<p>Promoting Communication for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Family-centered Music Therapy Intervention</p>

Abstract

Introduction. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a continuum of traits that may negatively affect social and emotional competencies of individuals, including challenges in their engagement abilities, possible limitations in reciprocal interactions, and inflexibility in initiating and sustaining communication. Such challenges may affect language development and speech acquisition. Considering their importance, this study explored the impact of a family-centered, music therapy intervention to promote preverbal and verbal communication skills of young children with ASD during parent–child, music engagement episodes. Method. A mixed-methods design was implemented to gather data on the children’s preverbal and verbal communication abilities (pre-and-post intervention data collection) and on each dyad’s musical interactions during a 16-week music therapy intervention. Quantitative outcome measures included children’s scores on the Pragmatics Profile of Everyday Communication Skills (PPECS) and the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (CSBSDP), to assess children’s communication, expressive speech, and symbolic behavior over time. Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, logs, and journaling. Results. Reports from the families corroborate with quantitative results regarding changes on the children’s communication abilities after the intervention. Discussion and Conclusion. Collectively, the current study provides evidence on the potential of using music therapy interventions within a family-centered approach to enhance young children’s preverbal and verbal communication skills.

The Efficacy of Music Therapy Programs on the Development of Social Communication in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review

“…These results seem to confirm the results of other experimental and case studies [16,21,23,24,[44][45][46]. In particular, Kim et al (2009) [16] found a positive relationship between music therapy and the child's emotional synchronization with the therapist.…”

“…Moreover, in two of the studies, there was an increase in children's imitative ability, comprehension, and interaction maintenance [13,41]. The effect of family-centered music therapy (FCMT) on socioemotional functioning and the development of social interaction of children with ASD in different social contexts and their interaction with parents also seems to be positive [31,42]. Another important factor is the level of language.…”

“…Vaiouli and Andreou (2022) [42] studied the effectiveness of an FCMT program in promoting verbal and nonverbal communication among children with ASD and the perceptions of the parents of these children regarding the use of music as a communication tool. The music therapy program lasted 16 weeks and included weekly 45 min sessions.…”

“…So far, the findings of the literature on the effectiveness of music therapy programs for children with ASD are quite encouraging [12,14,16,[21][22][23][24]. Music therapy appears to greatly promote prosocial and social interaction in children with ASD and can increase the levels of joint attention and nonverbal skills [21,24].…”

“…So far, the findings of the literature on the effectiveness of music therapy programs for children with ASD are quite encouraging [12,14,16,[21][22][23][24]. Music therapy appears to greatly promote prosocial and social interaction in children with ASD and can increase the levels of joint attention and nonverbal skills [21,24]. Research by Pater et al (2021) [14] showed significant improvement in children's concentration on a common task and in taking initiative, while in the study by Vaiouli et al (2015) [23], participants showed an increased ability to focus on faces and respond to joint attention.…”