Music Therapy Autism Literature Review

I knew about music therapy before my paper because I was actually going to major in it for college. It is interesting because I honestly knew so little on how and what music therapists really do in their sessions. One thing I learned and found extremely interesting was how music therapy can help children with autism identify emotions. Music therapy can help individuals identify the correct emotions and expressions of themselves and others around them. An example is if the music therapist plays a sad song, the child will internally feel a little sad inside, they can sing words or say expressions that relate to sadness, and then they can look in the mirror and see their own sad face while also looking at the music therapists sad face (Music Therapy Center of California, 2005, p. 4). I thought it was so interesting to know that music can help children understand emotions. Music therapy can help to lessen negative self-stimulation and it can increase participation and social skills among peers in more acceptable ways (American Music Therapy Association, 2012, p.1). Another big thing I learned from my research is how much music therapy can help a child with autism’s language skills. Music therapy can help children who do not have verbal language express themselves and communicate. The music can also let them participate freely. The connection between the actual music and the interaction of play, such as listening, taking turns and responding helps them with their communication skills (American Music Therapy Association, 2012, p.1). Some personal experiences that I can account for is when I volunteered for a musical theater production called Razzle Dazzle. This was a music production with adults with disabilities. Their disabilities ranged from Down syndrome, to autism, to simply just an intellectual disability. One man by the name of UNKNOWN, was a dancer in our show.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a growing problem throughout the entire globe. Autism Spectrum Disorder is defined as deficits in social reciprocity and communication, as well as unusual, restricted and repetitive behaviors (Lord). Such behaviors may include running back and forth, excessive cleaning, noises, and clapping. These also vary greatly with age and ability, and the notion of ASD has been introduced to recognize these diversities (Firth). Autism was first discovered in 1943 when Leo Kanner observed 11 children with several common traits such as, impairments in social interaction, anguish for changes, good memory, belated echolalia, over sensitivity to certain stimuli (especially sound), food problems, limitations in spontaneous activity,

In a setting with someone with autism spectrum disorder, music therapists make use of music as an educational tool to encourage learning. One of the purposes of music therapy for someone with autism is to provide the student with an initial assistance using melodious and rhythmic strategies, followed by fading of musical cues to assist in simplification and transfer to other learning environments. Music therapy has been proven to decrease symptoms of children with autism, and could even facilitate motivation and social interaction. Even autistic children, who rarely or never speak, can respond to music; sometimes they may even sing along. Music therapy provides a tool that can link the gap between a non-communicative child and one who can

According to Geretsegger et al. (2014), music therapy is an effective clinical intervention for a varied of medical conditions, which are profoundly supported by strong scientific evidence on their significance for mood enhancement and stress relief. The five conditions for which music therapy has been studied, backed up by good scientific evidence are; dementia, autism, sleep quality, depression and infant development.

Most people think children with Autism will never be able to learn and function in normal society but in fact, children with autism have the ability to learn and improve their education and even their behavior which allows them to function as close if not equally in society. Depending on the level of the disease, most children diagnosed with autism still need assistance with living and job skills throughout their adulthood and later years. Most autistics are classified as “mentally retarded” but there are about 10 percent are considered “autistic savants.” (POV, 2013) A savant is defined as “someone who excels in a particular area.” (Riccio, 1999) An example of an autistic savant is someone who can play Beethoven sonata after only hearing it one time. Another great example is an autistic person can tell you if September 2, 1962 fell on a Saturday or Sunday. These examples are part of the autistic child’s brain function. Even though autistic children may seem mentally challenged they have great ability to stick to a particular motive and excel in that one

According to Kids Health (2014), “children with Autism have difference in the way their brains develop and process information”. For example, “language delay, trouble communicating with their brains, perform certain unusual or repetitive behaviors, or have difficulties learning in school” (p. 1).

A characteristic of autism is echolalia, the repetition of words or phrases. Some therapies aim to discourage echolalia in order to limit the symptoms of autism in the individual. While it is a somewhat controversial issue music therapy generally aims to instead aid in the effective use of echolalia. For many children expressing an idea is more important than using unique language to do so. Music therapy often provides a script for the child, for example, a greeting song provides the words and the cue to greet peers and

Readings: • The Autistic Spectrum • Chapter 4 • “First Causes” pg. 115125/Summary pg. 140-141 • Chapter 13  This week’s agenda: Unit 2!

