Many music therapists who work with children with autism work on social skills. A lack of social skills is a defining characteristic of autism, displayed by a disinterest in other persons, avoidance of social interaction opportunities, and behaviors related to social avoidance. A new study suggests that social behaviors can be improved with music therapy.
A recent single-subject design study by Finnigan and Starr (2010) showed that music therapy was successful in increasing social responsive behaviors including eye contact, imitation skills, and turn taking skills for a preschool child with autism. However, the only skill that improved (slightly) in nonmusical followup measurements was turn taking. The client also showed no avoidance behaviors when in music therapy sessions.
Although these are excellent findings, this was single-systems research, which cannot be generalized to the population at large. These small-scale studies do provide initial evidence indicating treatment success that can be used for larger-scale studies. This can help to inform practice in a small way (that is important); however, cannot be used alone in evidence-based practice.
A big bonus of this study is that they are extremely clear about their research design, the limitations of their design, and their methodology. I could easily replicate this study, as the authors include all materials, lyrics from their songs, and scripts from the nonmusical intervention. It would be nice to see more music therapy researchers following their lead, as “music therapy” has a wide scope of methodology and application.
What this means for the clinic? If you are using music as a way to engage children with autism socially, then keep it up. The big “un oh” for me is the lack of a carry-over effect – meaning once therapy ended so did the targeted behaviors. As MTs, we are trying to work ourselves out of a job by having our clients succeed when we are present and after the session ends. We want to see skill generalization and maintenance. Most of the time, that means practicing generalization and encouraging use of skills outside of music therapy by way of parent, sibling, teacher, para, etc…
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Ok, I’m on vacation and not supposed to be reading this. My husband asked me what was so important. So quickly, this is exciting news. I’m working on a proposed pilot study for a preschool music therapy program in our school district and I think this will be very helpful for that. Thanks!
Reading research on vacation! Glad that this will be helpful to you. Would be a very nice study to replicate.
Yes! Take note, distance learning NMT Master’s students doing a thesis!