Kyle's Love for Music

   One of my favorite things about going home for the summer is getting to spend time with the little dude, but the best parts are the jam sessions we have when I pick him up from school or we go run errands. Me and my dad bicker over who's music Kyle likes more- his old school rock, or my modern day country or hip hop. If Kyle's not dancing to the music, you know you picked a bad song.

   Kyle has always loved music, whether it was the sound track to Beverly Hills Chihuahua (which we have watched probably 500 times) or if we were at a fair and someone was playing live music. The louder it is, the more he likes it. He's known for standing in the front row or right next to the speaker at dances, just because of the bass and the rhythm. We have to be careful though because as many as 80% of people with Downs have a hearing problem. So we limit his time by the speaker, and very rarely does he use headphones (which means sucking it up and listening to Taio Cruz's Dynamite on repeat all day).

   One of the best Christmas presents I ever got Kyle was a drum set. If we're lucky, Kyle will play with a toy for a few minutes before never touching it again, but he had a ball with this drum set. He would wail on the drums so hard we had to put balls of duct tape around the end of the drum sticks because he was denting the drum! There were quite a few mornings when I would wake up to it, but he would be cracking up the entire time, so there are worse ways to be woken up. 

   Another one of our family's greatest purchases are the Tooth Tunes tooth brushes. We had a few that played One Direction songs, and a Black Eyed Peas one, plus a few more. It's the easiest way to get Kyle to brush his teeth well, and it wakes him up in the morning because he can't help but dance!

   Using music and songs can help individual's with Down Syndrome with memory, speech, and motivation, as well as many other things! It is used by many speech therapists as well as physical and occupational therapists because music helps with different movements.. 

Story Time:

   The one song that Kyle loves the most is hands down the "Happy Birthday" song. Whether it's because of the cake and candles, being in the spotlight, or the fact that everyone in the room is singing, it's his favorite part of birthday parties (even over opening presents in my opinion). He claps the loudest at the end, and it's the time when his smile is the biggest.

Kyle on his 16th Birthday