Non-verbal children with autism can make progress with a specialised form of music therapy, research shows.
A Harvard University study found that non-verbal youngsters – thought to represent as many as one in every four children on the spectrum – can improve their ability to articulate words with Auditory-Motor Mapping Training (AMMT).
The intervention aims to promote speech production by focusing on the association between sounds and articulatory actions. It involves three main components: intonation (singing a word), motor activity and imitation.
AMMT taps into the musical strengths displayed by many children with autism. Proponents aim to strengthen the connections between frontal and temporal brain regions.
The Department of Neurology at the US-based Harvard Medical School studied six children with autism. All of them had no intelligible words. Nevertheless, they showed ‘significant’ improvements in their ability to articulate words and phrases following AMMT. Each received 40 sessions of the intervention, spread over eight weeks.
The researchers said: “All participants were able to learn the treatment protocol and to demonstrate improvements in vocal production within a relatively short timeframe.”
They said the children made the greatest progress in the first 15 sessions.
AMMT uses a set of tuned drums to engage both hands in producing rhythms. This is thought to engage the brain network that is responsible for the mouth and facial movements that speech requires. When introducing new words, therapists simultaneously sing the word and tap the drums. This form of music therapy is intensive and should take place in a highly structured environment.
AMMT is an adaption of Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), which therapists have used to help stroke patients who struggle to speak. AMMT is thought to engage and potentially modify a network of brain regions that have been reported to be dysfunctional in people with ASD (Wan & Schlaug, 2010).
Published: 2 November 2011
