Learn More
About
Our FOunder
Patty Carlson is a predominantly self taught film score composer and producer, recording artist, concert pianist, celebrity music educator and professional lecturer on “Math, Music and the Mind”. A more complete history of Patty’s life and work is available at Patty Carlson Online.
Early on, one of Patty’s students demonstrated what Patty describes as an occurrence similar to the acquired savant syndrome. The student, having no previous ability to play the piano, received twenty minutes of information about the Numeric Language of Music®. Over the course of two days, the student produced one of the most magnificent compositions Patty had ever heard. The music was complex, beautiful, an extraordinary composition. Patty realized what had occurred wasn’t rationally understood as possible. She left her remarkable career to pursue understanding how and why the Numeric Language of Music® program produced that result.
Through two decades of documented testing, and testimony after testimony, we believe it is possible the Numeric Language of Music® program is initiating accelerated cognitive and remedial brain activity in children and adults. Patty documented the exact step by step progression of information she was using in the Piano for Special Needs book. For someone like Anthony Cooper, who already played the piano, Patty explained the very simple hand motions and numeric sequences would seem like kindergarten. It was important, however, to play the exercises in the program for thirty days prior to studying the advanced application of the language in the Piano Logic Programs 1 and 2.
After Patty documented the results of parents using the information with Cale and Kaden, and long distance testing with Anthony Cooper, she felt reasonably confident of releasing the program for use by more families.
About Us
Piano for Special Needs was published to introduce the phenomenal success Patty Carlson’s Numeric Language of Music® program has achieved to the Parents of Autistic and Special Needs children community.
Predominantly self taught, Patty Carlson was composing and producing music for films on PBS, ABC and Turner Broadcasting and performing in concert. Between film productions, Patty began to teach her understanding of music, a simplistic mathematical language defined by numeric sequences of structural form and motion. Patty’s teaching methods were heralded by television news interviews, voted ‘Best Music Instruction’ by Billboard Magazine. Patty made appearances on a television show broadcasting internationally for almost three years. She made appearances on the Home Show, CNN’s Looking Up, Home Shopping Network, BBC’s Dini Petty Show. Awarded a US Patent for the unique method of conveying musical information she authored, Patty’s attention began to focus on secondary effects she observed in students. Math and reading scores were accelerating at remarkable speed. Students with D’s and failing were advancing to A’s and B’s. Other students were leaping forward by multiple grades, such as from a first grade reading level to a fifth grade third month reading level. Similar results were evident with children with special needs. Curious to see if the program would possibly benefit someone with a neurodegenerative disease, Patty tested the program with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and a long time disability from a stroke. Symptoms reversed in all three cases. Realizing the importance of the discovery, Patty set out to document the program she was using in a simple, step by step manual to see if the program used by someone without previous knowledge of music education would produce similar results. Testimonials on this site of three year old Cale, eleven year old Kaden and nineteen year old Anthony Cooper convinced Patty to publish the Piano for Special Needs program for more families to use.
Testimonials
Testimonials
Cale
Cale's Story
In August I was introduced to a three year old diagnosed with a speech disorder called Apraxia of speech which doesn’t allow the muscles in his mouth to move properly when he wants to form a word. At the time his mother began the program he was really hard to understand and wasn’t ever forming four word sentences. Cales mother handed out a flyer explaining why Cale behaved the way he did. I mentioned my work with the piano program and offered her the manual I was testing for use with parents of special needs children.
The following testimonials are from Cale’s mother including a quote from his grandmother.
-Patty
“Cale is expressing himself with words that I am able to understand. Not only can I understand him but a stranger could actually make out 70% of what he was saying. It felt like such a big leap in just 3 short months of doing this program. His teachers were so impressed with being able to understand his needs instead of playing a guessing game where everyone would just end up frustrated.”
-Cale's Mother Shannon
“I can understand almost everything he says now. You have discovered something AMAZING with the piano and I am so thankful you have and are pursuing it. I am a believer for sure!”
-Cale's Grandmother
Testimonials
Kaden
Kaden's Story
Cale’s older brother Kaden has ADHD and has always had so many problems in school with keeping up academically in basically all subjects. Kaden was in 5th grade but performing at a third grade level. After using the basic manual for thirty days, I offered Kaden the Piano Logic Program Part 1 and Part 2 to learn from. The following results were reported by Kaden’s mother.
-Patty
“My oldest son started out 5th grade at a 3rd grade level in basically everything. During the first parent teacher conference they were showing me where he had started and where he needs to be by the end of the year but did not seem very hopeful in him being able to catch up. Boy did he prove them wrong! He went from reading at a 3.4 reading level to a 5.8 in just 3 months. His math teacher even said that he has never seen a student improve in math so quickly and was so impressed with him.”
-Shannon, Kaden's Mother
Testimonials
Jessica
Jessica's Story
“Jessica has had Special Needs since she was three. She’s had reading therapy, speech therapy, reading specialists, speech specialists and with Patty’s program with the music, Jessica’s reading went from D’s to A’s and B’s.”
-Jessica’s Mom, Heather
Heather’s Interview
Testimonials
Adam
Adam's Story
Over the summer, six year old Adam studied the Numeric
Language of Music program. The following fall, Adam’s
handwriting skills had advanced from the worst in his class to the
best in his class. Continuing his study of the program, his reading
scores advanced from a first grade level to a fifth grade, third
month level.
