Social interaction links active musical rhythm engagement and expressive communication in autistic toddlers.
Noah R Fram, Talia Liu, Miriam D Lense
PMID 38197536WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic toddlers showed lower active engagement with music than nonautistic peers.
In autistic children, higher child music engagement linked to better social skills, while parent-child music-making linked to better expressive communication. These relationships were cross-sectional and did not prove that music interventions cause communication gains.
Key findings
01Nonautistic children had higher scores for active engagement with music (mean 37.8) than autistic children (mean 31.8), but parent-initiated singing and parent-child music-making did not differ significantly between the two groups.
02Within the autistic group, child active engagement with music correlated positively with social skills (r = .31), while parent-child music-making correlated positively with expressive communication (r = .31).
03A path model suggested that child active engagement with music linked to expressive communication indirectly through two separate pathways: general interpersonal skills and parent-child music-making.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, meaning it measured children at one point in time. It cannot determine whether musical engagement leads to better communication or if children with better communication skills engage more in music. Musical engagement and communication skills were measured using parent reports, which may be influenced by parental expectations or biases, although the communication measure correlated with a clinician-administered test. The nonautistic sample had less diversity in household income and maternal education compared to the autistic sample, which may have affected the comparison between groups. The path models rely on statistical correlations and assumptions about causality that cannot be verified without longitudinal or experimental data.
Declared interests
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. The authors did not report any other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that music interventions improve communication in autistic toddlers. This study found associations between home music activities and skills, but it did not test an intervention or track changes over time, so it cannot show that music causes better communication.