The Musical Autist Celebrates 1000 Ausome Things: and 2 in particular, Absolute Pitch and Synesthesia #AutismPositivity2013

April 30, 2013 by 1 Comment

We are thrilled and honored to be a part of Autism Positivity Day Flash Blog 2013.

It’s so great to join together, on this last day of April, to advocate for Neurodiversity, to celebrate the many beautiful things that only autism can bring to society. Like Absolute Pitch!  Synesthesia! Need we say more? People that know autism already get our point. But we’ll take this opportunity for some brief explanation, or at least point you in some directions you’ll enjoy going.

First we’d like to say, The Musical Autist organization feels entitled and compelled to promote these two phenomenons as autistic traits for two reasons.

1. We put autistic people FIRST in our organization, in leading and guiding the organization itself. These are folks on the spectrum who have Absolute Pitch and Synesthesia for themselves, and they can attest to the wonderful musical gifts (though sometimes challenging, like with any gift) that Absolute Pitch and Synesthesia can be.  Feel free to go here to read Paula Durbin-Westby’s experiences with Synesthesia, and you can also go to Sunny’s page to learn more about her.  We’ll be posting another vlog soon, and Sunny will share with you her experiences with Absolute Pitch throughout her lifetime.

2. The other reason we feel entitled and compelled to promote Absolute Pitch and Synesthesia as traits of autism is because of our connections with the field of music therapy.  This is the kind of stuff Music Therapists love to study! Check out our Community Music Therapy Team. There you will find some wonderful, competence-presuming, evidence-based-practice-minded Board Certified Music Therapists who interact regularly with people on the spectrum that have Absolute Pitch or Synesthesia. We strive to understand the neurological underpinnings of autism, and we also realize the efficacy of highlighting the positive traits of people on the spectrum in order to cultivate self-empowerment and self-advocacy.

I mean really, wouldn’t YOU want to know what note or chord was being played just by hearing it? Wouldn’t you enjoy seeing specific colors when you heard certain tones?

To learn more about Absolute Pitch, we highly recommend reading this fascinating research study that came out last year. Or, if reading research is not your forte, you can find some great discussion about the article from Norman Lebrecht, which will highlight the topic of Absolute Pitch for you without getting into the nitty gritty of the research. To learn more about Synesthesia you can go to the wiki page here. You can also go here and here for perspectives on how much research still needs to be done. But our favorite article on the topic of Synesthesia is from our friend Ariane, at Emma’s Hope Book. After you read that, we highly recommend bookmarking Ariane’s site and visiting regularly.

Are you someone who has been paying attention to all the autism “awareness” this month? Have you heard the latest autism prevalence rate projections which are utilized for the fundraising pleas of organizations that paint autism to be a disease or something that families need to mourn, in order to raise funds for research intended to “extinguish” autism? Are you exhausted by it all like we are?  Then you’ve come to the right place! Now go to Autism Acceptance Month (you’ll see that our Sensory Friendly Concert was on their list of events), then spend some time reading the many amazing bloggers linked to Autism Positivity Flashblog.

Have fun! Be inspired! Be hopeful!

Your mindset is more than half the battle.

Your mindset has the greatest impact on those around you.

 

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Filed Under: Featured, Neurodiversity

Happy Two Year Birthday To Us!

April 1, 2013 by 1 Comment

About two years and three months ago, CJ started developing this blog, but she decided to wait until April 1st to launch it. She’d been chatting online with her friend Paula Durbin-Westby about an Autism Acceptance Day project, and many of us in the autism-rights movement were encouraging her to launch a blog site for it. You can go to Autism Acceptance Day to see it and learn more. The project’s name has evolved into “Autism Acceptance Year” since then.

With a little thought, our motto “Nothing About Us, Without Us” should adequately explain why we would choose April 1st, but we’ll take a moment to explain. We chose 4-1 specifically for the reason that it preceded “Autism Awareness Day” on 4-2. This was a risk worth taking, despite the fact that 4-1 is also April Fool’s Day. (Hence the running joke… “Surprise! we CAN speak for ourselves! : )

And so, CJ decided to launch this blog on 4-1-11, in honor of the first-ever Autism Acceptance Day project.

And you can also click anywhere in this sentence to learn more about our new Autism Acceptance Month project! 

Two years ago today, CJ was attending her first music therapy conference in Albany NY, as an MT-BC equivalence student. She was just getting started in a new music therapy career, after a decade in music and special education, a few years in the music business, and many, many years of a steady self-learning curve of autism.  And so when it was time for CJ to do the music therapy coursework and field placement in Developmental Disabilities, it felt like a review. And of no fault to the professor, who only had a few classes to discuss autism at all, what with all the other populations that music therapists serve, teaching us to speak the clinical language, utilizing a wide variety of therapeutic modalities and interventions…  Becoming a Board Certified Music Therapist is no joke – it takes a LOT of training, and is equal to any of the other “helping professions” like Speech and Occupational Therapy.

