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happy dance...breakthrough


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This probably won't sound like a big deal...But we gotta celebrate every small step right?

 

My 7 year old had always hated music. No singing from me, no appreciation for kids songs, surly when teachers made the class sing, irritable when I turn on the radio no matter the music type. He constantly hums and sings his made up songs like a lot of hyperactive kids do, but he does not like external music. Since it was from so early,i assume it is some kind of auditory processing hiccup (but did not test due to High fee and limited therapy options). By the way,I love music so much, it is one of the central enjoyments of my life, so this has been bizarre not to share with my child.

 

But things are starting to shift in his brain, processing delays (stagnation really) are shaking up a bit. This started a few months ago, where his visual memory suddenly woke up (before it was at the level of a toddler or below) and he no longer hated music. He didn't like music, but it was tolerated enough where we could try a little listening therapy (but did not stick with it for long as he tuned it out). I slowly pushed on the music thing over the weeks, singing a song here, clapping a rhythm there, the radio, the theme songs for his cartoons, getting him a piano keyboard to play with, using the piano auto accompaniment and dancing to it, etc, pushing to see the edges of his tolerance.

 

I just put on Raffi songs today and he was singing along and requesting repeats!! Stunning. I nearly cried. I never thought I'd see the day where my son loved some music. So now I am going to go through and do the musical babyhood/toddlerhood/preschool stuff that they missed. Finally his younger sister can be immersed in music, poor girl was denied the chance due to older brother's sensitivities!

 

(Of course, seeing breakthroughs also makes me wonder if all the therapy we do is in vain and his brain won't just mature on its own timetable...)

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(Of course, seeing breakthroughs also makes me wonder if all the therapy we do is in vain and his brain won't just mature on its own timetable...)

 

.... on that note, an educational therapist did warn me that reading won't suddenly click for my son, it will be a long hard road. Because that's what I keep expecting, for the day to come where things will just click and he will take off. It does get confusing when some radical unschoolers say their kids had delayed skills click in their teens!

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(Of course, seeing breakthroughs also makes me wonder if all the therapy we do is in vain and his brain won't just mature on its own timetable...)

 

.... on that note, an educational therapist did warn me that reading won't suddenly click for my son, it will be a long hard road. Because that's what I keep expecting, for the day to come where things will just click and he will take off. It does get confusing when some radical unschoolers say their kids had delayed skills click in their teens!

 

It's so hard to know because evidence of the "one day it just clicked" variety is always anecdotal. I had my own experience of reading just clicking--I couldn't read at all until the summer I turned 8, and that summer things just fell into place--phonics suddenly made sense and was interesting to me, I could remember letters and track words (new glasses probably helped with that). I went from not reading at all to reading full-length chapter books within a few months. I've known other adults who recounted similar experiences, one who said she was sitting in school with a book in front of her pretending to read (as she always did) when suddenly she realized she could read! She was 11. 

 

The problem with such stories is they can't predict that any given child will have such a breakthrough. Some don't. Maybe the majority who struggle don't, not without lots of therapy and help. I really don't know. As parents we just have to go with our best judgment in combination with that of professionals we trust. For now I am fairly confident that my nearly seven year old non-reader will have her breakthrough in time because she is so much like me in other ways. But of course I can't know for sure.

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