Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently experience motor coordination challenges that affect engagement, learning, and social participation. This dissertation investigates music as a framework for spontaneous non-verbal language, its potential to support multi-step motor tasks, and the application of Neurologic Music Therapy® (NMT™) techniques for motor rehabilitation in autistic children.The first study examined improvised tone sequences produced by autistic and neurotypical (NT) children to evaluate their ability to create musical structures. Findings showed comparable organizational capacities between groups, aside from differences in originality. These results suggest that autistic children generated spontaneous tone sequences comparable to their NT peers. This may indicate that musical improvisation reflects an intact ability to organize musical information, further indicating access to a spontaneous non-verbal language system. This led to inquiry regarding the following: if autistic children can spontaneously generate internal temporal structure, this raises the hypothesis that externally imposed rhythmic cues, such as a metronome or music, may further enhance motor control. The second study addressed this, comparing rhythmic auditory cueing (RAC; metronome and groove-based music) to an uncued baseline during a two-phase upper-limb task. Autistic children more often executed the task as a ballistic movement rather than two discrete phases, demonstrated lower spatial accuracy, and initiated movements prematurely more frequently than NT peers, indicating differences in segmentation, accuracy, and inhibition. Within-group cueing effects were not significant in the ASD group, suggesting that standard RAC paradigms may not adequately address their sensorimotor needs and underscoring the potential value of individualized or extended cueing approaches. Building on these findings, the third study evaluated NMT™ motor techniques in a clinical pilot. While between-group differences with non-music motor interventions were not significant, the NMT™ group showed greater within-group motor improvements. Exploratory results further indicated that sensory-seeking traits may predict responsiveness to music-based interventions. Together, these studies demonstrate that musical structure can serve as a scaffold for both cognitive and motor sequencing in autistic children. Preliminary evidence supports the potential of NMT™ sensorimotor applications, while emphasizing the need for tailored cueing strategies and future research on sensorimotor subgroups in ASD.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Teich, Jessica E
Language: English
Topic: Music Therapy and Health
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7139597905