Now, exactly two years later, CJ and Sunny are preparing for their presentation this week, in the very same regional music therapy conference as when The Musical Autist was born. Their presentation is entitled, “Sensory Friendly Concerts, an opportunity to celebrate Neurodiversity through Community Music Therapy”.

We are really excited and also a bit nervous, to be public speaking to such an esteemed group of professionals. But we believe so strongly in autism acceptance and accommodation in our society, we know every minute of preparation is going to be well worth it.

We look forward to meeting some of our readers in Scranton! Please send us a message if you’ll be there!

And Happy Birthday to The Musical Autist!  

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Filed Under: Community Music Therapy, Featured, music therapy, Neurodiversity

Celebrating April Acceptance Month with a Sensory Friendly Concert!

March 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It’s not even April yet and the media has already been saturated with autism “awareness”  - have you noticed?  Are you aware of autism yet?  Yes? Good! As our friend Kassaine says, “awareness is the No Child Left Behind of advocacy. It’s a start, but  no means a finishing point we should be satisfied with. It is not until people understand and accept that we can say progress has been made.”

Please take a look at our digital flyer below, for details on our next SFC – we hope to see you there! Feel free to download and share it (or share it from our social media pages). And as always, if you are interested in having a Sensory Friendly Concert in your own community, let us help you connect with a music therapist in your area and we’ll work together to make it happen!

April 2013 SFC

Filed Under: Community Music Therapy, Featured, Neurodiversity, SensoryFriendly Concerts

Autistic People Are . . . Musical!

March 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 A guest blog post from our friend, Sparrow Rose Jones, at unstrangemind.wordpress.com

 

On Saturday, March 2nd, the online Autistic/autism community participated in a Flash Blog.
Participants were asked to complete the sentence, “Autistic people are . . . ”

Autistic people are many things, but one very important thing is that Autistic people are musical! We sing, we play with sound, we lilt, we chirp. We are born with drum rhythms in our heart beats, sending music rushing through our veins and flowing through our lungs with each moment of our life. 

This is because Autistic people are part of the great and diverse human family and music is a universal language we all understand. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “music is the universal language of mankind,” and so many others have echoed that thought. 

Victor Hugo said that “music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” And even hard-hearted Nietzsche said that “without music life would be a mistake.” Music is so potent and so important to human beings that there are even Deaf musicians. You didn’t expect that? Well, it’s true. There are some really, really *good* Deaf musicians!

So it should be no surprise when I say that Autistic people are musical. We may march to the beat of a different drummer, but we sure do hear the rhythm. We rock with it, we flap with it, we sing with it.

Listen to this young Autistic, our friend Christopher Duffley, singing Lean on Me. (and remember his name!)



Or this beautiful Autistic singing: “Fireflies” by, Owl City, in this wonderfully stimmy video.


Yes, Adam Young of Owl City is Autistic! Many wonderful musicians are Autistic, including: our friend Chou Chou Scantlin, Ladyhawke, Caiseal Mór, James Durbin, Craig Nicholls (The Vines), Hikari Oe, Marty Balin (Jefferson Airplane), Tony DeBlois, Leslie Lemke, Derek Paravicini, Matt Savage, 50 Tyson . . . 

And those are just some of the musicians you may have heard of before. Landon Bryce introduces us to many Autitic musicians who aren’t famous . . . yet: 

50 Inspiring Autistic People of 2011: Musicians

Music soothes and heals. Music energizes and emotes. Music has everything the human spirit needs for survival and so it is only to be expected that Autistic people are musical. 

We rejoice through music, we mourn through music, we play through music and some of us pray through music. It is a deep-seated human need that we Autistic people both partake in and serve. 

Autistic people are musical. Listen!

Filed Under: Autism-Friendly Artists, Featured, Neurodiversity

Autistic People Should Be Accepted in Society

February 24, 2013 by 1 Comment

This is our contribution to the “Autistic People Should” flashblog.  Thank you Alyssa for all the work you’ve done in putting this together!

In our grassroots way, with our civil rights movement mindset, we will continue to change the way autistic people are viewed in society. It’s simply appalling, what google autocompletes when one types “autistic people should.”  Just trust us, it leans toward heinous, actually. (For a record of what the original autocomplete was on google, you can see a screen capture on this post from our friend, Ariane.)

Because of our collaborate efforts, it is our hope that google and other search engine autocompletes will start looking more like:

Autistic people should be loved.

Autistic people should be respected.

Autistic people should be accommodated within society.

Autistic people should have a right to gainful employment.

Autistic people should be presumed competent.

Autistic people should be accepted in society.

