Koh Chan loves to play the piano. His goals this year in music therapy include developing his cognitive skills as well as increasing his fine motor skills through musical play.
With his music therapist Rebecca Cooper, they have been working towards learning a song on the piano, by improving his finger isolation & dexterity, as well as learning to read coloured letters and matching them to the letters and colours on the piano.
Prior to playing the piano, Koh Chan became very good at playing different pieces of music on the coloured bells, learning to look and find the notes according to what he read on the page – a great cognitive developmental tool for him.
In the first video, you can see Koh Chan is looking, listening, reading the letters using the piano rake and playing when given a verbal cue for each letter. He is getting familiar with playing the notes on the piano.
Fast forward to only three months later, it all came together in a session! Koh Chan played his very first song on the piano “Mary Had A Little Lamb” using a modified music score.
WE ARE SO PROUD OF HIM!!
Koh Chan was diagnosed with Kabuki Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects around 1 in 32,000 births. This syndrome is characterised by distinctive facial features, short stature, skeletal abnormalities, and moderate intellectual disability.
In addition to Kabuki Syndrome, Koh Chan also has autism level 3, moderate hearing loss, and severe learning disabilities. These diagnoses further contribute to the complexity of his medical and developmental profile.
To find out more about Kabuki Syndrome, this fact sheet from the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne is a great starting point.
