Music therapy for people with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

The findings of this updated review provide evidence that music therapy may help children with ASD to improve their skills in primary outcome areas that constitute the core of the condition including social interaction, verbal communication, initiating behaviour, and social-emotional reciprocity. Music therapy may also help to enhance non-verbal communication skills within the therapy context. Furthermore, in secondary outcome areas, music therapy may contribute to increasing social adaptation skills in children with ASD and to promoting the quality of parent-child relationships. In contrast to the studies included in an earlier version of this review published in 2006, the new studies included in this update enhanced the applicability of findings to clinical practice. More research using larger samples and generalised outcome measures is needed to corroborate these findings and to examine whether the effects of music therapy are enduring. When applying the results of this review to practice, it is important to note that the application of music therapy requires specialised academic and clinical training.

What do Cochrane systematic reviews say about interventions for autism spectrum disorders?

“…Thus, we included 17 systematic reviews. 4,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Results from systematic reviews A summary of each systematic review is presented narratively below. In addition, Table 2 4,10-25 presents the issues addressed, the main findings from each systematic review and the quality of the evidence (based on the GRADE approach).…”

“…The review 16 is an updated version of a review published in 2006 that aimed to assess the effects of music therapy for ASD.…”

Intervenção Musical Como Estratégia De Cuidado De Enfermagem a Crianças Com Transtorno Do Espectro Do Autismo Em Um Centro De Atenção Psicossocial

“…14,[17][18] There is evidence that the musical intervention contributes to break with patterns of isolation, favoring verbal and non-verbal communication, reducing stereotyped behaviors, stimulating selfexpression and the manifestation of children with ADS' subjectivity, thus stimulating the development and experiencing of new modes of playing. 14,[17][18] Application in reality: musical intervention as a nursing care strategy…”

Music and Health

“…A Cochrane review provided evidence that music therapy may help children with autism spectrum disorder to improve their skills including social interaction, verbal non-verbal communication and social emotional reciprocity, social adaptation skills and improvement in quality of parent-child relationship (Geretsegger et al, 2014).…”