Sunny and Music

Christie D just left a comment suggesting that Sunny listen to music when he wakes up too early in the morning. Actually, he already has the choice to do this, but I thought I'd mention a little bit more about his relation to music.

Music definitely moves him in a very deep way. Sunny told my stepfather recently that when he listens to music, he draws pictures in his mind. He's not a huge fan of reading, perhaps because he hasn't gotten to that stage yet of active imagination/creation that he's already achieved with music.

Our therapist is not really giving him therapy, but she's given us some great advice. One is to have periods of "quiet time" with Sunny where we all hug on the couch, turn off the lights and listen to calming music for five minutes. Guy puts on instrumental stuff like Miles Davis. It's sort of like meditation and helps him practice self-calming. We haven't done this in a while and probably should get back to it more.

Another piece of advice our therapist gave us was to put a CD player in his room. We have an old one my cousin gave us, and that's become his CD player. Choosing what music to play gives him a sense of control over his environment. We put on music for him at a low volume when he goes to sleep. His perennial favorite is The Wiggles "Big Red Boat".

He also plays his own music at whatever volume he likes when he gets dressed in the morning, when he puts on his pajamas at night or when he has the chore of putting his clean clothes in his closet. Otherwise, he doesn't spend any time in his room, because of the whole separation anxiety issue (when he puts away his clothes he always wants to have someone in the room with him).

When he's in the car with us, he has definite favorites for songs and radio stations. He often has us play "air band" with him. "Dad, you sing, Mom, you play guitar, I'll play drums!"

I don't think he has the attention span yet to actually start learning an instrument. He'll mess around on some hand bongos for a few minutes, but that's it. Maybe in a year he might be at the right stage.

Unfortunately, his favorite music is classic soft rock. I hate classic soft rock. Oh well!

This is his favorite song ever.




This is more my kind of music.