T he purpos e of this stu dy wa s to ev aluat e the effect of mu sical stimuli
on th e communicat iv e respon s es of aut ist ic childr en . Specifically , the stu dy
was designed t o compar e th e r elativ e effect iv enes s of mu sical st imuli and
v erbal st imuli on autist ic children , u sin g t echniqu es of communicat ion
r espon s es analy sis . On the par t of v erbal st imuli condit ion , th e autist ic
childr en \' s r espon ses were ob serv ed in t erms of fiv e basic communicat ion
oppor tunit ies , Greeting 1 , Naming , F ollowing , Requ est in g an d Gr eet in g 2 .
As for mu sical stimuli con dit ion , th ese same oppor tunit ies wer e embedded
within a mu sic/ singin g act iv it ies .
In order t o dr aw a clear comparison b etween the effect s of the two
st imuli con dition s , the r esearch procedur es followed a r ev er sal design . Ov er a
per iod of 8 week s (a t ot al of 24 s es sion s ) th e aut istic childr en r eceiv ed
mu sical st imuli an d v erbal st imuli in turn s , 6 ses sion s each . As th e
procedur es wer e implement ed, th e autist ic childr en r ev ealed a 46% r eact ion to
v erbal st imuli while 65% of the aut istic childr en r espon ded t o mu sical st imuli.
Accordingly th e av er age point s of v erbal st imuli an d mu sical stimuli mark ed
28.55 and 39.43 respectiv ely . Significant differ en ces wer e thu s foun d between
th e two stimuli con dition s with r espect t o the aut istic childr en \' s
communicat iv e r espon ses (t =6.86, p< .05).
T he r esult s su gg est that embeddin g communicat ion oppor tunit ies within a
mu sical st imuli may lead t o incr ea sed appropr iate communication r espon ses
for some aut istic childr en . T h e r esult s of the stu dy clearly in dicat e that
mu sical stimuli st rategies are the mor e effect iv e in in ducing communicat iv e
r espon s es from th e aut ist ic childr en , also prov in g that mu sic may be
par t icularly u seful t o aut ist ic childr en in their dev elopment of t ot al
communicat ion int er act ion . T her efor e, it is sug gested that by providing det
ailed an d pr act ical communication t r ainin g progr ams with mu sic as a
medium, autist ic childr en may r each a cer t ain lev el of communicat ion
dev elopment an d social adju stment .