Thank you JOSHUA for your mesmerizing music…

It was a usual Wednesday morning. My mom like always came to wake me up with Muffin and Miffy. Fluffy decided not to give them company as she is extremely upset with her recent atrocious grooming, courtesy dad and believe me she looks terrible. Somewhat like a compressed little dwarf  J…(Well…thank God, their language is unintelligible to us..and this is for your information that, here I am talking about my dogs).

It was already 8.45 am by the time I got up from my bed and rushed to the bathroom. Took a quick shower and rushed to my clinic. My duty hours for Wednesdays are from 9 am to 5.30 pm. But invariably I reach my clinic not before 10 am on Wednesdays. Interestingly my boss is so used to this inevitable fact that she just doesn’t say anything to me.

Every Wednesdays I work only and only with Autistic children and I have about 10-15 children coming for regular follow ups to my clinic. Most of you already know what Autism is, but let me give you a little brief on this childhood disorder called Autism.

Autism means a pervasive developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and non-verbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3 that adversely affects social, emotional and communicative functions. Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction (the child with Autism remains aloof, does not like any social contacts, no eye contact and remains in his own dream world), communication ( e.g. total lack of or delay in the development of spoken language, repetitive parrot like speech called echolalia, lack of social imitative and make believe play) , and by restricted and repetitive behavior (such as stereotyped and repetitive hand movements or finger flapping, abnormal preoccupation with parts of objects etc)

It’s been 3 years since I started working extensively with Autistic children. This is one disorder which really fascinates me as a clinician. Honestly speaking I believe that these children are way gifted than any one of us, the so called “normal people.” No matter how convincing theories are, I firmly believe in the fact that each child with autism has very unique characteristics and personality traits. These “special children” like to remain in their own world without any interference or change in their structured own ‘cocoon’.

Wednesdays are indeed very special for me because I get to meet some of my favorite kids (I know I am slightly biased when it comes to autistic kids…) and that particular Wednesday turned out to be a very memorable and special one in my professional career as a shrink.

Karan is an 8 years old boy diagnosed with moderate Autism. He comes to the clinic with his maternal grandmom. Nobody in his family understands his problem and terms him as “mad, abnormal”. I have counseled his parents so many times, showed them videos on autism and what not. My supervisor Mrs. Sunita Seshadri also tried talking to them, but all in vain. We all most gave up hope for this child as the parents were just not corporating and not ready to send him to the clinic. Our only ray of hope was Karna’s grandma, who came as a guardian angel for the little one. Karan’s parents abandoned him after they had their second child. Since then Karan stays with his maternal grandma. Even in that household Karan was getting a barbaric treatment, in his grandma’s absence. After much persuasion and constant home visits we managed to convince his grandmom to bring him to our clinic. She agreed with a condition that within 3 months if she doesn’t see any improvement she will discontinue with the treatment. I agreed, though I knew, that it is nearly impossible for me to reduce the symptoms and bring in much change in his behaviour keeping in mind the dysfunctional family he belongs to and he is already 8 years old without any form of treatment so far.

Karan never responds to anything. I tried various psychological interventions and therapies on him, but the result was not at all satisfying. I have seen that music really works wonders with autistic kids. I use music extensively for these kids. I use music as a reinforcer in my therapeutic interventions, specially with autistic children. But somehow Karan was not fond of music. That very day Karan was the first one to arrive. He sat in one corner. I was doing sensory integration therapy with him. Karan was very restless. After 10-15 mins we shifted to the play area and I gave him colors, sands and water to play with. This is one activity he always enjoyed doing. But that day he was still very restless. I just couldn’t sit at one place for more than 3-4 mins. I was clueless as to what must have caused this new behaviour on him. I noticed Karan’s eyes were glued to the speakers on the table. Suddenly he ran towards me and hugged me. I was so surprised because autistic children usually do not like to be hugged or held and they do not display any form of affection towards anyone, not even towards their mothers. To add to my surprise Karan held me hand and took me towards my cubicle. I quietly obliged to his non verbal request. Once we reached our cubicle he said “ music? No music?music,music…”I looked at him. He said, “aunty music, aunty music diya (put music)….” It was so zapped; it took me nearly few seconds to realize that what transpired between me and Karan. That was indeed a communication between me and the little one. This boy Karan who would never join two words together and he had qualitative impairment in communication, actually interacted with me. Wow….

I quickly hit my orientation back and played some music for him. He still appeared restless and kept touching my mouse pad. I kept on changing the tracks for him; finally I stopped at one of Joshua’s songs called the “Raindrops.”(well..I am talking about Joshua Queah here). You may think I am exaggerating, but believe me when I say this, Karan actually likes this song. From a very passive non expressive face his face turned meaningful, animated and so easy to read. As if this song had a soothing effect on his restless mind. After the song was over Karan insisted that I should play the same song for him again. Time froze for me at that moment.

Thanks Joshua for the mesmerizing music that u created. Through your music I saw improvement in my patient. I simply can’t explain what it means to me or for that matter any Shrink! I witnessed Karan from an emotionally indifferent and apathetic child towards a poignant and emotionally arousing child-all because of your music Joshua. It had the healing power. Joshua believes in creating a novelty in music that has something in it for everyone. And Joshua, your music has the elements of emotion, freshness, tenderness, love, passion and most importantly the X factor that could move lives, that could make lives so meaningful. This little child who doesn’t understand verbal communications or social interactions or does not have any functional abilities also expressed uttered the unspoken language of the soul- all because your music has the capacity to heal the differently abled child, your music has the power to heal the scarred soul, your music has the ability to reach out to deep seated emotions of the human mind.

Thanks a million Joshua for being a part of this special day in my life….

Days and months and have passed by. Karan has showed a lot of improvement. Now he has started to interact with me. He joins 2/3 words together and forms sentences. He has also started to show interest in being a part of a peer group. He acknowledges the presence of people around him. I use Joshua’s Music regularly in my clinic. I Use these pristine sounds as a positive reinforcer for the autistic children. And it works…. It worked for Karan and I am sure you will do the same wonders on my other kids as well (wait…until my next blog J)

Lessons learnt:

• Never underestimate the capabilities of these “special children.” They may not act, behave or work as normal children, but that does not mean that they don’t have feeling or emotions like any other so called normal children. Even some normal children fail to understand such intricate and creative modes of expression such as music. Autistic children may reflect certain symptoms and the DSM-IV R diagnoses them with one of the pervasive developmental disorders. But who are we to decide or categorize them as children with disabilities or children with special needs. Are we normal? Think about it? (I know I am questioning some of the norms of Psychiatry and the authorities could even seize my license as a practitioner…but I am just jotting down my thoughts. Its important that we utilize our grey matter and use our cognitive skills and believe me then only we can work towards a holistic approach in treating patients. Not formulate our treatment plans based on the diagnosis.)

You may not be in my life anymore, but I live my life through a musical journey that we started and created together!!! Take care