Fernando’s story

Music was a creative outlet for Fernando during times of change

This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week, a time to celebrate the talents and strengths of neurodiverse minds. This year, we’re sharing music-lover Fernando’s story.

Fernando moved from Portugal to the UK, where he began attending a local Special Educational Needs (SEN) school. This was a time of lots of change for him: starting over at a new school away from everyone he knew, all while learning and communicating in his second language.

Fernando is also autistic, which meant that settling in and making new friends was a little more difficult for him at first. However, his teachers at school noticed his creativity and love of music. So, he began attending music therapy in the hope that this could help him to settle into his new school and give him a space to be creative.

In the video below it’s Fernando’s birthday, and he’s singing and playing a mixture of instruments with his music therapist Thomas. Watch as he asks to play “one more song” and clicks his drumsticks to introduce the rhythm!

Music therapy gave Fernando a supportive environment to explore his creativity. And over time, he began sharing more of his music and ideas with his music therapist Thomas. The video above shows how they would collaborate and exchange ideas with one another through the music as they played together. Thomas summed up the energy of their sessions together, saying; “there was a carefree sense of enjoying creating music together, without worrying about any imperfections.”

Fernando has now settled in well at school, and he’s still passionate about music. His mum is even looking for music groups for him to join outside of school too!