Category Archives: Autism

MTRB #23 – Petra Kern and Daniel Tague

Dr. Petra Kern, owner of Music Therapy Consulting, is adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Louisville and Editor-in-Chief of the online magazine imagine. She is a former WFMT President, currently serves on CBMT’s Board of Directors, and is a recipient of AMTA’s Research/Publications award.

Dr. Daniel Tague is Assistant Professor and Chair of Music Therapy at Southern Methodist University. With experience as a teacher, clinician, blogger and researcher, he currently serves as Chair of the Clinical Practice Commission of the WFMT.

Link: Their international survey is published in the Journal of Music Therapy

Link for Dr. Kern: www.musictherapy.biz

The Motor System May Impact Speech in Autism

The idea that persons on the autism spectrum have motor differences is not a new one; however, ideas around how motor movement in persons with ASD can impact other skills have just recently gained more press. Researchers published a recent article reviewing research on motor differences and suggesting that these impact speech and communication abilities.  Continue reading →

A Different Look at Autism

Over the past decade, there has been increasing research on different aspects of Autism Spectrum DIsorders. For example, Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience just released an issue completely dedicated to sensorimotor differences in ASD. For this MTRB post we will take a brief look at some of the core articles in this issue. Continue reading →

Sensory and ASD

In the process of writing a grant application for a music therapy research project focused on ASD, I have been reading a lot of current research. Something that has been more prevalent in the research over the past two years is a consideration of sensory needs in ASD (see Kwakye et al., 2011 or Marco et al., 2011 to read about sensory and autism). Within this literature I found two articles investigating sensory supports for children with ASD.  Continue reading →

Should We Challenge Our Ideas About ASD?

A recent article challenges us to take a different look at autism – to consider that the typical approach may not be the only or the most effective approach in treating children who have an ASD.  This week we’ll consider this perspective and look at a few non-music research studies that challenge how we typically think of ASD. Continue reading →