Musical communicativeness and social impairment in autistic children

Abstract: This pilot study hypothesized that there would be a difference in the ranked level of musical communicativeness between "aloof", "passive", and "active but odd" social impairment groups of autistic children when assessed in structured tasks using the Nordoff and Robbins (1977) Musical Communicativeness Scale. The "aloof" group would rank lowest in musical communicativeness while the "passive" group would rank higher than the "aloof" group. The "active but odd" group would rank higher than both the "aloof" group and the "passive" group. To test this prediction, ten subjects were selected from a center for autistic children. The selection was based on the following criteria: 1) must meet the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for Autistic Disorder or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, 2) must be between the ages of five and twelve inclusive, and 3) must meet the criteria of one of the three social impairment groups, as defined by Wing and Gould (1979). Each subject participated in an individual music therapy assessment session, as well as brief introductory session prior to the assessment. The subject participated in five musical tasks, which were developed by the researcher. Each assessment session was video taped and rated by two independent raters to determine the level of musical communicativeness. The Kruskal-Wallis 1-way ANOVA indicated that there was a significant difference in the ranked level of musical communicativeness of the three social impairment groups of autistic children in structured musical tasks. The median ranked level of each group was reflective of their level of social impairment. The "aloof" group's level of musical communicativeness ranked lowest while the "passive" group's level ranked higher than the "aloof" group. The "active but odd" group ranked highest in their level of musical communicativeness. This supported the Wing and Gould (1979) heterogeneous classification of autistic children. The high inter-rater reliability of the ranked data, as measured by the Spearmen r, indicated that the Nordoff and Robbins (1977) Musical Communicativeness Scale was effective in assessing musical communication in structured tasks with this group of autistic children. Suggestions were made with regard to continued research of this hypothesis in order to increase the reliability and validity of the results obtained. Suggestions were also made with regard to the study of raw data obtained concerning the use of specific modes of activity during the assessment session.

Keyword(s): Communication, autistic-child, social-impairment.

Zurück | Weiter