Music and Movement In the Home - Do Your Children Have an Advantage?

What are your memories regarding music and movement in your younger years? Do you remember the type of music your parents listened to around the house? Do certain songs or types of music trigger memories? There may be love songs that still remind you of the way your first girlfriend smelled, or you may have songs that are associated with negative memories in your mind. This shows how powerful early childhood music experiences can be for most people!

Since the experiences your children have today with music could continue to affect them much later in life, there are ways you can use music and movement to their advantage. You can give your children early childhood music experiences that bring back positive memories, relaxation and encouragement when they are much older.

Does My Child Have a Reading Disability?

Reading is an important first step on a child's path to success in life. A child that is an excellent reader is a confident child, has a high level of self -esteem and is able to easily make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. For many of us reading is a natural process and we can read with ease and pleasure. Unfortunately, for a child with a reading disability, the reading process can become a frustrating and negative experience and is often very difficult to master.

What is a Reading Disability?

A reading disability is an inherited condition that makes it extremely difficult to read, write, and spell despite at least an average intelligence.

How Children Grow, Learn and Protect Memories Through Music and Movement

What feelings begin to erupt in your body when you hear the sound of your favorite song on the radio? Do you hear the music and movement takes over your body? For many people, this is the natural course of action. Music hits their ears and their bodies can't help but move. They want to get up and dance or tap their foot to the beat. They may experience other emotions like sadness or a feeling of regret depending on the connection that they have to the music. This connection can be in place due to early childhood music or music that had an impact on them as adults.

What effect does music have on you? Are there certain songs that just grab your heart or make your hips svay?

Our music preferences are sometimes put in place early on in our lives. Oftentimes, parents use early childhood music to calm them to sleep or to wake them up in the mornings. Music can be a call to playtime or a winding down habit just like story time. It is very common for adults who are very passionate about music to trace the roots of their passion back to earlier years in their life. They learned to take joy in music and movement because it was valued and encouraged in their childhood environment.

How to Advocate for Your Child With Asperger Syndrome

If your child was recently diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, you will need to educate yourself about AS in order to understand how it affects him/her so that you can provide relevant information about his/her needs to the school in writing. You want to give the teacher as much information about your child as possible, in terms of how AS affects him/her, but at the same time keep the document as short as possible. That way the teacher is more likely to read ALL of it.

Here are a few points to consider including in your document:

Highlight the safety needs, both for your child and others. This will be the best way to get support for your child in the classroom (if that's what you want). Think in terms of anxiety related behaviours and meltdowns that may lead to destructive behaviour or aggressive behaviour towards others, and the potential for your son or daughter to be the target of bullies.