01/01/2023 - Singing in the choir

I got into the senior choir and it made me feel excited and proud of myself. It is a whole new experience to sing in a big choir.

Singing in the choir is fun because there are so many children singing with me. There are some children and teachers who are very kind to me and they help me to feel comfortable with the new experience of singing and performing on stage. They look after me gently and that makes me feel less anxious and safe. I stand near them and copy them when I'm confused.

I like the songs that we sing in the choir because they are different. My favourite song that we learnt is 'Mary did you know' which we performed for the Christmas concert. The sound of the whole choir singing together is beautiful and it makes me feel happy to be part of it.

I enjoy reading the song from the paper. It makes it easier for me. The teachers teach us how to sing and make us practise, so it becomes easier to sing well.

Singing in the choir makes me excited because we perform concerts on stage. We have to go for rehearsals and be very alert but performing on stage makes me feel very good.

There are also somethings that are different and a little difficult for me when I'm singing in the choir.

There are many rules in the choir that I have to follow like standing straight without moving and singing my part at the right time.When I feel anxious I feel like stimming or talking irrelevant to regulate myself. You cannot stim or do solo talk when you are singing because it will spoil the choir. All this is a little difficult for me but I manage it. I carry a stress ball to squeeze when I feel like stimming, It helps me to stim less but I yet need to work on controlling my stimming.

The music can be quite loud and this makes me nervous and makes me move and stim so I put cotton in my ears which makes the music less loud.

I find it hard to remember to sing only my part so I listen to my friends near me and copy them. I want to sing the whole song but that is not allowed it will disturb the choir and spoil the music.

At the end when everybody claps because the the music sounds wonderful, and everyone comes to watch us perform, I feel thrilled, proud and I can't stop smiling.

Mum speaks

From my own experience singing in a choir requires you to be very focussed and coordinate many skills so as to perform harmoniously as a group. Inspite of all the challenges Reh managed to not only join a youth choir with neurotypical children his age but he managed to overcome his anxieties and difficulties to perform with the choir on stage. It has been extremely gratifying for me to see how helpful and inclusive other children and teachers were inspite of not knowing much about autism and shepherding him through the process gently. They instilled confidence into him by treating him normally and being flexible about a few requirements he had. I couldn't believe that performing gave Reh such a high and he exceeded my expectations by managing it so well. What seemed like an ordinary performance for most other parents and kids was a monumental moment for us. We couldn't have asked for a better gift for Christmas.