Music therapy as social skill intervention for children with comorbid ASD and ID: study protocol for a randomized contro
- PDF / 1,042,544 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 81 Downloads / 184 Views
STUDY PROTOCOL
Open Access
Music therapy as social skill intervention for children with comorbid ASD and ID: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial Yen Na Yum* , Way Kwok-Wai Lau, Kean Poon and Fuk Chuen Ho
Abstract Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental impairment characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interactions, and over half of children with ASD possess below average intellectual ability (IQ < 85). The social development and response to social skill interventions among children with ASD and comorbid intellectual disability (ID) is not well understood. Music therapy is a systematic process of intervention, wherein a therapist may help clients promote their social skills by using musical experience. The proposed study will address limited research evidence on music therapy as an intervention for social functioning in children with ASD with mild to borderline ID. Method: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) with two parallel groups of 40 children each (1:1 allocation ratio) is planned. Participants will receive 45 min of music therapy or non-musical intervention targeting social skills once a week for 12 weeks. Primary outcome measures will be independent ratings on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and parent ratings on the Social Responsiveness Scale-2. Linear mixed-effects models for these two outcome measures will be created for data collected at 2-week pre-intervention, 2-week post-intervention, and 4-month post-intervention sessions. In-session behaviors at the first and last intervention will be videotaped and coded offline and compared. Pretreatment neural response of quantitative electroencephalograms (qEEG) to social scenes will be used to predict the outcomes of musical and non-musical social skill interventions, whereas qEEG responses to music will be used to predict the effectiveness of musical social skill intervention. Discussion: If neural markers of social skill development are found, then the long-term goal is to develop individualized intervention based on pre-treatment markers to maximize treatment efficacy. The proposed study’s results may also suggest directions to development and provision of music therapy services in Hong Kong. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04557488). Registered September 21, 2020.
Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental impairment characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interactions coupled with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors. The symptoms of ASD appear in early childhood. The prevalence of * Correspondence: [email protected] Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China
childhood ASD in the Greater China Region is 26.6 per 10,000 children [1], but the figures have increased rapidly in recent years due to the expansion of diagnostic criteria and increased public awareness. Given that no known cure or effective pharmacological intervent
Data Loading...
