Music Therapy As An Effective Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapy in Children and Adolescents with Autism or Related Diagnosis

Background: Therapeutic modalities in the field of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) continue to gain popularity as effective adjuncts to traditional interventions for a variety of medical conditions and developmental/psychological disorders, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Music therapy, a form of mind-body therapy, is a CAM technique used increasingly to promote musical and non-musical communicative behaviors, positive peer interactions, compliant behavior, emotional synchronicity, and initiation of engagement in children and young adults who have been diagnosed with autism or related disorder, with promising results.  The Children’s Music Fund’s (CMF) mission is to provide music therapy for children and young adults with chronic pain, life altering illnesses, and developmental disorders, with the goal of promoting general well-being for its clients.  In addition, CMF seeks to actively improve and increase the available research on music therapy within the field of complementary and alternative medical therapies.  In 2011, CMF will have provided over 300 individual music therapy sessions and donated a total of over 100 musical instruments to individuals, hospitals, and organizations.

Objectives: The literature continues to lack evidence-based systematic reviews and well-designed controlled studies to assess the efficacy of music therapy in facilitating prosocial and communicative behaviors with the ASD population.  The goal of this study is to assess converging reports of these benefits in a sample of children and adolescents with an autism or related diagnosis at discrete time points.  

Methods: Parent, child, and therapist pre- and post-intervention assessents are collected and will be summarized to delineate the therapeutic effects of music therapy on various key outcomes in children with ASD, including repetitive stereoptypical behaviors, social functioning, and communication by CMF clients.

Results: Findings are anticipated to reveal that children with ASD who are provided with music therapy will exhibit an increase in verbal and non-verbal communication as compared to the control group, show improvements in reciprocal social behaviors, and show reductions in repetitive/stereotypical behaviors. 

Conclusions: Although music interventions have been used to facilitate social, behavioral and communication skills, further research is required to establish the contribution of these interventions to the development and maintenance of these skills.

 

See more of: Treatment I: Social Skills, Schools, Stress
See more of: Treatments: A: Social Skills; School, Teachers
See more of: Prevalence, Risk factors & Intervention

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