Using music therapy to develop children with autism

Post by Master Music Therapy Technician - Unit of Regenerative Medicine Clinic and Educational Psychology - Center of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy at International General Hospital Vinmec Times City

Music therapy has long been used to help children with autism spectrum disorders develop language, increase their ability to communicate and interact with people around, especially increase their ability to imitate. Music for children with autism is music teaching activities such as dancing, singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, folk games, listening to music..

Imitation skill is to follow an action of another, Imitation skill involves the ability to copy:
Imitate actions with objects Imitate gestures and body movements Imitate sounds or words. Young children develop imitation skills in infancy. If you watch a baby and mother interact, you can see both baby and mother mimic each other's sounds, actions, and facial expressions. This back and forth is really a conversation without words, it helps children learn to share emotions, focus attention, take turns,... and develop social interaction skills.

Children with autism often have difficulty imitating. Many studies have shown that the ability to imitate children with autism and its effect on other areas of development:
The ability to imitate gestures and body movements predicts language outcomes. Their ability to imitate actions with objects is related to the development of play skills. Difficulty imitating the actions of other children affects playing with you. Children with autism need to develop some imitation skills before they can have collective attention (the ability to share focus with others on an object). Watch now: Therapy for autistic children with music - yoga - psychology

Teaching music to children with autism is quite popular, accordingly, developing imitation skills through music to teach autistic children is getting a lot of attention from parents. Some ways to use music data for children with autism to develop skills parents can refer to:
Imitate the sound of musical instruments
Teach children to imitate actions with toys and objects This is the first step in teaching imitation, because it is easier for autistic children to imitate actions with objects than other forms of imitation (Ex: Imitation of facial expressions, imitation of sounds, intonation).
First, you can prepare some non-sounding percussion instruments such as: Drums, maracas, castanet, dice, tambourine,... and guide your child to make sounds by tapping, shaking, rolling, flapping ...
Then, use a percussion instrument that doesn't pitch to the beat of the songs your child likes.
Imitate sounds
Teach children from close things through everyday life, for example, how you simulate the sounds of animals such as: Dog, cat, chicken, mouse, duck, cow. .. and guide children to imitate.
While participating in traffic, it is also possible to simulate the sound of engines and whistles of traffic vehicles such as: Motorcycles say "Beep Beep", bicycles say "Glass Cong", trains say "Tu Xing Xich"
Or guide children to simulate sounds in nature such as: Wind blowing "Vu Vu", thunder "Dung Doong", rain sound "Ti Tach"...
Imitate movement to accompany the song
This activity is not only effective in helping children develop imitation skills, but also supports children to recognize parts, control and coordinate the execution of different parts of the body.
We should choose exercises with the goal of mimicking each part of the body, with each movement being repeated. Then combine two or more parts at once and develop chain exercises.
Imitation of expressions - intonation
This is a relatively difficult form of imitation for children with autism, because children have difficulty in recognizing and expressing emotions to others. We should use song or musical story to teach baby how to express emotions on face through lyrics or musical nature.
For example, the musical story "Kitten by the carton" can teach children to express the lyrics with the same intonation as the baby in the story with the expression: Surprised to see the box, surprised to see the box. cat, begging to beg her mother to adopt a cat, happy when her mother agrees...
Link to the book The Story of the Cardboard: https://tiki.vn/cau-chuyen-ben-thung-giay-p10704585 .html
Hope the information in the above article has helped you understand how to use music therapy to develop imitation skills of children with autism. If parents have difficulty in teaching autistic children, they can contact Vinmec doctor for examination and treatment.