Music as a Helpful Instrument in the Treatment of Children with Asd in Their School Inclusion Program

Abstract

Since birth infants are active and communicative partners engaged in protoconversations with caretakers. Motherese, the simplified language adults spontaneously use with infants, has a musical structure. We believe that for developmental and evolutionistic reasons music is a preferential tool to favor communication and to promote group identity. We carried on a musical experience with a group of autistic (ASD) children aged 5 to 7 years. Each child participated at their school with 10 typically developed classmates and their teachers. Our ASD children love music and enjoy playing and singing. With music, they overcome some communicative and social difficulties. Their bodily posture changed with music, facilitating joint attention and improvement of verbal language. When singing children learned linguistic skills, they ameliorated vowels’ pronunciation and understood how a question and an answer differ in melodic contour. Taking into account the unique sensory motor profile of each ASD child, we proposed rhythmic music with high proprioceptive input (for under-reactive children) and smooth and calming music for avoidant and easily overwhelming children in order to ameliorate intentionality and enlarge circles of communication. A combination of semistructured and spontaneous activity is the main components of our approach, which has both therapeutic and educational impacts. In the musical group, all the ASDs appeared to be more attentive, motivated, better performing and able to teach their acquired skills to their peers. Typical peers interact more with children with ASD with music. We consider this very helpful in the inclusion of ASD children in a school setting.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.