I understand what you mean. My son also is drawn to pianos. My father and stepmom have one and when we go over there he has always ran right to it. He will play w/ it forever. The first time we took him to church, he ran all the way up and onto the stage to the keyboard. No one was really there yet so it was ok. But I have NO idea how he knew there was a piano up there when we've never been there before. My stepmom has spent hundreds of dollars for my dd's ballet classes and outfits. Now she is thinking piano lessons for ds when he's older. Not sure he'd have enough attention span at 2. I'd try Zach out on it. I dont think you're crazy at all to think he might take to it.

Amber

Ok... Now, I in no way am in La La land as far as my son is concerned *laughs*

BUT.

Zachary has a GREAT interest in pianos... he is always banging away on them... He has a lil' tikes 4 key piano and a zylophone.   He loves playing with them and every so often He will actually go down the scale in a rythmic beat ... 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3  on down the scale of the piano.  I am almost positive that if someone sat and worked with him He would learn how to play. 

*laughs* Am I just being a dreamer???  Or do kids on the spectrum besides Aspies show savant abilities??? I wasn't sure about this.

Julian has what is called splinter skills.  He is at grade level academically but he learned his shapes and numbers in a matter of days when he was very young and they are still a great source of enjoyment for him.  He also learned his abc's quite rapidly.  Willow is great with numbers and shapes and her abc's as well.  She picked them up quickly as a toddler.  Julian is HFA and Willow is PDD (mild).  Now Esteven who is 6, he is the one that has always been the "little man".  He even rolled over twice in the bassinette literally minutes after he was born!  The nurse told my husband she had never seen one do that before!  LOL  We knew from that point he was trouble--LOL  Seriously though, he had and still has an absolutely voracious learning appetite.  He understands complex calculations taught himself math and to read and comprehend well by age 3.  Sure we always worked with him and answered his questions but he still amazes me.  He was recently dx with aspergers and hyperlexia.  He is going to join MENSA (sp?)  I think his skill are more like the savant abillities.  He could speak in complete sentences by 17 or 18 months and he played pretend since 13 months.  I will not babble any further!  LOL  So I think what I am trying to say with all this is yes, even if zachie isn't a savant, piano lessons are a wonderful learning tool for all kids.  Music lessons are great because one can relate so many other things to music.  And it doesn't hurt to be a well rounded individual.  Oh and I'm a band geek from way back.   Flute, base flute and piccolo!  :P

Rachelle

Well as far as I can tell... gifted and savant mean basically the same thing just a different word... Heres some info you may find interesting,...............

Musical Talent - A Splinter Skill   http://autism.about.com/od/educationalissues/a/musicalskills .htm

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040526070452.ht m   Autistic Children Show Outstanding Musical Skills

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http://pages.slc.edu/~ebj/IM_97/Lecture21/L21.html

What Are Savant Abilities?

The islets of abilities referred to by Kanner are splinter skills that are responsible for the "idiot savant" characterization of some autistic people. About 1 in 10 autistic people show isolated abilities much in advance of their overall intellectual abilities. These often occur within the fields of music, calculation, and drawing. Phenomenal memory for detail within the field of specialization often accompanies or comprises these savant abilities. For example, the physician J. Langdon Down (for whom Down's Syndrome is named) reported giving one of his patients 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'; the patient memorized the entire weighty tome in one reading, and consistently replicated and subsequently corrected a mistake of omitting one line on the third page

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http://www.answers.com/topic/autistic-savant

autistic savant

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http://autismcoach.com/gifted_with_learning_disabilitie.htm

Intriguing connections between giftedness and autism, music and language

jordon is drawn to his key board and electric drum machine but he makes a load of noise and i dont think he is gifted on that one . mind u some may say giving me a migrane in 30 seconds with the drum machine may actually be a talant

http://www.answers.com/topic/autistic-savant

"Some other autistic savant skills include:

"perfect perception of passing time without a clock"

I will be sure to tell them at this language/hearing pathology place where they kept on asking (although I doubt this is quite what they meant lol, still.. you just never know!)

<admittedly beaming with just a *little* pride that even if it his internal clock has nothing to do with his hearing and perfect pitch and undertones and all of that they were asking after, my does son has a savant skill alrighty>

Theda

PS, I am using Internet Explorer (had been using something else) to be here and its doublespacing every time I hit enter once, anyone happen to know how to fix this?

Stevie'sMom38500.2894097222My son can heft an item and give me pounds and ounces or fractions of an ounce on letters.Lol this is a fun post

ive got a lot of savant skills related to memory im pretty much an encyclopedia on anything related to professional wrestling


My boss also has a 12 year old son with aspergers who we think might have some savant skills in math and is in gifted classes

Any form of musical training is good for any child but if yours already has a propensity for it, I say start now!  If you can read music, just start simple and work your way throug it.

