Finding their inner music

Music therapy is gaining wider acceptance in China, as mentally challenged youngsters are exposed to classical music and learn to play instruments in programs that help them find harmony with the outside world, Chen Nan discovers.

Yang Xinli knew that her daughter, Huan'er, was different from other children soon after she was born in 1990. She easily lost her temper, couldn't sleep well and had no eye contact with people. None of that fazed Yang and her family until a psychologist Yang met at a bus stop suggested that her daughter's crying and screaming were not normal.

Yang took Huan'er, who was then 20 months old, to the hospital and was told that her daughter had Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder.