Would appreciate input on piano lessons helping LD?

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I have an 11 yo boy who is now reading for pleasure (Hardy Boys, etc.) but struggles so much with spelling simple words and doing drill sheets for subtraction/mult/div facts, although he can do them orally for flash cards. He does okay on the add. fact sheet.

I’ve read about so many therapies and it’s a bit overwhelming. I’m wondering if piano lessons will do what these therapies are doing - strengthen visual and auditory memory and help coordination? We are doing the Madonna Woods (Davidson Music) beginning piano course, so there is a tape to listen to and play along with so that playing is self-correcting. We also started the book ‘type it’, for typing lessons.

Anyone have success using piano and typing, or should I be doing more?

I saw Audiblox has a program geared to help with spelling but haven’t read of anyone who has used that specifically.

Thanks for any input.

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/10/2002 - 2:45 PM

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I have never heard of anyone doing this; I’d be cautious about taking something that’s already difficult — the visual/auditory/coordination connection — and adding a layer of symbolism (piano notes) to it. The sounds of notes are also not verbal-language oriented, so I suspect it will be a very different mental task. This is just thinking off the top of my head, though — not based on anything!! If it don’t hurt, try it… but “hurt” would include being frustrating.

Spelling almost always lags a lot behind the reading. Take it slowly and methodically and teach the spelling to mastery, not to know-a-list-at-the-end-of-the-week. Rudginski’s How To Teach SPelling is an excellent resource for this; there are more resources and tips and ideas at my site at www.resourceroom.ent

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/10/2002 - 7:29 PM

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We did piano with our LD son starting at age 4 for close to two years. I was told by two different therapists that his problems would be much worse if we had not done so. There are lots of studies on music and brain development. So I would say piano does help. At the time, our son was receiving speech services as part of a preschool special ed program but I had a gut feeling that something greater was wrong. I saw piano as our contribution to the “cause” of helping him at the time.

We stopped doing piano when we moved and have worked more directly for the past three years.

We did INteractive Metronome this summer and our therapist suggested we follow up with piano lessons. It does wonderful things to the brain but and this is no small but, the child has to be able to experience some success. We did not take her advice, as we were still doing other therapy and didn’t want to make practicing work, but we did do keyboarding. This, she said, would be second best.

I think piano would help him, if his skills are not so lacking that he can’t be successful. If that is the case, I would consider something like IM which helps wiht coordination and with timing. He may enjoy music and gain benefit from it more then.

Beth

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/17/2002 - 4:42 PM

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We start piano lessons on Monday.

My son finished IM and I feel piano is an excellent way to improve on areas that IM worked on.

I would agree that it is something your child should be ready for and genuinly want to do. If it can be done in a very accepting, noncompetitive way I would go for it. I would not have the child take piano lessons with other children or at the same time as a non LD sibling.

When my son was younger he took lessons in a group and it was not a positive experience. It was demoralizing to watch other children play real songs while he was still learning the very basics.

I think private lessons would have been better and that is the route we will take now.

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/24/2002 - 5:06 AM

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Hi Donna,
I don’t know if piano helps with spelling, but I do believe it’s good for general brain development and may be helpful in strengthening those areas you mentioned.

My son is starting piano lessons, but I have to admit I’m worried about daily practice and time. With all the reading, homework, extra-curricular activites and “therapeutic” activities I’m just not sure how we’re going to be able to fit in one more thing.

We are doing Audiblox, but have not used the spelling exercises. Oddly, this year (at a new school), the spelling words so far have been extremely easy so my son hasn’t needed any help with this, but I think that’s going to change. I’m sure the words are going to get much more difficult pretty quickly.

And yet, I really do need to work with my son on spelling. I’ve been thinking of AVKO’s Sequential Spelling program. Beth from FL has mentioned this program before.

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