I do not want DD to become a musician but this is part of the left brain and she is visual spatial. If it works to do this, then I make the commitment.
Ha ha, I thought I was the only one using piano as a form of therapy for my VSLs. A former piano teacher told me she thinks it requires the left and right brains to work together. I think there are aspects for each half of the brain.
Oddly enough, my one who is the least visual-spatial (or more balanced, with both right and left brain strengths, as far as I can tell) has the most trouble with piano - the fattest fingers with the least dexterity, the most trouble learning to read music, and with his underachieving/perfectionist tendencies thrown in, he really hates to practice because it requires him to turn on his brain. But I'm making him continue (even if I have to sometimes drag him kicking and screaming to the piano to practice) because I think it's good for (a) his brain development, (b) his motor development, and (c) his perfectionist tendency to avoid things that are hard for him. It's hard to know what he gets away with at school in terms of avoiding hard work (I know his teacher works on this) but I know that piano is real work for him. Plus he gets to see that he really *can* do it if he tries. Basically, in a manner of speaking, it being hard for him is the very reason I think he needs it.
I keep practice pretty short (not that I have to persuade him to stop lol). He likes to negotiate on the number of times he plays the piece. The shorter we keep practice, the easier it is to get him to do it on a daily basis. Sometimes that leads to him spending more than one week on the same piece. He'll never be a concert pianist, but that's fine by me. We're in no hurry. I'm hoping to keep this up for another couple of years at least, just for the therapeutic benefits for all three of my kids who are old enough to play (even though they each have different weaknesses, piano seems to be good for all those things). By then, the younger ones will start.
