Promoting the Musical Engagement of Autistic Children in the Early Years Through a Program of Parental Support: An Ecological Research Study

Abstract

Some autistic children display an intuitive capacity to reproduce and restyle the musical stimuli that they encounter in their environments. Music also offers a safe space for the development of social competencies and, across the spectrum, musical interventions are regarded as an effective way of promoting engagement with others. Yet, there is a lack of empirically researched music programs for parents and carers of children with autism. In this study, 11 families with autistic children incorporated music making into everyday life, supported by researcher-practitioners and framed by resources outlining musical activities based on the Sounds of Intent in the Early Years framework. Assessment of video data and interviews revealed that the new resources were flexible enough to be adapted to each child and they helped parents to build confidence to engage with their children musically. It was found that children had an increased interest and engagement in music as well as in joint play, which impacted positively on their musical and social development. The interpersonal music spaces created by the parents provided opportunities for unlocking expressiveness and interactive behavior, which in turn supported verbal development, emotional regulation and social interaction. These findings have implications for arts-in-health research and highlight the potentially crucial role of parents as mentors for their child’s musical development. The study further demonstrates that specialist musical training is not a requirement to develop parent–child engagement in music making at home.

Building musical lives: The impact of supporting musical play in the everyday lives of autistic children and their families

“…This was particularly seen in the role of singing as an element that appeared to emerge before speech and subsequently supersede verbal communication. This further builds upon the evidence that has emphasized the heightened musical interests and abilities of autistic children, and the separation of this from assumed cognitive and verbal capacities (Lisboa et al, 2021;Ockelford, 2013).…”

“…These cards were structured around the Sounds of Intent levels of musical development (Voyajolu & Ockelford, 2016), with six cards at each level detailing progressively more complex activities. The design of the program builds on the piloting of the procedure by Lisboa et al (2021). Full details of the cards can be found at https://tuninginautism.com/resources.…”

“…Music has been observed to be an engaging and motivating space for autistic children, ameliorating barriers often experienced in everyday communication and interaction (Lense & Camarata, 2020;Lisboa et al, 2021;Ockelford, 2012Ockelford, , 2013. Evidence of the benefits of music for autistic children is widespread, particularly within music therapy (De Vries et al, 2015;Geretsegger et al, 2014;James et al, 2015;Mayer-Benarous et al, 2021;Reschke-Hernández, 2011;Simpson & Keen, 2011).…”

Music Therapy Assessment with the IMCAP-ND: A Pilot Study

“…There were several particular constraints that should be improved in future studies. In the matter of familiarity with instruments, many autistic children have a specific interest in their auditory worlds and can demonstrate remarkable capacities to reproduce and restyle the musical stimuli that they encounter in their environments (Lisboa et al, 2021;Ockelford, 2008). Therefore, we tried to control the musical stimuli variables in what was considered possible as inclusion criteria (not being able to have regular weekly music lessons or previous music therapy sessions), since differences in musical proficiency could eventually imply variability in the interest of performing specific musical instruments.…”

“…Music therapists should be able to provide the client with an enhanced learning setting for developing skills through music, consequently serving as a reward for the achievement of non-musical behaviors (Salimpoor et al, 2011;Stegemöller, 2014), as in autism research, music's scaffolding capacity is often used as a motivational tool also in everyday life (Finnigan & Starr, 2010). Many autistic children have a specific interest in their auditory worlds and can demonstrate remarkable capacities to reproduce and restyle the musical stimuli that they encounter in their environments (Lisboa et al, 2021;Ockelford, 2008).…”