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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 2 April 2016

International Autism Awareness Day 2016 #autismawareness

Activist Kavitha Krishnamoorthy, who has pioneered several supportive programs to facilitate children with autism explore their creative selves, relates the magical effect music has on her son, Ananth, who is on the autism spectrum. This article is a  the first in a two-part series on the arts and autism. 

I have been truly privileged to be in a position where I could so closely observe the relationship my son Ananth has with music.  He brought beauty, music and art into my life and I am so much the richer for it. It is to him and other children like him, with whom I have worked, that I owe all my learning.  

Ananth’s Sound of Music

For him, every sound is music

Tap closed
Bath over 
Amma’s in a rush 
To be done with it. 

He waits.

Ears cocked
Head slightly turned
Eyes bright
Listening, intently.

Remnants of the
Bathwater
Flowing down 
The dirty grey drain pipe.

To him,
Music. 

Ananth sees and hears music everywhere.

The ambulance siren
The azaan from a nearby mosque
The roll call in school, with its unique cadence
The creaking sound of the lift
The announcements- at the airport, the railway station
Mobile phone ringtones
The electric shaving razor
The fan – in fact, different fans and the different sounds they make. 

What is music to him? 

While in all honesty, I have to say I don’t really know, 14 years of watching him gives me some clues as to what music may mean to him. 

Music: his early connection with the world - When he was very young and trying to make sense of what to him probably seemed like a hostile world, the one thing that would literally make him sit up was music or any sound that attracted him, which could be anything like those listed above. It was like he came out of his own inner world only to relate with music. Or to look at it from another perspective, it was only music or musical sound that made him leave the safety of his own inner world. 

It was through sound and music that his earliest connection with the external world was forged, in addition to the connections he made with his immediate family and a few familiar adults. The change in him when with music was visible – from listlessness he would spring to life, and any musicalsound could trigger that. His body would become alert, eyes would start to shine, twinkle, head would turn to one side and ears would be all attention. 

Music: effortless ease – For someone who has found and continues to find difficult what would be fairly simple to most children, music comes to him with such ease. He grasps the intricacies and complexities in music with little effort. He surprised us one day, when he was all of about three years old maybe, by indicating that a new song that he was hearing was similar to another familiar song he knew – the first sign that he was able to identify the melodic pattern, the ragam. And the surprises continue till today. He catches the attention of learned musicians with the way he can catch and reproduce a nuance when he sings, sometimes offering his own little twist too!

Music: essentially private -For him, music is essentially private, music in company seems to somehow lose its power.He likes it best when he is alone with his music and he can do what he wants with it. When he can stop at a particular phrase of a song, a particular movement of the violin, a particular note. He is most attracted to songs and tunes with a high melodic content, and of all the genres he listens to, it is Carnatic music that he likes the most. 

Music: a solace - Coming back home from school or one of his therapy sessions, the first thing Ananth does is to turn on his source of music – earlier the music system, today his laptop. He just wants nothing but to be with his music. Sometimes, he does not go to the laptop but just sings and sings and sings. It’s like he needs this to help him deal with all the demands the world may have made of him from the time he left home. 

“Music…can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable”. These words of American composer, conductor and teacher of music Leonard Bernstein probably can best summate Ananth’s deepest sentiments. 

Read the second part of this series on Art and Autism: A Spectrum of Vibrant Colours

Kavitha Krishnamoorthy is an activist, arts facilitator, observer-of-children and an informed, loving parent. She has worked extensively to enable children with autism live with equality and dignity. She founded Kilikili, a non-government organization, to create inclusive play spaces for children with physical and developmental disabilities. She helped set up the Visual Arts unit in the Bubbles Centre for Autism, Bangalore and was the Director of the Sampoorna Music Therapy Centre for children with autism. 

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