| Author |
Message |
    
Gabrielle
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 06:36 pm: | 
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Hi Chris,
Hows the guitar going? I am going to start practicing AGAIN.
I have a had time but I love it.
Gabby |
ME (Maryellen)
| | Posted on Friday, July 30, 2004 - 03:22 am: |
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Hi all,
For my children, musical notation was just another set of meaningless 2D symbols. They had just as much difficulty reading them as they did mathematical and alphanumeric symbols. The good news is that they were easily able to learn to read music by Symbol Mastering the notation.
As with the alphabet, once they had a meaningful 3D reference to the symbols, they could decode them without difficulty. Using the instruments they were learning to play, a metronome, a pitch pipe, a keyboard and whatever percussion instruments struck the band teacher's fancy that day...They were able to create meaningful definitions of each bit of notation. Play the sound represented by the symbol, model it in clay...Then sight read it at will going forward.
Hope that helps...
ME
Madison, WI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men...Frederick Douglass |
Tammy
| | Posted on Saturday, September 18, 2004 - 09:14 pm: |
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My son is 8 and has been struggling in school for at least a year and a half now. I held him back last year because he was having such a difficult time with spelling and reading. This year I am noticing that he cannot stay focused for even a few minutes to finish his work in class if there is the least bit of noise or distraction around him. He makes several letters and numbers backwards and has a difficult time comprehending what hes reading. I have been talking to the school for 2 years about testing him for dyslexia but they havent yet, they think hes ok. I even have an appointment to have him tested for ADD. After talking with a friend tonight and reading about the signs and symptoms about it on here I truely beleive that he is dyslexic. Any suggestions on how i can go about getting him tested? who do i go to? I orderd the book "the gift of dyslexia" tonight in hopes that it will help. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks! |
Heidi
| | Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 07:39 pm: |
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Hi Tammy,
Welcome!
If your son is in the US. then you can request in writing to have your son tested for dyslexa, and they must comply within a resonable time. You can check out the website http://www.wrightslaw.com for more info in that area.
If you see your son in the book the gift of dyslexia, then have a go at the program, or talk to a facilitator. It was the only thing that worked well with my sons - both are doing very well now and read the same things their classmates read.
Take care,
Heidi |
Kim Vincent
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - 09:17 am: |
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My 9-year old son cannot read. He is in the 3rd grade and goes to a resource class for the K-1 level during the schoolday. He has been tested by the school, even by the school psychologist. He also began having seizures in January of 2004, and is on medication for them. The school's "diagnosis" is speech impairment, significant speech delayed, learning disability, etc., but they have said he does not meet the "requirements" for testing for dyslexia. He's had the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler tests, and his scores were below normal to significantly below normal, with an overall score of 75-80 in IQ. Can you tell me if you think he might be dyslexic, or is he borderline mentally retarded? He gets very frustrated when he cannot understand a video or computer game where it requires him to read the instructions. We constantly have to show him how to get around in the game. He's a very observant child, very loving, caring, and very tender-hearted. He was late to sit up (9 months) and late to walk (16 months). He did not babble or coo very much as a baby. He did have several ear infections, and finally had tubes placed in both ears. After these were removed, he took a hearing test, and tested normal, so there are no known hearing problems. His speech, however, is very young sounding. I hope you can give me some ideas on how to get him more help. Thanks! |
Holly Boyle (Aggie)
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - 07:35 am: |
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Kim, Your son sounds like mine, late sitting, walking, delayed speech and gross and fine motor skills, sensory integration problems (which he has now grown out of - he's 12 1/2). He was held back a year in kinder, went to resource classes in public school that were AWFUL. He was put into Winston, a private school in San Antonio, Texas. This is his second year there. I loved his teachers there, but he will go to Achievers next year. They use the Davis method. I observed the class for quite a while and was extremely impressed. My son is not dyslexic. The developmental pediatrition we took him to tested him and found he has average IQ but has sequencing problems "off the chart". Davis can help him I am told. So, here we go! Don't give up! I know how hard it is. Our younger son has dysgraphia and dyscalculia. He too goes to private school. And, we live 50 miles away, one way! It's a commitment, but you do whatever you have to do for your children!
