moon, pdd nos, sentence, speech, stroke, talking, teletubbies, wiggles |
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It’s been noted that some autistic children can sing before they can talk. My son Charlie was taught to say sounds and then words starting from when he was three and, while he’s always hummed and responded to music, it was a few more years before he started to sing short melodies and bits of tunes. Today, he tends to speak in phrases of a two to five words, often without verbs and other connecting words. He does add these in if we prompt him. In the past year, we’ve noted that Charlie can sing longer phrases and sentences than he speaks with. He can sings back a song minutes after hearing it on the radio, and sometimes keeps singing it for the rest of the day. (And Charlie has learned to read music with more ease than words.) An article in the April 22nd New York Times about melodic intonation therapy suggests why singing might lead to talking. In melodic intonation therapy, patients with aphasia are taught to speak again through singing and hand-tapping: In a [ Full article ] |
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