The Use of Music Intervention in Improving Social and Communicative Behaviors in Children and Adolescents Under the Autism Spectrum

Music intervention serves a variety of remedial purposes. It addresses physical, emotional, cognitive, and overall communicative needs of certain individuals through the provision of music in conjunction with evidence-based clinical approaches within a specialized, methodical setting. In recent years, music therapy has been experimented with various efforts to determine its impact when implemented towards children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of the present review is to analyze several studies that were conducted between 2010 and 2017, that were published as evidence relating to the usefulness of music intervention as a means of teaching, or improving, social skills and communicative behaviors in children and adolescents with ASD. After a detailed breakdown of fifteen studies and experiments, it can be concluded that music intervention does prove to be a useful method in establishing satisfactory social and communicative behaviors in children and adolescents with ASD. The strength of its effects, or the permanence of such learned behaviors however, are questionable and inconclusive