Reading music

Since the term dyslexic isn’t uniformly applied, one cannot be sure what *all* dyslexics are capable or incapable of doing.

There are many dyslexics who find reading music very difficult. Others do not. Some find it much easier than reading anything else.

Cathy wrote:
> She says that
> she can not read the music . Is this the same as reading
> letters for a dyslexic ? Does any one have a dyslexic child
> or self that can read music ?

my son took sax last year and did OK, join the school band and eventaully played in their Spring Concert, but… He told us that learning to read notes was the hardest part of 4th grade. Obviously, he did not want to play the instrument any more…

I agree with Susan my dyslexic son finds reading music to be easy. He finds reading the printed word to be difficult. He has been in band since the 7th grade and played in Marching band this year. He not only can read music easier but can memorize the pieces much easier.

Dyslexia is a stupid term but what it used to mean is that letters and numbers appear to reverse themselves. It would stand to reason that all symbols on a page would be difficult to read by someone with “dyslexia” I believe that vision is different than eyesight. People commonly reffered to as dyslexic have problems with visual information processing. Manuscripted music is symbols. I also have dyslexia and for me sight reading music is impossible. I think they should have remedial music but I doubt that most schools have remedial music even though legally the should be required to. I am a semi professional musician and I play by ear. I know how to read music but for me it is tortureous. Most of today’s musicians don’t do a lot of reading anyway. Also I know some schooled musicians and for the most part the play like crap.

My daughter has no problem reading music, but her dyslexia is related to auditory problems, not visual processing problems.

My son (dyslexic and dysgraphic) has a very difficult time learning to read the notes and associate them with a letter name. However, he fairly quickly learned to associate the notes with a specific fingering on his insturment. That meant he could read the music, but he didn’t know that a certain note was “C”, which made it difficult when the teacher wanted them to all play a certain scale.

However, with a lot of work at home, he was able to learn the notes, and now is a very competent musician. It did take about a year, and we kept at it because he seemed to have some innate musical ability (he was very good at hearing intervals, memorizing tunes, and picking out songs from listening to the radio or a record.) He’s now quite good at sight reading (he’s been playing for 4 years).

If you or another trusted adult can help your daughter, you can probably get her over the hurdle of reading music. It’ll take work, just as I’m sure teaching reading has taken a lot of work. However, if she doesn’t enjoy playing in band, I’d suggest switching to choir or something else that she does enjoy. It’s just not worth the grief if it’s not something she loves.

In high school a couple of guys I knew who were really great at advanced math were good music sight readers(both trumpet players), they played very specifically though, not so good at ad libbing. Then there are those of us who weren’t so good at math and didn’t sight read so well, but played a lot by ear along with learning the notes on paper. My brother used to play the rythms for me (trumpet player,also good at math, what is it about the trumpet and math whizzes?), sometimes it isn’t so much knowing the finger parts as knowing how fast is a string of 32nd notes. I played flute so there were a lot of fast strings of notes. Fractions and multiplication, not my strong suits.

Does your daughter have a good ear? As a former piano teacher, I can tell you that many children who are good at playing by ear have a hard time learning to read music. It is easier for them to simply remember the pattern they are hearing than to read the notes. This actually a musical strength, but it will slow things down in the beginning.

Andrea

I have a son that is dyslexic (reversals of letters, also words moving). He also has difficulties with auditory, visual, and is dysgraphic. You said you are dyslexic. What has best helped you deal with dyslexia? Did you ever do the letters molded in clay as suggested in Davis’s Gift of Dyslexia?

We have done many therapies such as speech, FF1 and FF2, OT, handwriting without tears, vision therapy, tutoring. While in OT his reversals diminished in handwriting,and reading improved last year, but reversals are back in his writing and sometimes in reading. He is finishing up vision therapy before the end of the year. I think vision therapy helped significantly with his convergence and he doesn’t complain as much as he used to when reading.

Finding this thread very interesting. Like I said earlier my dyslexic son can read music fairly easily but plays much better if he can hear the song first. I find this interesting because his dyslexia is considered to be an audiotory one. He has great difficulty discerning the sounds of letters in words. He can however tell if someone has played off key or the like. I have three kids and all three love music. Their favorite music though is Mozart and Bach. They also like to listen to the nature sound CD’s that have the music in the backround. They all find loud noises to be “painful”. Both boys have identified learning disabilities. My NT daughter has taught herself how to play keyboard and plays the trumpet, she is an excellent reader but can not read musical notes well. She listens to a piece a few times and then is able to play. All three kids also have a strength in math and science. Humans can be so interesting.

My dyslexic son learned to read music much easier, and much more quickly, than my non LD child who has to be forced away from reading books.

see http://www.resourceroom.net/Sharestrats/IDAmusic.asp on music and dyslexia.

I am still plagued by dyslexia. I never was offered any therapy. I’m like Avis. I try harder. I know next to nothing about the prognosis for dyslexics. I’ve read stuff about colored lenses helping Dyslexia and I read a book about that advocated the use of benydryl and dramamine. The basis for that therapy is the author’s asertion that the inner ear is responsible for dyslexia.

because my dyslexic son gets motion sickness badly enough that we have always needed to give him dramamine before getting in the car. I’ve seen the website about this, but if you ever find any other data please post it!

I had a book called Dyslexia a solution to the Riddle authored by Harold Levison MD that showed clinical studies and case histories using Dramamine, Bonine Meclazine and Benadryl.

My son had motion sickness but after occupational therapy, he doesn’t complain about motion sickness as much.

I’ve read that guy’s stuff too… including where he talks about the conspiracies to cover up his “research,” which strangely, nobody else can replicate.
Untreated allergies and balance issues can be problems and should be addressed — but decongestants aren’t the answer to dyslexia, no matter what this guy thinks. There’s still a Flat Earth Society, too.

