Katie Cozzens

MUED 373

Dr. Dabback

27 April 2023

The Benefits of Music for Children With Autism

Throughout my research I was able to find that music is extremely beneficial for children

with special needs. I wanted to narrow that down to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The CDC defines Autism Spectrum Disorder as, “a developmental disability caused by

differences in the brain.” The CDC also says that people with ASD often have trouble with social

situations, restricted or repetitive behaviors, and they may have different ways of learning,

moving, and paying attention. Overall, music helps children with ASD by improvement of

social/communication skills, emotional regulation, and fine motor skills.

When people think of traits ASD, they normally think of people who lack social and

communication skills. Music is something that we can use as a tool for children with Autism to

help develop and improve their social and communication skills. Let’s first look at how music

can improve communication skills. Music itself is a form of communication. Students may find

themselves being able to communicate better through music, rather than the standard forms of

communication. “Since music and language have overlapping characteristics such as pitch and

tempo, music is often a medium for children with ASD to better understand language”

(Provenzaro, 2020). Through this children are able to pick up on social cues. One study found

that using singing, instrument play, movement, and improvisation caused children with ASD to

have improved their receptive and expressive communication (Provenzano, 2020). Music can

greatly improve social skills within a child with ASD. Music is seen as a universal language, it is
something that everyone can share a common interest or understanding of. Music can be a

catalyst for communication between children with ASD. According to Ghasemtabar et al.,

“Children with autism have difficulties with direct social engagement; hence, musical activities

of the socially embedded group provide extraordinary opportunities for engaging in predictable

and comfortable inter-actions with social partners'' (Ghasemtabar et al., 2015). Non-verbal

communication is also an essential part of social skills. This is something that children with ASD

struggle with a lot. Through improvisation, music therapists and music teachers are able to

promote spontaneous non-verbal communication (Mayer-Benarous et al., 2021). In one study, it

was found that both eye contact and turn taking were improved upon through music therapy

(Foley 2017). Joint attention has also been found to be greatly improved upon through music

therapy. Joint attention is defined as “the process of engaging another person’s attention to share

in the experience of observing in early childhood” (Scholtens, 2019) There are many different

ways that music can elicit joint attention. One of those being through call and response songs.

Call and response songs have patterns that are predictable and naturally affirming (Scholtens,

2019). It has also been found that children are able to develop sentence structure and imitation

through call and response songs (Crane, 2015).

Regulating emotions is something a lot of children with ASD struggle with. Typically,

children with ASD will act out, or have a melt down, because something unexpected happened.

According to Hammel, “Consistent positive interactions and a stable, sequential environment

will increase the academic and behavioral success rate for students with behavioral and

emotional challenges” (Hammel & Hourigan, 2017). How can we do this through music? Also

found in Hammel and Hourigan, If the classroom is set up so each class begins and ends the

same way, students may be able to regulate their emotions more effectively (Hammel &
Hourigan, 2017). In general it has been found that music helps relax and focus not only people

with ASD, but neurotypical people as well. “A selection of slow, quiet background music can

help children refocus and cope with tense emotions” (Vaiouli & Ogle, 2014)

Another way music can help children with ASD is by improving their motor skills. One

study found that participants in the study showed significant improvements in bilateral

coordination, balance, running speed and agility, strength subtests, body coordination, and

strength and agility (El Shemy & El-Sayed, 2018). Research suggests that listening to music and

rhythmic movements accompanied by music improve joints’ movement domain and motor skills,

increase eye and hand coordination, and reinforce finger control (Imankhah et al., 2018). Across

all of my sources regarding motor skills, many of the improvements have been seen in walking,

talking, body control, body coordination, controlled eye movements, and much more. One of the

methods that was used is called rhythmic cueing or rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS).

According to El Shemy and El-Sayed, “Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) is a training

technique that enhances motor skills by providing rhythmic stimulation to the motor centers of

the brain.” (El Shemy & El-Sayed, 2018).

So what does this mean for us as educators? How can we put this into practice? It is

important for us to know our students and how we can best help them. We need to take into

account how these findings can help us help our students. Giving students with ASD a chance to

learn, a chance to make music, and a chance to make friends is a wonderful thing. If we can do

that as educators that is phenomenal. There does however need to be more research about how

music education benefits children with ASD. When doing my research, I would have loved to

see more information about music education rather than music therapy. Or, how music educators

and music therapists can work together to benefit children with ASD.
 Resources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, March 28). Signs and symptoms of autism

spectrum disorders. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/signs.html#:~:text=Autism%20spectrum%20disorde

r%20(ASD)%20is,%2C%20moving%2C%20or%20paying%20attention.

Crane, H. (2015, January). Music therapy and the treatment of children diagnosed with autism

spectrum disorder. MOspace Home.

https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/48998

El Shemy, S. A., & El-Sayed, M. S. (2018, August 7). The impact of auditory rhythmic cueing on

gross motor skills in children with autism. Journal of physical therapy science.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6110221/

Foley, S. V. (2017). Music Education And Its Impact on Students With Special Needs.

Scholarship and Engagement in Education, 1(1).

https://scholar.dominican.edu/seed/vol1/iss1/11

Ghasemtabar, S. N., Hosseini, M., Fayyaz, I., Arab, S., Naghashian, H., & Poudineh, Z. (2015,

July 27). Music therapy: An effective approach in improving social skills of children with

autism. Advanced biomedical research.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550953/

Hammel, A. M., & Hourigan, R. M. (2017). Teaching Music To Students With Special Needs A

Label-Free Approach (2nd ed.). Oxford.

Imankhah, F., Khanzadeh, A. A. H., & Hasirchaman, A. (2018, December 10). The effectiveness

of combined music therapy and physical activity on Motor Coordination in children with

autism. Iranian Rehabilitation Journal.

https://irj.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_id=889&sid=1&slc_lang=en&html=1%5C

Mayer-Benarous, H., Benarous, X., Vonthron, F., & Cohen, D. (2021b, April 9). Music therapy

for children with autistic spectrum disorder and/or other neurodevelopmental disorders:

A systematic review. Frontiers in psychiatry.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8062803/

Provenzaro, D. G. (2020). Music Therapy for Communication in Children with Autism Spectrum

Disorder. Digital Commons at Sacred Heart University.

https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1558&context=acadf

est

Scholtens, M. C. (2019). Using music to encourage joint attention for students with autism

spectrum disorder: Attention as a reciprocal relationship. Music Educators Journal,

105(4), 45–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432119846954

Vaiouli, P., & Ogle, L. (2014). Music strategies to promote engagement and academic growth of

young children with ASD in the inclusive classroom. Young Exceptional Children, 18(2),

19–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250614523968