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April is Autism Acceptance Month. WNIJ talked to a Rockford couple who said music helped their son after his diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
Some children show signs of being on the spectrum as early as 12 months old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alan and Charlotte Abanes say their son David was about 15 months old when they noticed a decline in his speaking.
“All of a sudden we had just a setback. We had his hearing tested at the time,” Charlotte said. “That was fine. So, we started speech therapy then. But we didn t have a diagnosis until he was probably [in] kindergarten.”
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Dorothy Paige-Turner can be described as sort of well a renaissance woman.
In addition to singing and being a retired teacher, she writes books, poetry and plays, leads a number of youth art initiatives, speaks French and has received many awards for her work throughout the years. She was also inducted into the Rockford Fine Arts Coalition 2020 Hall of Fame.
Paige-Turner grew up in Arkansas. She said she had dreams of becoming an opera singer.
“I am classically trained. I mean, I have a degree in music education, special emphasis in voice, and I sang opera,” she explained,” “and I wanted to be the next Leontyne Price.”
Credit https://joejencks.com/home/?page=home
Joe Jencks grew up in Rockford. He is the youngest of seven children. He said his family was always surrounded by music.
“I would crawl under the piano as a kid as a toddler,” he explained, “when other people were playing, I d find a little cubby under there in between the instruments the guitars, and the cello and the trombone and everything else that was under there, I d crawl in between them. And I would lay there and just listen to people make music.”
Jencks said that this was his safe space and the sound waves floating through his body brought him comfort.
Christopher D. Sims.
Credit Connie Kuntz
Sims is from the West Side of Rockford and first shared his poetic gifts onstage at Haskell Elementary School thanks to Dorothy Paige-Turner.
Rooted in Black joy and celebration, his poems wind through the landscapes of this country s past and present. He hopes they will inform, engage and entertain. Sims, who originally wrote rap and hip-hop lyrics, said his poetry has a bebop cadence. His poem Thinking About King: A Thesis-Poem On Leadership reflects on the years since Martin Luther King Jr. s passing.
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