We will keep working to change the fallacy that autism is sub-human, and the misconception that autism is a disease which needs curing.

There are so many fantastic posts on this topic, we highly suggest going to the postroll at autisticpeopleshould.blogspot.com and doing some reading. About half of our own blog readers are credentialed music therapists, and we have the extraordinaire honor of being a voice to our forward-thinking colleagues, in matters of autism acceptance and the Neurodiversity Movement.

We are working diligently to bring Sensory Friendly Concerts around the country. These are events that provide equal access to the fine arts. These are not an “oh-what-a-nice-thing-to-do-for-people-with-autism-don’t-forget-to-play-you-are-my-sunshine-for-them.”
These concerts bring legit jazz, classical and fine arts musicians to perform in a venue that is accommodating. We bring in artists that are accustomed to performing in venues that require extreme social skills, like sitting *perfectly* still and silent, or knowing when or when-not to clap (like after a jazz solo, or  between movements in a symphony). And we train our performing artists to respect autism.

Not only do Sensory Friendly Concerts promote equal rights to the fine arts, acceptance and accommodation of autistic behaviors in a public music venue, but we also create opportunities for self-advocacy. Musical autists are invited to perform in these events. Some perform with the purpose of seeking gainful employment with their musical skills, others perform while being accompanied by their music therapists.

The point is, we are doing something that helps autistic people to be accepted in society. Because autistic people SHOULD be accepted in society. The motto in our Sensory Friendly Concerts describes this well… “hand flapping allowed!”

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Filed Under: Featured, music therapy, Neurodiversity, Sensory-Friendly Concert

Advocating for Community Music Therapy

January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Hello friends, fans and followers!

We have some exciting news to share about 2013!  Not only are we doing at least FOUR more SensoryFriendly Concerts this year in the Baltimore/Annapolis region, but we are also starting a pilot launch of SensoryFriendly Concerts across the country!

If you are a MD/DC local, mark your calendars for the Saturdays falling on April 20th, June 15th, Sept.7th and Dec.7th, starting at 6:30pm, for the 2013 SensoryFriendly Concert Series.

And on Jan. 31st, we will be announcing our team of fabulous music therapists from around the country, who will be facilitating SensoryFriendly Concerts, and helping us to build a strong case for Community Music Therapy in the US.

2013 is an exciting year of growth for The Musical Autist!  We are in the process of getting 501c3 nonprofit status, and CJ is developing online courses which will allow her to share her experiences and guidance to music therapists all over the world, who are interested in joining us in creating “equal access to the fine arts” and opportunities for self-advocacy.

Another piece of exciting news is that CJ and Sunny will be co-presenting this April at the Mid-Atlantic Regional conference of the American Music Therapy Association. They will be on the panel, “Community Music Therapy in Action.” They are thrilled about sharing the message of Neurodiversity and their vision of “equal access to the fine arts” with this esteemed field of professionals.  We are honored to be developing ideas which could potentially build opportunities for service provision of Community Music Therapy.

Since 2005, the American Music Therapy Association and the Certification Board for Music Therapists have collaborated on a State Recognition Operational Plan. Basically, the purpose of this plan is to get music therapy and the MT-BC (Music Therapist – Board Certified) credential recognized by individual states, through title protection or licensure, so that citizens can more easily access music therapy services.

In our humble opinion, as the evidenced-based practice of music therapy is recognized within state and local communities, and this professional discipline continues to be established in clinical setting, MT-BC roles will further develop into community settings.

Because SensoryFriendly Concerts are trademarked so that consent is only given to MT-BCs to facilitate these events, it can be a connection point within the community for those who might be interested in meeting an MT-BC, or who might be considering individual music therapy services.

Not only do music therapy clients and their loved ones have the opportunity to celebrate met goals and objectives, SensoryFriendly Concerts can also address needs within the community itself. We strive to create an accepting and accommodating public event which provides a concrete example to society in how to respect autism.

SensoryFriendly Concerts create an atmosphere which will ”promote inclusion of disabled persons within society, to bring healing not only to the individual with a disability, but also to the social conditions within which the disabled person resides.” (Soshensky, 2011)

If you are an MT-BC and interested in joining us in this cause, go here to connect with our group. Thank you!

Soshensky, R. (2011). Everybody is a star: recording, performing,  and community music therapy. Music Therapy Perspectives, 29 (1), 23-30.

Filed Under: Community Music Therapy, Featured, Neurodiversity, SensoryFriendly Concerts

Dovetailing Neurodiversity and Music Therapy Advocacy

January 5, 2013 by 4 Comments

CJ and Sunny have really been wearing their advocacy hats lately.  Since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, we in the Neurodiversity Movement have been working hard to make our voices heard, with photos that show the beauty and positivity of people on the autism spectrum, and the support from their allies. Our community is rallying together, to counteract the damage done by the media of the public image of autism. Here are some of the pics we’ve been sharing. 

