Justin Bieber Makes Wish Reality For Fan With Down Syndrome

An 8-year-old with Down syndrome got to live out her dream, scoring a meeting with pop star Justin Bieber.
Marisa Cox has Down syndrome and recently underwent a kidney transplant.

During her many hospital stays, her mother told FOX5 San Diego that watching videos of Bieber and listening to his music appeared to speed the girl’s recovery.

Drum Therapy for Autism

When I recently took my fifteen-year-old son with Asperger’s to his weekly therapy session, I was thrilled when he was offered the chance to participate in drum therapy. Instantly, I recalled the days when he was a toddler throwing a spectacular meltdown, beating himself with his fists until I set a drum in front of him and he pounded it instead. A broad smile came across his face as his frenetic energy transformed from self destructive behavior to music.

Drum therapy is gaining in popularity as a means of reaching children with autism. For instance, The Drumming for Autism Project in New Jersey started as a “School Peacemaker” program to address the needs of youth through creative self expression then expanded to specifically address autism.

Campers with Developmental Disabilities Sing with Carrie Underwood

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Carrie Underwood stopped by Starstruck Studios Wednesday morning to talk with the ACM Lifting Lives Music Campers, but she wound up doing more singing than talking.

And so, she sang, with accompaniment from the enthusiastic campers, all in town for a week-long residential camp that provides musical enrichment for the participants and allows Vanderbilt Kennedy Center researchers to study developmental disabilities. They all sang Underwood hits “Jesus, Take the Wheel” and “Undo It,” as well as Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”

“I sing because I love to sing, and that’s what they love to do, too,” Underwood said. “They just made my day, my week and my month.”

Country Music Stars Team-up to Help Developmentally Disabled

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The 2nd Annual ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp – a week-long residential program open to campers nationwide with developmental disabilities, talented in music – will start start on Monday, June 27, with a number of stars lining up to help.

Superstars volunteering time to participate include Gary Allan, Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood and Wynonna, along with hit songwriters Odie Blackmon and Brett James, and renowned producer Mark Bright.

The Camp has a dual purpose of studying Williams syndrome and other developmental disabilities and providing music enrichment through performance and education. ACM Lifting Lives funds the costs of the Camp, enabling the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities to advance its mission of improving the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families through research, training and service.

Campers will participate in a songwriting workshop and recording session, culminating in a live performance at the Grand Ole Opry. At the Opry, campers will reprise their 2011 ACM Awards hit Music from the Heart and share an original song they will write at this year’s camp. Throughout the week, campers will also gain the invaluable experience of visits from top-tier country music veterans. Prior camps have featured artist visits from Kix Brooks, Julianne Hough, Eddie Montgomery, LeAnn Rimes and more.

Special-needs students reap benefits of music classes

YORKTOWN, NY — Angeline Brown went from child to child, working her way around the semicircle and giving each one a chance to strum her guitar while she fingered the chords and sang along. And each time it was another's turn to "play," eyes brightened.
Sandagata said the program works because music engages students socially, cognitively and other ways and helps them learn to focus, listen, collaborate and be confident. The music itself, actually, is less the goal than these processes the students are developing.

More Than Just Music Lessons

BOSTON -- The Boston Conservatory is renowned for its intensive training in the performing arts, but on Saturday mornings, this Fenway institution offers a unique program: providing music lessons to children and young adults with autism.
The Conservatory, a private performing arts college, united with the Autism Higher Education Foundation in 2007 to form the Boston Conservatory Program for Students on the Autism Spectrum.
This little-known program pairs each child with a single teacher, who also works with a consulting team that includes a music therapist, a speech pathologist, a special educator and professionals in the music industry who have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis.