Attunement in Music Therapy for Young Children with Autism: Revisiting Qualities of Relationship as Mechanisms of Change.
Karin Mössler, Wolfgang Schmid, Jörg Aßmus and 2 others
PMID 32189227WHAT IT FOUND
Musical attunement did not predict changes in autism symptoms over five months.
Therapists matched the child's relational level in about half of observed sequences, typically when the child was using vocal or instrumental play rather than bodily expression.
Key findings
01Neither the rate of musical attunement nor the quality of improvisational music therapy predicted changes in autism severity or social responsiveness.
02Therapists and children were rated as matching on the same relational level in 49.6% of the video sequences analyzed.
03Attunement was most frequently observed when children expressed themselves vocally or through instruments, and least frequently when they communicated primarily through bodily movement.
STILL TO COME
What they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was observational, so it cannot prove that attunement causes symptom change. The measure of attunement focused on whether the therapist matched the child's level, which treats attunement as a one-sided action rather than a mutual process. The outcome measures (ADOS and SRS) may not be sensitive enough to detect subtle changes in social communication that music therapy might facilitate. The sample included many children with low IQ and limited verbal language, yet the attunement ratings were sparse for the bodily communication modes these children often use.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by Norges Forskningsråd and Helse Vest. No other conflicts of interest were reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that musical attunement is ineffective. The study found no link between attunement and symptom reduction, but this may be because the tools used to measure attunement and outcomes were not sensitive to the specific changes music therapy aims to produce.