Using Music Activities to Teach Social Skills to Children with Autism

Meeting the benchmarks for social communication skills is a core challenge for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In typical development, young people often learn these skills by observing others in interactions with adults and peers, or through their own interactions. For children on the spectrum, learning appropriate social skills usually requires direct intervention. As a speech-language pathologist focused on working with children with ASD, I’ve used several different methods to help these young people learn how to interact with their peers and family, many of which are described on ASHA’s Practice Portal on Autism. The Bridgeway Academy, where I work, employs a variety of special education professionals, so we enjoy easy access to interprofessional collaboration. One interesting approach I use involves collaborating with a music therapist. We select students for this combined treatment because music motivates them or is a strength in their curriculum. Music can provide a structure for social language interactions and can help children with autism. It offers a powerful way to improve language skills and social-pragmatic skills through conversational lyrics, imitating body movements or language, cooperative play, and group activities/participation. We use music to target social language objectives, such as joint attention and eye gaze, in children with autism. Like conversation, musical activities require body awareness and understanding of nonverbal c...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Private Practice Schools Slider Speech-Language Pathology Autism Spectrum Disorder social skils Source Type: blogs