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As a piano teacher, you probably consider music to be your area of expertise. But we also have to wear so many other hats as well.

When a student with special needs walks into our studio, we need to understand their diagnosis so we can teach them better. Sometimes we can feel completely in over our heads here. We might not know anything about the diagnosis, what it means and how to these students learn best.

That’s why I’m so excited to be unpacking autism with Lydia Meem today. Lydia is a clinical psychologist with lots of experience working with kids with autism.

She has some really fun and helpful tools and tricks to share with us today, as well as fantastic insights into how to teach these students in a way that suits them. Jump in, I’m sure you’ll learn a lot, I know I did.

Transcript

Please find a full transcript of this episode at the bottom of this page. Alternatively, click below to download a PDF. If you are an Inner Circle Member, you can find the full video and transcript in the Member Resources Area. Not a member? See below for how you can get $100 off your membership today. 

In this episode, you’ll learn

• How the diagnosis process for autism looks
• Why parents sometimes don’t want to tell us about a dianosis their child has
• What the ASD student profile sheet is and how you could use it
• Useful visual tools for working with students with special needs
• Why kids with autism often don’t make eye contact
• How you can use textures to help kids connect to a piece
• A trick for working on collapsing fingertips
• How to give really clear instructions

Today’s Free Download:

Links Mentioned

• Autism Understanding Favourite Resources
• Autism and Music Teaching: Tips from a Clinical Psychologist
• ASD Student Profile
• TED Talk: How Austim Freed me to be Myself
• TED Talk: Autism – What we know (and what we don’t know yet)
• Positve Conversations for Explaining to a Child or Adolescent that they have Autism
• Cognitive Development Assesment Checklist
• Understanding Cognitive and Developmental Assesments
• Autism Behaviours during Cognitive and Developmental Assessments

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Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Being a full-time teacher myself, I know how busy teachers are and how much time, effort and passion we put into our students. Sometimes, the last thing we want to do in our time off is listen to more piano teaching stuff! So, well done for using this time for self-improvement.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run. Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons.

If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons on the left of the page.

Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes. Reviews are extremely helpful when it comes to show’s ranking and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally.

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Full Transcript

Were there any of the aspects of autism that surprised you? Or anything you wish you’d known sooner?

What did you think of Lydia’s visual representation ideas?

Which of Lydia’s sensory tools do you wish you had?