Music Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Running head: HEALTH SCIENCE 1
Health Science
Name
Institution

HEALTH SCIENCE 2
PART A
Clinical Question
Can music therapy help with communication and experiences of children with autism spectrum
disorder?
Introduction
Autism Spectrum Disorder can be described as a developmental disorder that in most cases
appears in the initial two years of life and affects the behavior and communication of a child. The
patient thus experiences difficulty in interacting and communicating with other individuals.
Additionally, they may experience behaviors that seem repetitive accompanied by restricted
interests (Lord, Cook, Leventhal&Amaral, 2013). Autism is a spectrum disorder because of the
wide disparity in the type and symptoms that patients from different parts of the world
experience. The disorders may include behavioral, social and communication challenges. Some
of the types of autism spectrum disorder include Asperger’s syndrome, autistic disorder, and
childhood disintegrative disorder among others (Lord et al., 2013). There is no clarity regarding
the causes and risk factors of autism spectrum disorder but scientists believe that genes and
environmental factors may influence the development of ASD.
A justification for the Clinical Question
An understanding of ASD is important for everyone to prevent the misinformation that is
perpetuated by people regarding individuals living with autism. This sought of misinformation
has in most cases led to a wrong judgment of the patients. Some people argue that autism only
affects children; others even say that people with this condition may lack empathy or all are

HEALTH SCIENCE 3
geniuses. These arguments are, however, mere fallacies that may be unhelpful and upsetting to
the families of the patients with this condition.
These fallacies must not be perpetuated as they give the wrong information regarding the patients
who may be in need of therapies to help with their condition. The therapies may be behavioral
that may include applied behavioral analysis (ABA), verbal behavioral therapy, cognitive
behavioral therapy, relationship development intervention, developmental and individual
differences relationship, and social skills groups among others (Weitlauf et al., 2014). It is thus
important to ask the above clinical question as some of these therapies may not be as effective as
imagined. This is the reason why we are asking the following clinical question: Can music
therapy help with communication and experiences of children with autism spectrum disorder?
There are several reasons as to why the other mentioned therapies may not work and we will
discuss these reasons below.
Applied behavioral analysis has been widely used over the years to teach self-care,
communication, play, and skills in academics and social skills. It is also very useful in reducing
problematic behaviors. The therapist, in this case, observes the ability of the affected child and
defines what may most benefit the child. It may however not work due to a number of reasons as
discussed below (Matson et al., 2012). The time and cost of funding this kind of therapy may be
prohibitive. This is because the recommended duration is 40 hours per week which may not be
possible in some schools. Additionally, the cost of providing therapy for such duration may be
high and thus the children end up just receiving a portion of the recommended duration of time.
ABA may also be too tough on the children because it involves a lot of repetition plus the skills
learned do not essentially generalize to other situations. It is also believed that ABA lays more
emphasis on eliminating behavior rather than focusing on the development of skills of the