Holly |
Laurie Taylor
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2005 - 08:14 pm: |
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Aloha,
Samson and I attended the Davis Institute in SFO six years ago when Sam was in the 3rd grade.We did all the letters and words in clay and he became very proficient at being on point. He is in 9th grade now and is at 3.8 level in writing,
5.0 in reading. In music however he excells. It has been a very rough road for us. I wish your method had helped him more. Now my young son is having similiar problems. I'm hoping we can help him more than Sam. Laurie |
Rose
| | Posted on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 09:28 pm: |
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My son has a great deal of trouble with reading comprehension - but scores extremely well with "reading" - he gets frustrated and bored very easily, is distracted easily. Is extrememly bright, A/B student, excels in performing arts, sports, etc. As I was reading about the "Gift of Dyslexia" - he fits the profile. I am not sure how to approach the school with this. In Texas, there is the standard testing - and he has a hard time with it - but manages to have an A/B average all the time. For sometime now, I had thought of dyslexia - and this was the first time I actually looked any information on this subject and I was surprised. |
Barbara Creider
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 - 01:35 pm: |
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I am a Suzuki Violin teacher and wonder if Suzuki would be an excellent approach for Dyslexics. Classic Suzuki involves learning by ear and by rote for a very long time. If a teacher knows the student is dyslexic and is a sensitive and not a dogmatic teacher, I think most teachers would be willing to downplay the reading aspect.
Learning to play from written music is a fairly recent and largely Western tradition. Most musical cultures instruct through observation and imitation. That paper stuff can get in the way. Those of us who are readers of music use the written page to get the sound into our heads and then play by ear guiding on the visual cues of the page. A great deal of the information involved in playing music isnt written down anyway.
Jazz musicians often don't read music. Choral singers often don't really read music either, but fake it, singing by ear.
I would be curious to know...I had a student who was dyslexic and we battled a good bit on whether he should learn to read music. He got things quickly by ear and was a very determined practicer. I insisted he spend some time learning to read--i.e 80% by ear and 20% reading. He did succeed in reading music to some extent, but I wonder if I should have pushed so hard. I was fearful that he would not be able to find good teachers after he left me unless he could read.
People with dyslexia, what do you think? Go with the flow and teach to strengths, or try to spend some time mastering reading skills? |
Abigail (Abigail)
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 - 07:09 pm: |
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Barbara, I personally think you struck a very good balance with your student. You taught to his strengths, but at least made an attempt to teach him to read music as well. It would have been unfair to deprive him of any exposure at all to written music, simply because he is dyslexic. Whether or not he ever becomes proficient at reading music, at least he will not look back and fault you for not even trying.
At the same time, by teaching to his strengths, you enabled him to develop his musical abilities and to experience success.
While there are many areas that are difficult for dyslexics, no one wants their teachers to assume that they will fail without even giving them a chance to try. You gave your student the faith that he was capable of learning to read music, but also the understanding that it would probably be very difficult for him.
Best wishes,
Abigail Marshall, Webmaster
P.S. You might find some interesting observations if you read the archives to this conversation thread. I see that we have archives preserved going back several years, and I know that this issue has come up before and the dyslexic musicians who have weighed in have shared some differing viewpoints on the subject. |
Angelica
| | Posted on Thursday, February 09, 2006 - 01:49 am: |
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Hi,
I am graduated student struggling to get good grades. However I need help and my school does not provide any free service where I can get a professional to prove that I am dyslexic. How can I get test for free?
Thank you! |
Jane Bozarth
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 12:51 pm: |
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I homeschool my 3 children and have just figured out that my 14 year old daughter's quirky learning style is dyslexia. She struggled to learn phonics, multiplication tables and musical notes...all symbols on a page. I see this more as a visual/memory problem than an auditory/language problem, but most the books seem to suggest that the difficulty in learning to read is an auditory processing problem. Can anyone enlighten me on this? |
Carole Grooms
| | Posted on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 08:19 pm: |
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Would you please take my online survey on teaching music to students with dyslexia? (Copy and paste the link below.) The results of this survey will be used in a presentation I am preparing for a graduate course which I am currently taking. The survey will be open through Sunday, April 23, 2006.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=94842001609
Thank you! |
Kathryn
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 05:19 pm: |
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Hi, I just tried searching dyslexia and music and found this link. I've never been diagnosed with dyslexia (I'm 47) but I tried piano lessons three times as a child and could never read the music so would quit after a few months. I don't know my left and right and sometimes I have problems figuring out a few things that I think may be associated with dyslexia. In my regular life I have gotten by no problem. But I've started cello lessons and am a month in a half in. I'm starting to have problems reading music again and wondering what I can do. I don't want to quit. If I doggedly stick with it (which I didn't do as a child) can I get through it? I found because, during this early training, the fingering was above the notes (4, 3, 2, 1) I was doing fine until I realized I was reading the numbers instead of the notes. I told my instructor and she suggested whiting out the numbers. I did and it was like I was starting over. But I overcame. Until I realized that was only 2 strings and 8 notes. We are adding the other two strings (and this is all in first position), sharps, flats, hooks and slides (new to me, never saw that in piano) whatever else and I'm REALLY struggling now. Any suggestions? Keep going and do it slowly and realize I'm just going to be a slow learner? (normally I'm a fairly quick learner, impatient and *sigh* a perfectionist). I do want to stick with this so if anyone can make suggestions who has dealt with this I would appreciate it. Cello only deals with bass clef (I believe. Thus far anyway.) Thanks much! Kathryn |
camra
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 07:26 pm: |
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I can not read music but I can learn a song on the piano by listening to the sounds and knowing if they are up or down...
