Anecdotally, parents and therapists have long reported a ‘magical’ response to music by children diagnosed on the spectrum. These responses, even as infants contrast the ways in which they seem to ignore speech and environmental sounds, subsequently children on the spectrum have frequently been confused or misdiagnosed as deaf or hard-of-hearing. Pamela Heaton, a noted researcher in autism reported that, “data from empirical studies show that many autistic children possess musical potential that can and should be developed” (2009).

It was long thought that music was a by-product of our evolutionary history. Some bit of a tag along to the magnificence of language and cognition. What neuroscience is now looking at is the essence of music in tuning the brain to perceive, identify and analyze sounds in preparation for learning language.

The current incidence of dyslexia is 1:5. Parents of children who have a family history of dyslexia, may want to enroll their children in early childhood music education classes starting in infancy. Research from Children’s Hospital in Boston shows that 3 year olds who can’t distinguish patterns of sound as being the same or different, have a higher probability of becoming dyslexic. This cutting edge, progressive research again shows us the import of music, especially in the 0-7 year age range (see the review for music in infancy) to train the brain for listening.