Lawrence fiddled with a toy while listening to the radio. After the broadcast was over, he softly mumbled something, though he generally kept to himself. I listened closely since his autism typically prevented Lawrence from stringing even two words together. He had recited the entire radio program, virtually word for word, even mimicking the tone of the broadcaster's voice. My jaw dropped. At that moment I knew that I wanted to learn more about Lawrence’s autism condition so that I could help him grow, but I also hoped to dedicate myself to studying the brain both from a physiological and psychological standpoint.

From 1997 to about 2007 the number of children with autism spectrum disorder has increase from 42,517 to about 258,305 and has risen since (Reschke-Hernández, 2011). With this rise of children who have autism, the rise of music therapy has since appeared greatly. When music therapy was first documented, the music was used in both group and individual settings. It was used with those who lacked social skills, those who needed rehabilitation, for self-expression, for psychological improvement and also recreational purposes (Rescheke- Hernández, 2011). Music therapist use techniques such as improvisation music therapy, dancing and singing, speech dynamics, and rhythm to help clients with social skills, body awareness and communication skills (Rescheke- Hernández, 2011). Children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder can be treated through music therapy to enhance their social skills, learning skills, and coordination.

ABA is based on principles of behavioral therapy and is one of the most effective interventions for children that have autism. According to Healy, O'Connor, Leader, and Kenny (2008), early intensive behavioral intervention was effective with preschool children that had autism because they reported high achievements in normative functioning, which was measured under practical outcomes and standard psychological methods. The study also concludes that since Applied Behavior Analysis is a treatment, it can fabricate systematic, substantial and durable effects under particular conditions. This study provided an example where 40% to 60 % children before reaching five who had two years and ten months treatment improved well enough that they were ready to be enrolled in public schools. The research shows that Applied Behavior Analysis is effective with children that have autism, but there are many other effective interventions that can be integrated with ABA. For example Lim and Draper (2011) incorporated music with Applied Behavioral Analysis and found that both of music and ABA were effective and there was no significant differences in between them. Moreover, results specifically indicated that music was as important as speech training to form functional verbal operants in children that have autism. The results also stated that when music is paired with ABA, musical stimuli could enhance verbal production in children with autism. In

Perception refers to the process of taking in, organizing, and interpreting sensory data. Perception is multimodal, with multiple sensory inputs contributing to motor responses (Bertenthal 1996). In this paper, I will discuss the many differences between people with autism and the people without and how each person reacts to the same stimuli differently. I will focus on a teenage boy named Brandon, who has Autism, the parents have known that he had ASD since he was 16 months of age where they entered him into early intervention. Each person focuses differently on the perception of each thing in the world, but when you add a person with autism into the mix everything changes completely. When it comes to perception I believe that top-down processing is going to be the focus of this paper since, it has a lot to do with perception, that perception may start with the brain this includes a person’s knowledge, experience, and expectation.

Szatmari P, Bartolucci G, Bremner R, Bond S, Rich S. A follow-up study of high-functioning autistic children. J Autism Dev Disord. 1989;19:213–25

Structural and functional brain imaging reveals that ASD affects multiple parts of the brain (Amaral, Geschwind, & Dawson, 2011), likely affecting the cerebellum, frontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala (Santangelo & Tsatsanis, 2005).

Music therapy is a therapeutic use that harnesses the musical strengths of the participants while focusing on alleviating the different impairments that each autistic person might endure. These music based interventions are specifically beneficial for individuals with the autistic spectrum disorder as they address impairments in joint attention, social reciprocity, and non-verbal and verbal communication. In addition to these, multisensory perception, motor performance and behavioral issues. Children with the autistic spectrum disorder also tend to find musical activities enjoyable because of their enhanced musical understanding making music therapy successful in keeping their attention focused (Heaton, 2003). Additionally, children with autism