Last year I taught music to a close to non-verbal boy with autism named Stephen.
We played a game in the class called Jingle at the Window. It involved the children sitting in a circle passing a tambourine from one child to the next. Each child held the tambourine just long enough to play 3 beats on it in time to the music.
Not only did Stephen take the tambourine, play his 3 beats and pass it on to the next child in time to the music, he judged where the tambourine would be in a particular part of the circle, ran to a point just beyond that, and succeeded in getting himself another turn out of the deal; very forward thinking I thought.
He is about 7 years old now and has gone on to play the drums. It is clear that he has great musical talent which is nurtured by his family.
Here are the kids learning to skip a beat and pass on the tambourine in time. As you can see, it’s not easy!