I learned how to play the entertainer that way,,
but those note things make absolutly no sence to me at all... |
Philsheil
New member
Username: Philsheil
Post Number: 1
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 12:27 pm: |
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Hey kathryn
I too am sure that I am dyslexic but have never been diagnozed, I am 45.
I have been trying to play the piano for a couple of years. I started with lessons and thus with sight reading. It was awful, I couldn't get much further than level one, things like jingle bells would take me ages to learn by sightreading and my teacher would get so frustrated. what a losser... I was at only grade one and my kids were getting distinctions in level 3 exams at the same time.
Well that however is only half the story. At home, by writing the notes underneith the bars and reading the names I got down pat Beethhoven's "Moon light Sonata" and his Sonata Quasi una Fantasia, a couple of Chopan's and Schuman's Traumarei. That is by simply by going along with a CD and writing the name of notes (i.e. B or Fflat) under each grafic symbol I could figure out enough to learn it by memory and play it surprisingly well. So what gives.
The problem is of course if I don't play them each day I loose bits and that would not happen if I could only learn to read music. SO ANY ONE KNOW A WAY FOR PEOPLE LIKE US TO LEARN HOW TO READ THIS STUFF. The problem seems to be in the QUICK transferance of the graphic symbot into the reflex of the finger. For me I have to do mental gymnastics for each graphic symbol. My mind kinda goes ok this note is on the third line. So then I have to count from C up to the point of the graphic to arrive at the solution that it is this or that name I.e. A or B or D and then I know what that means on the piano. it is simply to slow a process to play a smoothe tune.
Any solutions out there? |
Abigail
Moderator
Username: Abigail
Post Number: 700
Registered: 04-1998
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 03:08 pm: |
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You can see all the suggestions and discussion about dyslexia and learning music if you read the archives of this thread and also check the links on this page:
http://www2.dyslexiatalk.com/messages/music.html
There's not necessarily one right answer for everyone, but we certainly have had a lot of great suggestions over the years.
-----
Abigail Marshall
Webmaster: www.dyslexia.com
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Ethan R. Smith (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, June 07, 2007 - 09:14 pm: |
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I have just been thoughtfully reading these posts. I myself am twelve years old and dyslexic. I am now a fine reader and an extravagent writer after giong to a special school for two years. Only just a few months ago did I discover that I had a natural talent for composing music. I started knowing nothing about music at all, and now I am writing amazing orchestral compositions. I have taught myself piano and I am a wonderful drum player. I cannot understand ANY lyrics to ANY song, so I only appriciate Beethoven, John Williams, Danny Elfman etc. By the way, I still cant read notes at all. -http://www.trojaius.com |
Marjorie Sussex (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Saturday, June 09, 2007 - 04:09 am: |
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I have just found your site by accident. I am trying to at least start my 10 year old granddaughter to read music and play piano. I am not a teacher but have played piano all my life. I have been struggling to understand her difficulty in learning what has always seemed easy to me. I am pretty certain from many of the comments on here that she must have some mild form of dyslexia. I will try to be more patient - such a shame she is so eager to learn. She memorises rather than reads and obviously this is how we must proceed. It was very interesting reading all the comments - thank you.}} |
Jleebee
New member
Username: Jleebee
Post Number: 1
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 11:18 am: |
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Alright, here goes my first posting. I have an 8 year old who was just diagnosed this week with a "global learning disability" and overall Dyslexia. He has had an IEP(Individual Educational Program) since the age of three. I felt since Pre-K that he was in fact Dyslexic but of course no one wanted to test him saying he was too young. Finally, at the age of 8 they felt he was eligible for testing, which of course results were as I suspected. Anyway I am hoping that someone can lead me in the right direction as to where to go from here....don't get me wrong it is fantastic that I now know what my son is dealing with on a daily basis (but what next)? And how do I best facilitate communication with the teachers that will best help my son? Also, another interesting portion to the testing was that even though my son cannot read he is fantastic in Math and Science. The doctor did state that this is unusual for children with Dyslexia (is this true). Thank you for anyone who responds to this posting. |
Abigail
Moderator
Username: Abigail
Post Number: 793
Registered: 04-1998
| | Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 01:36 pm: |
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Jleebee the fact that your son is strong in math and science is very common for individuals with dyslexia. It is why just about any list of famous dyslexics includes Einstein and Edison. (See http://www.dyslexia.com/qafame.htm for others)
I'd recommend that you read Ron Davis' book, The Gift of Dyslexia and my book The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Dyslexia and then go from there.
-----
Abigail Marshall
Webmaster: www.dyslexia.com
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(Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 04:38 pm: |
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HI , TO PHILSHILED, I HEAR THE ALFRED'S MUSIC METHOD IS EASY AS IT USES VISUAL. |
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