“We Dance and Find Each Other”1: Effects of Dance/Movement Therapy on Negative Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The treatment of deficits in social interaction, a shared symptom cluster in persons with schizophrenia (negative symptoms) and autism spectrum disorder (DSM-5 A-criterion), has so far remained widely unsuccessful in common approaches of psychotherapy. The alternative approach of embodiment brings to focus body-oriented intervention methods based on a theoretic framework that explains the disorders on a more basic level than common theory of mind approaches. The randomized controlled trial at hand investigated the effects of a 10-week manualized dance and movement therapy intervention on negative symptoms in participants with autism spectrum disorder. Although the observed effects failed to reach significance at the conventional 0.05 threshold, possibly due to an undersized sample, an encouraging trend towards stronger symptom reduction in the treatment group for overall negative symptoms and for almost all subtypes was found at the 0.10-level. Effect sizes were small but clinically meaningful, and the resulting patterns were in accordance with theoretical expectations. The study at hand contributes to finding an effective treatment approach for autism spectrum disorder in accordance with the notion of embodiment.

Effects of Dance Movement Therapy on Adult Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The employment of a manualized form of DMT has already been reported beneficial for this population [ 35 ]. However, so far only a few evidence-based studies exist on the effects of DMT on individuals with ASD [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Some of the existing studies already employed quantitative research designs (e.g., [ 36 , 37 ]) or focused on the benefits of DMT for specific cluster of patients such as children (e.g., [ 38 ]).…”

“…However, so far only a few evidence-based studies exist on the effects of DMT on individuals with ASD [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Some of the existing studies already employed quantitative research designs (e.g., [ 36 , 37 ]) or focused on the benefits of DMT for specific cluster of patients such as children (e.g., [ 38 ]). Adler’s classic video “Looking for me” [ 39 ] depicts the process of DMT with a three- and a five-year-old girl with ASD, illustrating the use and potential of DMT.…”

“…Adler’s classic video “Looking for me” [ 39 ] depicts the process of DMT with a three- and a five-year-old girl with ASD, illustrating the use and potential of DMT. While the use of DMT for children with ASD is frequently mentioned as a promising therapeutic approach [ 25 ], findings up to 2000 came exclusively from case-studies, and evidence for its application with adolescents or adults is still rudimentary [ 36 ].…”

“…Providing further evidence on the effectiveness of DMT in ASD patients, Hildebrandt et al [ 36 ] found a trend of DMT reducing negative affect in ASD patients within the same sample of the TESIS project. Interestingly, the negative affect in individuals with autism was significantly higher than the negative affect in individuals with schizophrenia that were also part of the TESIS study, in a separate but parallel multicenter RCT [ 36 ], where DMT was also found to reduce negative affect significantly (measured with the SANS [ 40 ]). Finally, Koehne et al [ 37 ] recently conducted a study investigating the effectiveness of a DMT intervention on emotional inference and empathic feelings of individuals with high-functioning ASD.…”

Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction

“…Therefore, it is important to extend the bodily connectedness proposal so as to include experimental designs capable of accounting for the interoceptive experience of the lived body, for instance through the sense of touch or of being moved, as explored for example in dance therapies [ 35 , 36 ]. Given that embodied intersubjectivity is crucial for better understanding ASD, “skin-to-skin” interactions [ 37 ] must also be considered for complementing experiments on gaze responsiveness and movement coordination, both of which allow only face-to-face interactions.…”