Music with autistic children

[kvchellappa]

http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/m ... 986218.ece

[varsha]

kudos to the artist

Their focus, their concentration, their ability to shut out everything else, delving so deep into the world of their choice… isn’t this something we should be learning from them? Should we not strive to include these traits in ourselves?

An oversimplification of realities at best .No, don't try to import those traits , I would recommend.
For this is one of the most difficult of disabilities.Experts will tell you.

For twenty years I have been playing deep classical music to many disabled kids including autistic ones ( a condition so difficult to describe that one has to depend on a word like spectrum for definition) - as they are assessed / helped at my residence .

I can see the author seeing herself change in the process of engaging with them , but the thrust of the article - to pick up traits from them - is inappropriate . For it stops at just what is needed to be told to the reader .
What is needed for the reader to do the next time a child is encountered in public space and what it means to include .
And the biggest names among employers , teaching institutions, extended families even, keep failing miserably.
India has a lot to learn from the west - With or without soul in its music

[rshankar]

Perfectly said!

[bilahari]

Beautifully put.

East or west, I think we could all use more inclusiveness.