Tracy’s Interview
Testimonials
Max
About Max
“Anyone that has a child with autism can tell you how incredibly challenging it can
be to capture their attention, maintain it, and keep them enthused and engaged. Her
methods unlocked a code that I believe taught his mind new pathways to achieve
results that he likely perceived unattainable. Max sees possibilities now where
before he may have only seen obstacles with no desire to pursue. What a
wonderful directional turn that has been! I am forever grateful to Patty Carlson for
her teaching methods and her genuine sincere desire to help others.”
-Paul Melvin
Testimonials
Sam
Sam's Story
“When I was a teenager a friend of mine let me borrow a copy of your program, and it was a breakthrough for me. I am learning disabled, but the way you explained everything so well, it was like a light switch turned on in my brain. I want to thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for your lessons. You have changed my life and the piano is one of my main enjoyments. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
-Sam Reinecker
Testimonials
Anthony
Anthony's Story
December 2019
I am Anthony’s father, David.
Anthony was a drug baby that we adopted at eight weeks. His birthmother was using meth and barbiturates while he was in utero. Anthony went thru withdrawal symptoms as an infant and the exposure to the drugs left him seriously handicapped, mentally. At about the third grade, we took him to Loma Linda University Medical Center to be tested since we were beginning to see signs of problems in his learning patterns and his development. As a result of their weeks long testing, LLUMC told us that Anthony was unable to use his frontal cortex completely and that his brain was working overtime just to try and do the 3rd grade material. He was diagnosed as borderline deficient and we were told that he would probably never get out of the 5th grade.
We were a bit non plussed by this since we could see that Anthony had some very tangible skills, mostly artistic, and was a very good reader. Thus, we assume the report wasn’t necessarily accurate and proceeded to create for him his own IEP to maximize what we saw as his strengths. During this time, he was enrolled in a private, parochial school and the school allowed us, after some haggling, to customize his education to fit his abilities. We then happened upon a seminar on the internet given by Meryl Lipton from The Rush Institute in Chicago that dealt with non-verbal learning disorders. My wife and I were intrigued since Dr. Lipton’s descriptions seemed to match up quite closely to what we were seeing in Anthony. We reached out to her, and met her, along with Anthony. After an hour or so with him, she indicated the best way for us to proceed was to have him actually tested and diagnosed by a trained professional.
We took Anthony to her referral, John Watkins, in Santa Monica, for extensive testing. Upon completion he told us that Anthony was autistic, and not slight so. The prognosis wasn’t great, but was better than what we experienced at LLUMC.
Also, the research on drug, and especially meth babies, was beginning to emerge. It appears that meth babies tend to mature late and that by their early thirties they may actually be able to live by themselves and cope with life. Anthony was about 11 years old at this point.
We continued with Anthony’s IEP and actually were able to help him to receive his diploma from high school. Math will never be an easy subject for him, but he did well enough to get through high school.
It was at this point that we ran into Patty Carlson and her program. She wanted to work with Anthony and would allow us to monitor the program and report back to her. She sent the manuscripts to us. Anthony took to the program quite quickly and seemed to be very involved and engaged. We didn’t even have to remind him to do the exercises. He was self-driven.
Anthony was not ready to go away for college yet, so he enrolled in the local community college where he mostly ended up taking voice and musical theatre classes, which he excelled at. His entry scores for math were extremely low. However, after months of working with the Piano Logic manuscripts, he was able to pass a winter break math class that year. Anthony will say that Piano Logic helped him with math, but he sees the math progress most especially in the 3D architectural world in which he is currently studying. Simple addition and subtraction are no longer impossible mountains to climb. He seems to have improved in carrying information from one area of the brain to another. From my perspective, I haven’t seen a huge increase in math ability, but I have been totally awed by the talent it unlocked in him musically. Before this program Anthony was unable to read music and his experimenting with music was mostly plinking away at the keys of a piano. However, as he got deeper into the program he became very good at playing musical pieces by ear, at first, and then later learned to read AND write music. He is composing songs, music, and lyrics for his college theatre as well as having one of his works performed and recorded by a Disney production company. This past summer he was hired to play the music for the senior class graduation. He has truly unlocked something special in himself through Piano Logic.
Anthony is in his junior year of college and living on his own two hours from home. He is doing things that we mostly dreamed he would be able to do. He will tell you that the most important thing he took to college with him was his keyboard. He, to this day, returns to the Piano Logic exercises time and time again as he feels they help him to sort things out in his brain. He says that it helps him to think more logically.
We have high hopes that Anthony will be able to continue on with his life as an active and productive member of society, and in no small part, that will be because of the help he got from Patty Carlson and the Piano Logic program.
-David Cooper
Testimonials
Megan
Megan's Story
Sixteen year old Megan was failing math, non social, wasn’t participating in class at all, had been placed in the Response to Intervention program, without success, and was recommended to be placed on prescription drugs. Desperate for help, the family contacted Patty.
Five weeks after starting the program Megan had 100% in math, was participating in class and joined the basketball team.
Jenny’s Interview
Testimonials
Soren
Soren's Story
Soren was in third grade struggling with math. Elizabeth Bailey, a high school teacher, talks about the changes in Soren’s math skills and her hopes the program would be taught in high school to all of the struggling students.
Elizabeth’s Interview
"Never underestimate
THE HEALING POWER of MUSIC!"
-Patty Carlson
Our Mission
To bring forward knowledge of Patty Carlson’s “Numeric Language of Music®” program to the Autism and Special Needs community. The uniquely simple program of tonal sequences played on a piano or electronic keyboard has successfully reversed symptoms for students with developmental challenges, in addition to rapidly advancing math and reading skills.