 You can find us on our friend Paula’s webpage, This is Asperger’s. This is Autism, and you should also watch for us on our friend Lydia’s new project, on her blog, Autistic Hoya. To get a feel for what’s been happening lately in the autism community, you can check out a fantastic facebook page called Disability and Representation, and also Autism Shines, which has gotten over 5500 likes in the past 3 weeks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we’ve been in full throttle advocacy mode, so it’s pretty nice timing that January is Social Media Advocacy Month for Music Therapy. Even BenFolds is advocating for us on twitter, with #FollowMTWeek!

CJ’s proposal was accepted for the MAR-AMTA conference this April. She’ll be presenting on SensoryFriendly Concerts: how they fall within the category of Community Music Therapy and how these events advocate for the Neurodiversity Movement.
Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Featured, music therapy, Neurodiversity

Growing Strong Autism Communities

December 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We are a strong, vibrant, creative and talented autism community!
And our SensoryFriendly Concert last night was a perfect example of this vibrancy.

It is a beautiful thing to see so many families come out to hear great live music of the fine arts, to hear autistic self advocates speaking and performing, to be completely wowed at the talent of musical autists!  In an atmosphere that will accommodate, accept and respect autistic behaviors, but not gawk or exploit autistic talents. (Sadly, pretty much the complete opposite of how the media operates.)  Maybe this blog post won’t get much visibility because we’re not going to hyperfocus on negative things, we don’t care!  We’re hear to tell you that there is SO MUCH positivity growing in the autism community, and it all has to do with inclusion and respect!

Huge thanks to Sean Lane and Maeve Royce for being our featured artists, and three awesome music therapists who came to help out, Darcy Lipscomb, Carolyn Sonnen and Valerie McDaniel!

This is Community Music Therapy in the making folks!!

We don’t typically post pictures or videos of our events, out of respect to our audience members and their privacy. But here’s a picture of our venue last night. Church on the Rock so graciously gives us the use of this awesome space.  We set the chairs on stage so that children and adults can come up and FEEL the music and interact with the performing artists.  Especially for those who are hyposensitive, there is no better feeling than laying under a grand piano or touching the side of an upright bass!  (Or, if you are hypersensitive to sound, we have noise reduction headphones and sensory quiet room if you need it.) Not to mention plenty of room down in front, to dance and move, to rock and flap away!  We had an amazingly talented young man perform last night, a true musical autist, who played three Chopin Preludes.  There are few places on the planet where you can enjoy a live performance of classical music and not worry about sitting completely still!
And one more piece of exciting news!

We are starting a NATIONAL LAUNCH of SensoryFriendly Concerts in 2013!!!!

Filed Under: Featured, music therapy, Neurodiversity, SensoryFriendly Concerts

Dec.15th SensoryFriendly Concert!

December 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We are thrilled to be putting on our TWELFTH SensoryFriendly Concert this month!!
We’re going to have five awesome music therapists in Maryland joining us for this one. So this will certainly be one of our most interactive concerts! And the word just continues getting out there…. there are music therapists all over the country who are excited to launch SensoryFriendly Concerts in their own communities!

We want to give thanks to our growing number of loyal friends, fans and followers, for supporting us in this exciting new work in Community Music Therapy.  The future is bright for musical autists everywhere!

Filed Under: Featured, Neurodiversity, SensoryFriendly Concerts

Parents Building Local Autism Community

November 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We would like to give some major applause for one of our Board Members, Heather Ambrose, aka “Bobby’s Mom.”

She has gone to great lengths to help us raise the funds we need to get our 501c3 nonprofit status processed.

If you are interested in buying some great Christmas gifts for the lovely folks in your life,  click on My Thirty One (25% of all sales go directly to us!) and Just Jewelry (20% of sales go to us!) and you will help us to reach our goal!

Heather’s role in our organization is “Family Advocate and Parent Mentor.” She is passionate about building a strong and flourishing autistic local community for her son to thrive in.  Her relentless creativity in providing ways for her son to be included with his peers is to be admired.

Local community is IMPERATIVE to the quality of life of people on the spectrum. It is our mission to help music therapists connect with their local autism communities, and to give them the resources they need to do SensoryFriendly Concerts. That is where our philosophy on Community Music Therapy truly comes into play!

It’s so important to network and volunteer with other worthy autism groups that you know in your region. For example, CJ has an Occupational Therapist friend at Embrace International, who is doing a Sensory Morning at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.  Please download this flyer and join us Dec.2nd if you are local. If not, please take this great idea and go to your own local art museum with it!

 

 

Filed Under: Accommodations, Featured, Neurodiversity, sensory friendly