Motion sickness can be related to sensory integration dysfunction. They discuss this in “The Out of Sync Child.”

Karen,

I was reading through a booklet I have which lists car sickness as a symptom of a hyperactive vestibular system. Other characteristics are intolerant of excess movement, doesn’t like head inverted as in somersaults. Don’t know if the rest of it fits but do know that the vestibular system has wide range of effects so might be worth looking into. My son had major vestibular issues.

This book lists the following as vestibular system affects

1. balance
2. reticular activiting system—awake and alert able to filter out excess stimuli
3. intersensory information—processes information for all the other senses
4.bilateral integration—coordinate two sides of body and cross midline
5. visual perception—tracking, refocusing from chalkboard to desk tasks
6. auditory language center—word understanding and speech

I remember your son had a lot of trouble with feet with IM which I have been told is more related to vestibular system than hands. My son after doing therapy addressing vestibular system pretested with feet a lot lower than hands. At the end, his hands were lower than feet–which is typical.

Beth

Interesting…
I had always thought my so had hyporeactive vestibular. Which I guess is the opposite of hyperreactive vestibular.I remember reading about this condition. These kids seek out proprioceptive input. I know that when I do activities that stimulate his vestibular system like the balancing or jumping etc. it has a calming effect on him. My son also had some difficulty with his feet in IM.

It is interesting to read that problems with the vestibular system can lead to tracking issues.

PS. My son does not get motion sickness. Instead he seeks out fast moving experiences and loves to spin.

I understand when such kids are more integrated they respond “normally” to spinning experiences—in other words they no longer seek them out.

My own son always did everything fast—he rode a bike fast , for example. Turned out he couldn’t balance without speed, but we just attributed it to personality. After therapy, he can ride a bike as slow as he wants.

I attribute my own son’s tracking problems to the vestibular system. He really had outstanding tracking skills as a young child–before all his ear infections!!! And a lot of other issues with vision with him seem to be developmental—it didn’t happen when it should have.

Beth

do you notice how all these topics come full circle?

My son definitely had feet trouble during IM, its a motor planning issue I believe. He continues to have motion sickness in cars, but loves certain kinds of motion (roller coasters ) and ever since IM has been doing handstands non-stop. But the bilateral coordination and the ways in which the vestibular system effect motor planning have always been part of his profile.

Again, I think he’s just neurologically different : sometimes looks like a sensory thing, sometimes a reading thing, sometimes an attention thing. This is why I’m slowly working my way thru every form of therapy!

Yes, I think my ds is hypo- in the sensory world. Unlike the kids I know with classic sensory integration issues he is not sensitive. Eats everything, likes motion, etc etc. (This was documented in his OT eval. when he was 4)
But I suspect whether you are hyper or hypo if your vestibular system is out of whack its going to create some similar side effects.

Beleive me I know the feeling—about working your way through every form of therapy. In my experience, you are peeling off layers—some days it is discouraging but then I think back–and realize how far we’ve come.

Beth

When I read the Out of Sync Child, I did not see my son in the hyper or hypo decscription of vestibular functioning. Where I saw my child was in the relationship between the vestibular system and auditory and visual processing. I would have sworn, the author knew my kid!!!!

So I agree, it is probably the out of whack that is the most important part.

Beth

Karen,

I agree lots of very full circles.

I was just doing a game that is supposed to improve fixation with my son. He was diagnosed with a tracking disorder called saccadic eye movements which I understand means he doesn’t fixate long enough to process a visual image. The game involves looking at blocks numbered 1 through 26 lined up not in sequence. There is one block blank. He is supposed to move #1 to the blank block then find #2 move it to the new blank block where the #1 was and so on down the line until he has scanned and move all the blocks. Each time he has to scan the blocks to find the next one.

I notice that about half way through his attention will start to fail. He will scan each number quickly looking for the next number when he is not attending. He will glance right over the number he needs and then eventually forget where he even is in the sequence.

In the directions you are supposed to tell the child to notice how his attention is affected by anxiety from doing a timed activity. As he does it more frequently he is starting to relax while he does it and his time has gotten better. So he is fixating better because he is controling his attention better by staying calm.
In the beginning he would say, “Where is the next one; he would get nervous, making it all the more difficult to find the next one.
So long story short, in order to fixate ones’ eyes long enough to process the input one must pay attention.

How is that for a circle for ya!

I wonder if I could use that technique during reading. When ds gets anxious about reading he goes off task. Think I’ll give it a whirl. He is definitely becoming aware of himself - his obsessive talking has diminished alot . Maybe from doing IM, maybe from therapy. He definitely knows when he’s doing it. I think making him aware of how anxiety affects his attention would be very helpful. Thanks!

The frustrating part is wondering if we are making the right choices at the right time. Did I wait too long for VT? Should we try meds? I always wonder if there is something we haven’t tried that could unlock many areas at once. But probably the onion analogy is the best way to think of it - got to be patient and keep peeling away.

Believe me I know. We’ve done some things right and others wrong. We should have done listening therapy first—rather than as a last resort. We should waited (maybe forever!!) on PACE. We certainly should have done IM before PACE.

I even had a model in my head of working up from sensory level to cognitive. I just didn’t know there could be so many sensory issues!!!!

I also had a sense from doing Fast Forward that if you keep at something long enough, you can succeed. It took us 4 months (instead of 8 weeks) to get through the program but we did with permanent results. I since have discovered that if something is too hard, think about a different order to things, or find a different technique. If I had taken that approach when we did PACE, we wouldn’t have wasted a summer. He couldn’t do any more after a few weeks and that should have been a sign but I just kept trudging.

Beth

That is how neurofeedback works. It raises your self awareness about attentive states helping you to help yourself find the attentive state.