Reply to Doing art/music as career

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "Doing art/music as career"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Kudos for thinking about all these things so early, OP. Lots of parents don't until their kids are in the job market.

Art and music as a career? You might not realize it, OP, but Art is an extremely competitive field, because there are so many very low-paying jobs in it, and extremely few high-paying jobs. Music, dance and math use the same areas of the brain (because music and dance are rhythm-based), so if she's not good at math, she will not get to a professional level in music or dance. But there are many Art careers that a spouse can do while their wife or husband earns the bulk of the income. I know it's not PC to say, and definitely not something to rely on, but the reality is that a lot of people exist in art- or humanities-related careers because their spouses pay the bills, or they have family money.

Art-adjacent careers, based on other skills she will develop later in her life (communication, scheduling, managing a group), are also a possibility: gallery manager, art/music teacher for kids, museum curator, project manager, etc. They won't be very different in skill set from their equivalents in other topics.

Please do not write her off at 8, in terms of academics. My son has ADHD, high-functioning autism, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, low processing speed, hypotonia and lack of coordination, and is currently in college majoring in International Affairs. He took a dozen AP classes in high school and graduated with a high GPA and near perfect ACT score. He will be a great analyst one day!

Right now you need to focus on developing those areas of her brain that are impacted by her disabilities. Pay through the nose for the right dyslexia tutor if you have to, observe the sessions, and learn how to train her yourself in addition to the professional sessions. I had to essentially re-teach my son all the stuff he had missed in elementary. Every blasted day of his elementary school life, OP, I sat with him for hours. I observed his weekly physical and occupational therapy sessions and practiced it all every day myself when he was a toddler and preschooler. Otherwise he would never have caught up in time to attend school. I dedicated so much time to this kid for years so he could overcome his disabilities and achieve his potential.

What you do in these critical years will seriously impact her future potential, I cannot stress this enough. Please go all out to remediate her weaknesses, and the world might very well be her oyster as an adult.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics