Music Therapy and Social Communication in Autism: A Single-Case Study of Measurement Sensitivity
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Background. Music therapy has been proposed as a relevant complementary intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), particularly in the domains of social communication, interaction, and emotional regulation. However, methodological challenges remain when evaluating its outcomes, especially when assessment tools are not sufficiently sensitive to emerging relational processes. Methodology. An exploratory single-case study with a pre–post intervention design was conducted with two children diagnosed with ASD. The intervention consisted of eight individual sessions of improvisational music therapy. Observed changes were assessed using the Music Therapy Communication and Social Interaction Scale (MTCSI) and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, clinical significance analysis, and within-subject pattern analysis. Results. Both participants showed consistent improvements in engagement, social interaction, and socio-affective communication according to the MTCSI, while reciprocal verbal communication remained stable. The CARS indicated a clinically relevant reduction in the overall score for the boy and a heterogeneous profile for the girl, with partial improvements distributed across subscales. Conclusions.Rather than establishing causal relationships, the findings highlight differential sensitivity across assessment tools in capturing distinct dimensions of therapeutic change. The findings suggest that improvisational music therapy is associated with observable changes in socio-affective and interactional domains and underscore the value of combining process-oriented measures with global clinical severity scales.
Source: Música Hodie
DOI: 10.5216/mh.v26.86116
Language: English
Topic: Music Therapy and Health
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7202209362