Promoting Communication for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Family-centered Music Therapy Intervention

Abstract

Introduction. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a continuum of traits that may negati-vely affect social and emotional competencies of individuals, including challenges in their engagement abilities, possible limitations in reciprocal interactions, and inflexibility in initia-ting and sustaining communication. Such challenges may affect language development and speech acquisition. Considering their importance, this study explored the impact of a family-centered, music therapy intervention to promote preverbal and verbal communication skills of young children with ASD during parent–child, music engagement episodes. Method. A mixed-methods design was implemented to gather data on the children’s prever-bal and verbal communication abilities (pre-and-post intervention data collection) and on each dyad’s musical interactions during a 16-week music therapy intervention. Quantitative out-come measures included children’s scores on the Pragmatics Profile of Everyday Communi-cation Skills (PPECS) and the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (CSBSDP), to assess children’s communication, expressive speech, and symbolic behavior over time. Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, logs, and journaling. Results. Reports from the families corroborate with quantitative results regarding changes on the children’s communication abilities after the intervention. Discussion and Conclusion. Collectively, the current study provides evidence on the poten-tial of using music therapy interventions within a family-centered approach to enhance young children’s preverbal and verbal communication skills. © Universidad de Almería and Ilustre Colegio Oficial de la Psicología de Andalucía Oriental (Spain)