You Would Never Believe How This Autistic Child Help’s Plan My Music Show

Any parents or families that have a loved one with autism knows that there are different levels of this disability and the spectrum ranges from very low functioning, which means the child or the adult needs assistance with everything he or she does, to high functioning, which means that there is almost no assistance required at all for these individuals. That's just a basic generalization without getting too involved with all the different spectrums of children with autism.

The one thing you may or may not know is each person with autism, no matter what spectrum their on, has something they either like very much, or they have something they enjoy doing all the time. Naturally, music is in my family, I guess I can take the blame for it, but all three children have some level of musical talent. Tyrek Sanders is my son with autism, his musical talent is picking out the songs I play for some of my mix shows.

How Can An Autistic Child Pick Music?

Let me explain, for the majority of my mix shows there is planning that goes into it, so in my home recording studio is where all of the planning is done. Tyrek's musical talent is, he has the ability to let me know which combination of songs sound good together. Tyrek does not talk in complete sentences, maybe one or two-word combinations on a good day. He lets me know what works by using body language. When a show is being put together he taps his fingers to the beat of the music, if the combination of songs I put together is not right, he stops tapping his fingers and leaves the room.

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Now, let's be honest, you know how tough of a crowd Buffalonians can be. Now imagine the pressures of planning your show, and looking around only to see the one person that you should be able to please, is no longer listening. When that happens, I really get tickled because it's such a humbling experience, so I just laugh and start all over again.