The response: Dr. Henny Kupferstein, an autistic music educator and researcher, has dedicated her work to understanding and supporting the needs of autistic individuals in the context of music education. If an autistic piano student is stimming on the piano pedal, it is likely that Dr. Kupferstein would take a compassionate and individualized approach to […]
Are the new fidget spinners driving you crazy? Autistic stimming and fidget toys differ in purpose. An informed perspective offers an attitude shift for educators who want to become aware of the differences. Fidgets are marketing as a toy to keep the fingers busy, specifically for a kid who has focusing issues. Focusing issues are […]
One of the things I do with my students is teach them the importance of stimming, and why they need it for self regulation. Rather than silencing their god-given abilities to organize, I encourage it. This kid says it like it is!
What if you can have a free lesson plan in the next 15 minutes — will you start teaching letterboard communication to your autistic child?
[Live video on FB] How can a child:parent or student:teacher have a mutual agreement for respecting each other’s choices? What if distractions feel real a person, and they’re being stopped to deal with it? Did professionals label it ADHD, ADD, ASD, OCD, ODD, and any other conduct disorder pertaining to distractibility? I challenge the notion […]
My bump dots arrived and I’m jazzed that my confidence around my independent living skills have soared. Many autistic people have a hearing impairment such as central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), hyperacusis, and misophonia. Autistic people also have vision impairments ranging from cortical vision impairment (CVI), simultanagnosia, double vision, and distortions. Lastly, the autistic motor […]
Most autistics vehemently reject organizations that sponsor research for a cure. Worse, the “Cure Autism Now” organization raised millions in the first few years of inception, desperate to eradicate autism. Motivated by their son’s decreasing independence, Hollywood producer Jon Shestak and his wife, Portia Iversen, pushed to reverse his regression, which they found to be very alarming. […]
This video was directed by Nicolas Joncour, a pianist and university student in France. Nico spells to communicate. He shared his message about nonspeaking autistics and what he wants the world to understand. Click for captions, or full transcript below: I was born in October 1999 in France, a country that was not ready for […]
I only teach piano to nonspeaking and autistic students. All the lessons are online through Skype or FaceTime, even for families who live locally nearby. This helps me reach students all over the world and in underserviced areas. The format is a 1:1 personalized lesson, not a class taught to more than one student. Oftentime, […]
I teach piano to nonspeaking and autistic students around the world. The most common themes that come up during an initial parent consult are answered below. My child is nonverbal and cannot focus for more than a few minutes. How will you deal with that during a piano lesson? I never repeat myself and […]
Two nonverbal preteens played the piano yesterday. They are my tough fighters, but also spell using RPM (Rapid Prompting Method) letterboards. They frequently type their complaints about their brain-body disconnect and how embarrassing it is that they can’t show through their fingers that they know the music. Me: “Who else sees your body like this? […]
All humans are born with the capacity and drive to seek out a distinct individual sense of self. This agency is robbed of autistic people who are conditioned under behavioral therapy with ABA (applied behavior therapy) to have a misconstrued sense of influence and control. ABA is discrimination because the behaviors to be modified are […]
ABA for autistics is based on Skinner’s operant conditioning for dogs. In this video, you can see the lone dog waiting for permission to have fun. Watching this clip, I can almost hear the ABA kid saying, “Miss Ashley–what am I working for? After I swim for 5 minutes, can I have 15 minutes of […]
Autistic disruptive and injurious behaviors are often seen as problematic. Sensory overload significantly distresses the autistic brain and triggers a halt in all cognitive abilities. Oftentimes, such ‘shutdowns’ might even be undetected sub-clinical seizures. Physiologically, the abrupt onset of sensory overload shutdowns are characterized by eye twitching, headaches, rage, and episodes of staring blankly into […]
The Autism and Perfect Pitch Connection By: Henny Kupferstein. March 23, 2014 I teach autistic and non-verbal individuals to sight-read music for piano in the classical tradition. Using Zoom as a conduit for maintaining a global practice, I incorporate musical paraphrasing to validate client expression. The reciprocation of sound teaches the client that they have […]
Shortcut links for this page: Videos to see, Books to read, and Sensory products to try. PUBLISHED BOOK! Perfect Pitch in the Key of Autism A Guide for Educators, Parents and the Musically Gifted. Henny Kupferstein and Susan Rancer (on Amazon) RED BOOK 1 – The Doogri Method™ Piano Curriculum: Red Book 1 ORANGE BOOK 2 – The […]
Henny Kupferstein 