Abstract
BackgroundThe Cochrane Collection reviews of randomized clinical trials (RCT) showed a favorable result of music therapy (MT) on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with a placebo treatment.ObjectiveThis study focuses on accessing whether MT can improve the development of social skills of autistic children and to check if the effects of MT are long lasting.Materials and methodsThis study was designed as a pre-test/post-test and follow-up among the autistic children. Fifty-four children with mild to severe autism were selected and assigned into two groups: active and passive. The children received MT for 3 months and the groups were followed-up for 3 months. The data were analyzed with IBM-SPSS-21 software using t test and the groups were compared by analysis of covariance.ResultsThe results of the MT intervention were mostly apparent in the following subscales—understanding/perspective-taking, initiating interactions, responding initiation, and maintaining interactions with others. The post-test covariance analysis results showed a significant increase in social skills’ scores (p < 0.05). Also, the t test results of the paired-sample revealed that the effectiveness of MT has been continual during the follow-up phase.ConclusionsThe study illustrated that MT is an effective intervention in improving social skills of autistic children with steady effects. MT helped in developing a form of communication for these children which led to an improvement in their ability to understand, respond, and maintain their interaction with their peers.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including autism, denotes a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with social interaction, verbal, and nonverbal communication difficulties in different levels and monotonous behaviors [1]
The study illustrated that music therapy (MT) is an effective intervention in improving social skills of autistic children with steady effects
MT helped in developing a form of communication for these children which led to an improvement in their ability to understand, respond, and maintain their interaction with their peers
Summary
This study used a quasi-experimental research design with a control group and a pre and post follow-up test. The inclusion criteria for the study include children aged between 6 and 12 years, and mild, moderate to severe ASD as per Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) scale. In order to test our hypothesis, we designed a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up study for ASD children who received music therapy for 3 months. With pre-test data as covariates, this table shows the analysis of initiating social interactions with others assessment between the two groups. There is no significant increase in this ability among the active group when compared to passive group low pitch (1–3), moderate (4–6), and high (7–9).
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