Effects of music therapy to enhance verbal skills in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was threefold (a) it examined the differential effect of three different music interventions, namely the Interaction music singing (“singing”), Interactive music playing (“music and singing”) and Receptive Music Therapy (“listening”) studying the varying latency periods in the response time it took three children diagnosed with ASD to vocally elicit the target word, (b) assessed the index of happiness of children with autism after the implementation of the three music interventions which can in turn be used to influence their overall quality of life through this specific intervention; and (c) measured the social validity in regards to meeting satisfaction with goals, procedures and outcomes. The three musical approaches to be used consisted of both active and passive methods (Prakash, 2015) including Music Interaction Therapy (“singing”), (Wimpory and Nash, 1999), Interactive music playing (“music and singing”), (Kaplan and Steele, 2005) and Receptive music therapy (“listening”). The basic research questions for this study were: (a) How do the three music interventions compare in their impact on decreasing the latency period preceding a vocal response in three children with ASD? (b) Do children with ASD show different levels of happiness from participation in the three music interventions?; and (c) How do teachers and parents measure the social validity in regards to meeting outcomes, goals, and procedures of this particular intervention for verbal expression? The participants included three children ages 6 years old diagnosed with ASD from the Lebanese Autism Society (LAS), a non-governmental organization, located in Beirut, Lebanon, which educationally caters for children with autism. This study used the multielement design, also known as the alternating treatment design, to compare the effects of each of the three different music therapy techniques on the child’s latency to respond to target words during the pl