Our son loves music and is very picky about what we listen to on the radio and such.  (Rhiana's umbrella got vetoed but Tempeture, by Jon Paul is one of his favorites, while the soundtrack to Memoirs of a Geisha makes him tear up, and he loves to sing along to Cheryl Crow's song from the movie "Cars")

He also loves to dance and sing.  I've started "teaching" him the guitar but as he's only 3, it's just struming and how to handle it without breaking it.  I can read music and plan to start trying to teach him but I haven't found a system I like yet.  I learned later on to read music (5th grade) so the method will have to be different.

Let us know what you decide to do.  I would love to know how it's working out for you guys!

Mindy

Sarah's school diagnosis is provisional autism with savant abilities..these include reading since 2.5 years old and she can also play many songs by ear. She is really good at memory and patterns years ahead of her peers.  The more social and age appropriate she gets with peers the less the savant abilities will stand out and actually may get less...at least that's what I have read.  She is now drawing amazing pictures that a year ago I couldnt imagine.  She picks up math real easy and academically way ahead but she still has a very hard time talking and staying with peers.  Her language is still what sounds to me of a younger child and not seven year old.  She missed the gifted class by 2 points because of her expressive language being behind. 

David,

When you say professional wrestling, do you mean the WWE?  Which is your favorite?  My husband likes the old Cane, the Undertaker, Wolverine, and John Cena.  I'm an RVD fan but I like Cena and the Rock as well.

Mindy

[QUOTE=Nutter]

David,

When you say professional wrestling, do you mean the WWE?  Which is your favorite?  My husband likes the old Cane, the Undertaker, Wolverine, and John Cena.  I'm an RVD fan but I like Cena and the Rock as well.

Mindy

[/QUOTE]

WWE thats what i meant

i like Tna wrestling also i pretty much love all wrestling weve got another autie who posts here named woodsman who a big ufc fan as well

Undertakers my favorite wreslter
its a goal of mine to meet undertaker soon

as i grew up watching him

when wwe comes to my area for a show around christmas i may finnally get my chance


i met bret the hitman hart (hall of famer) last summer for my 20th birthday at a wrestling convention in rockville maryland

and got a picture with him i emailed him a few days later and told him i was autistic and got shy at wrestling conventions

and thanked him for taking time to interact with me (he was nice) i got an email back from him a day later

he could tell im not really in my element in some convention /event settings and talked to me for a bit and made an extra efort to go out of his way to be kind

there were quite a few other autistic fans there that day and we all enjoyed meeting him

i may email him again soon to congradulate him on his new autobiography coming out

Rvd is awesome i love cena too the rock will be back at wrestlemania 24 to face shawn micheals next year i heard


as far as the savant skill goes i know pretty much every wrestler and event they were in from 1990 .

up until the current day i can do several echolalic impressions of famous wrestlers and

"borrow their voice" if you will

thanks for asking

[QUOTE=ShelleyR]The more social and age appropriate she gets with peers the less the savant abilities will stand out and actually may get less...[/QUOTE]

This makes sense to me... I think things stand out more when they are younger and less as they get older because then the other kids are learning those things that ours did years before...

I am not sure how it would be classified as an obsession or an 'ability' but Cassidy memorizes maps... she had all 50 states & capitals memorized at 4 by shape as she wasn't reading until after (this led to her reading, though I think she could have done it before, she didn't have a reason to WANT to... :p).  Once she finished those she's gone on to nicknames & flags & the World but I have trouble keeping up with her and 'teaching/reinforcing' as *I* don't know all of them. lol She's going slower now as she's learned to read since but still needs assistance. lol She has all the oceans & continents and many countries... This all started because she became obsessed with New York, so she knows a LOT about New York as well... (we live in Texas. ;)) Anyway... not sure if this counts, but sometimes I feel like people treat her like a circus act if they find out about this & start quizzing her... she has learned so much because of this obsession...

No savant abilities that I can see for my son.  He can however spell many words forwards and backwards which I can't do easily.  He can count to at least 500.  He's only 4 so that's pretty good!  I think it's more because he gets fixated on spelling or counting though and so he actually practices.  He does have that visual thinking ability to be able to spell long words backwards (pharmacy is his favorite and our long last name).Your son doesn't have to be a "savant" or aspie to be able to do music lessons. My son is 7 years old, has autism and is learning quite well to play the keyboard and read music. He just needs to be able to follow instructions, and sit and attend . I got a music therapist to give him keyboard lessons as I couldn't find a music teacher who was familar with working with people with asd. We have to offer him rewards to get him to do his classes( if he finds something difficult he would spit- even 0n the teacher- to try and avoid doing it- he hates to make mistakes. so we do a sign that says Sit and do music class, no spitting and then computerand that really helped. To do his practice he gets a sticker for each piece of music he plays and then a reward. He is doing really well. I must say his teacher Cindy is a saint to have taken being spat on- I was horrified. Liz
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