This book reads like a textbook in the format and detail specific to each topic covered. I'm still studying it and have already been enlightened and encouraged in our choice to provide piano lessons for our daughter. We don't have experience with learning disabilities, but our daughter is beginning to understand the correlation between practice, perseverance, and success. I look forward to incorporating the strategies I learn from this author!
(Thank you to Book Blasts & Blog Tours for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review)
Chapter
Excerpts
**Chapter
One: Overture: The Power of Music (page 5)
“In February 1985, as many as three thousand
beluga whales were trapped under ice in the Senyavina Strait of Siberia, a
narrow body of water across the Bering Strait from Alaska. There were only a
few breathing holes in the ice, and the whales had to take turns surfacing for
air. Food was running out, the whales were becoming exhausted, and some were
even dying. When all seemed hopeless, a Soviet icebreaker, the Moskva, came to the rescue. The ship
broke through the ice, making an escape path for the whales, but they wouldn’t
budge. Knowing that whales like music, they tried pop and jazz, but still the
whales remained motionless. Finally, the crew tried classical music. It was
then that the whales followed the music to the open sea and to freedom.”
**Chapter
Six: Noteworthy: Learning Values Through Music (pages 121-122)
Gaining
Perseverance and Determination
We
live in an age of instants: instant photocopies, instant food, instant photos,
instant communications of all sorts, and more. Although many of these instants
make our lives easier, they can also give our children a distorted view of life
and how goals are achieved. Many children grow up expecting instant results in
life, never learning to work for or wait for a reward. When things don’t come
easily or immediately, they give up. For this reason, studying a musical
instrument becomes a priceless lesson. As a child begins to learn to play the
flute, for example, she soon realizes that this is not going to be done in an
“instant.” It will take time, patience, perseverance, determination, and the
ability to stick to the task, day after day, year after year, to play the flute
with any degree of proficiency. Learning to read notes, to develop hand-eye
coordination, to listen, and to count rhythms is a process involving
perseverance. As she works through the difficulties and challenges of learning
an instrument, she soon learns that determination and perseverance equal
success. Likewise, the perseverance a child learns by practicing her instrument
can be, as the experience of many demonstrate, transferred to other areas of
her life. For instance, when subjects in school are difficult, she will
continue to try her best until the assignment is completed, confident that
eventually she will be successful. When life throws her a curve she will not give
up, but will work harder with even greater diligence and perseverance until she
reaches her goal.
Although most of the great composers suffered personal adversity, they
persevered and went on to write beautiful sonatas, symphonies, and operas.
Beethoven, despite his progressive deafness at an early age, wrote perhaps his
greatest music after going completely deaf. Bach suffered blindness and
diabetes, yet continued to compose music. George Frideric Handel suffered a
debilitating stroke that put him in a rest home. The world felt that a great
life had come to a close. With dogged persistence, he shuffled his way to the
organ each night after everyone had gone to bed, forcing his fingers to slowly
play each key on the organ. The nuns who heard him were amazed at his unfailing
courage and determination. Eventually, he made a complete recovery and went on
to write many great pieces of music.
**Chapter Eight:
Music’s Impact on Cognitive Delays and Physical Disabilities (pages 205-208)
For
the past thirty years, I have had a particular interest in music’s impact on
children with learning disabilities because of personal experience. In 1982 our
third son, Brandon, was born. It was a traumatic birth. Born six weeks early,
Brandon was too high in the birth canal, and as a result he was literally
dragged out by forceps. He was an unhappy baby and cried all the time. He had
constant ear infections that included a build-up of fluid in his ears, and
despite being on daily doses of low-grade antibiotics, the infections
persisted. Over time, this constant fluid buildup affected his hearing at a
critical time in his development and caused him to experience sounds and
language as if he was in a vacuum. I was reading to him daily, playing music
for him, and taking him to “mommy and me” classes, yet his language and
communication skills remained poor. After having him tested by a professional,
we determined Brandon needed speech and language intervention. I naively
thought once his language problem was fixed, everything would be fine. I was
wrong—this was just the beginning.
When Brandon was six, his kindergarten
teacher expressed concerned about his ability to learn. He was not able to do
the classroom work and seemed frustrated and distant. We had him tested both at
our public school and privately by a child psychologist. The results were grim.
Brandon was diagnosed with auditory processing, visual motor, visual
perception, sensory motor, and attention deficit disorder. The difference
between his oral IQ and written IQ was thirty-eight points, indicating severe
learning disabilities.
This
team of experts told us that school would be very difficult for him. We were
told that he may not graduate from high school, that college was out of the
question, and that a trade school would be more appropriate. They said Brandon
was “high risk,” meaning that as he got older, he could be a candidate for
dropping out of school, experimenting with drugs, or worse. Why? Because kids
need a measure of academic success. He needed to experience some kind of school
success to increase his confidence level. But how do you help a child achieve
academic success when he can’t read, write or spell? When he does not
understand even the simplest of math concepts? When he has difficulty paying attention
and following directions, and sports confuse and frustrate him?
It
was a daunting challenge, and in the beginning I was overwhelmed. I did not
know the first thing about learning disabilities, but I was determined to find
out and to help him because I wanted Brandon to love learning—not just for
success in school, but for a rich and meaningful life….
