Autism - Children's Improvisational Music Therapy Evaluation

The therapist engages with the child by playing and sharing musical instruments, and/or sings while being attuned to the child's behaviour and expression. Various improvisational techniques are employed to engage the child. There are opportunities for pulse, rhythmic, dynamic or melodic patterns, and timbre to be mirrored, reinforced, or complemented, which allows for moments of synchronization between the therapist and the child, giving the child's musical expressions a pragmatic meaning within this context. The therapist may also gently provoke the child by violating expectations or patterns that have been jointly developed in order to elicit specific social communication behaviours. Further, there are opportunities for the child to develop and enhance social communication skills such as joint attention, sharing affect, reciprocity, shared history, scaffolding, imitation and turn-taking. These have been shown to develop social competency and also resilience.