The effect of sung speech on socio-communicative responsiveness in children with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

There is emerging evidence to demonstrate the efficacy of music-based interventions for improving social functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). While this evidence lends some support in favor of using song over spoken directives in facilitating engagement and receptive intervention in ASD, there has been little research that has investigated the efficacy of such stimuli on socio-communicative responsiveness measures. Here, we present preliminary results from a pilot study which tested whether sung instruction, as compared to spoken directives, could elicit greater number of socio-communicative behaviors in young children with ASD. Using an adapted single-subject design, three children between the ages of 3 and 4 years, participated in a programme consisting of 18 sessions, of which 9 were delivered with spoken directives and 9 with sung. Sessions were counterbalanced and randomized for three play activities—block matching, picture matching and clay play. All sessions were video-recorded for post-hoc observational coding of three behavioral metrics which included performance, frequency of social gesture and eye contact. Analysis of the videos by two independent raters indicated increased socio-communicative responsiveness in terms of frequency of social gesture as well as eye contact during sung compared to spoken conditions, across all participants. Our findings suggest that sung directives may play a useful role in engaging children with ASD and also serve as an effective interventional medium to enhance socio-communicative responsiveness.

Discerning the functional networks behind processing of music and speech through human vocalizations

“…Our data also corroborated music selectivity, particularly in the anterior portion of the secondary auditory cortex (planum polare), which was independent of whether the musical stimuli contained lyrics or not. Finally, these results provide more evidence supporting music-based therapies as a complementary way to address motor impairments [68][69][70][71] and communicative skills, as has been demonstrated in social behaviors in children with autism [72][73][74] .…”

Behavioral predictors of improved speech output in minimally verbal children with autism

“…The current analysis was performed in the context of a completed proof‐of‐concept study and an ongoing randomized clinical trial, comparing auditory‐motor mapping training (AMMT), a novel treatment that uses intonation (singing) and rhythmic hand tapping to facilitate sound‐motor mapping and/or to improve speech output in MV children with ASD, with speech repetition therapy (SRT), a control treatment that involves neither intonation nor hand tapping. AMMT is one of a small number of music‐based treatments that have recently begun to be used effectively for teaching language and social skills to children with ASD [see e.g.,Lim, ; Lim & Draper, ; Paul et al, ]. In an earlier proof‐of‐concept study involving AMMT alone, significant improvement in production of two‐syllable words and phrases was observed over 40 treatment sessions in six MV children with ASD [Wan et al, ], with levels of improvement ranging from 8% to 71% across participants.…”

White Matter Integrity and Treatment-Based Change in Speech Performance in Minimally Verbal Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…For example, Paul et al (2015) showed that singing directives, rather than speaking them, resulted in a greater response rate to name and to social gestures in three MV children with ASD. However, Lim and Draper (2011) showed that sung instructions were as effective as spoken instructions in eliciting four types of verbal communication in 22 verbal and preverbal preschool children with ASD.…”