In matters concerning the capabilities of those on the autism spectrum, the vast degree of variation in these individuals makes it difficult (or impossible) to design an ‘all encompassing’ educational program. The amount of time and energy involved in designing, manufacturing and advertising a product, is inherently counterintuitive to this reality. I can tell you that it is very challenging to handle the numerous issues which arise from creating and producing a product for mass consumption. This being the case, many products are, therefore related to a specific learning group which may represent a certain segment of the autistic community.

Many students with autism will respond well to typical materials, yet require specialized instructional techniques to help them be successful. Others will benefit from a complete redesign of the teaching materials. Still other students with autism may require minute changes to the curriculum or the environment to help them understand. When one comes to terms with this reality, there truly is no individual technique or approach that would benefit the entire spectrum of individuals with autism; but this is not how autism related products are sold or promoted.

It may be too hard in certain cases and many times it is – yet they all deserve the chance to try.

A particularly frustrating example of this recently came to my attention. A certain ‘system’ of instruction I found which claimed that, “This autistic piano education program uses ‘play by ear’ techniques and bypasses teaching students how to read musical notes.” For those of you unfamiliar with note reading and playing by ear, I will give a brief explanation. Traditionally, all students of music are taught to read musical notation for several reasons, including; having the ability generalize this knowledge to other instruments, play more and more complex pieces, and fine tune spatial comprehension and processing skills. Playing the piano by ear is also a skill typically taught to most students in addition to reading, as a way to help better understand tonalities and basic song structure.

Making these decisions ahead of time… is tantamount to discrimination and should be reviewed very carefully.

The reason this raised a red flag for me, is simply that – why should we ever assume that a child with autism can’t read musical notes! Yes, it may be relatively more difficult for them and yes the attempt may even at some point fail, but this should not predetermine their chances of success! Those of us who work with or provide care for individuals with autism already understand this. Assumptions made on any individual’s ability level will most likely waste time and is probably a biased conclusion. I do not believe these, in my view unethical, programs are developed with malice – rather, it is more a lack of fundamental knowledge of special education, the autism community and basic scientific theory in general which allows programs such as this to take shape. While these programs are, no doubt, a result of teachers doing their best to educate the autism community, withholding these educational practices (for whatever reason) is counterproductive in my view and speaks more to the need to educate the population in general of just what these students are capable of!

When I think back on all of the relative leaps and bounds made by my students in the area of reading musical notation, it is troubling to consider that other instructors may have ‘bypassed’ this because it seemed too hard for them. It may be too hard in certain cases and many times it is – yet they all deserve the chance to try. A simple and objective analysis of their performance over time will clearly indicate whether or not the approach at teaching reading music is working and decisions can be made how best to proceed at that point. Making these decisions ahead of time, before even any teaching has taken place, is tantamount to discrimination and should be reviewed very carefully by consumers and educators.

By: Jeffrey A Young

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