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THE EFFECT OF MUSICAL ATTENTION CUES ON THE FREQUENCY AND ACCURACY OF JOINT ATTENTION BEHAVIORS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM
YOO, GA EUL
YOO, GA EUL
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of musical attention cues on the frequency and accuracy of joint attention behaviors of children with autism. Fifteen children participated in this study. Participants were diagnosed with autism (n = 4) or referred to the center where the study was conducted because of an autistic behavioral phenotype (n = 11), prior to the participation in this study. All children received a 20-minute individual music therapy session. During the session, 16 joint attention cues were delivered to each child either verbally or musically to direct the child's attention to an introduced object (i.e., an instrument or a picture on a book). The children's responses to those cues were measured in terms of frequency and accuracy. The result of the study showed that children with autism made little response to joint attention cues across the trials (M = .36, SD = .64), corroborating the previous studies that demonstrated impairments of RJA in these children. A paired t test exhibited that there was a significant difference in the frequency of RJA behaviors between providing musical cue and verbal cue conditions, t(119) = 2.21, p < .05. RJA behaviors occurred more frequently when musical cues were provided (M = .43, SD = .72) than when verbal cues were used (M = .29, SD = .54). These findings indicate that a musical cue may evoke the attention of these children effectively. There was also a significant difference in the accuracy of RJA behaviors between musical and verbal conditions, t(119) = 2.16, p < .05. The mean accuracy rate of RJA under the musical cue condition (M = .33, SD = .59) was higher than in the verbal cue condition (M = .22, SD = .45). This implies that musical cues may provide more accurate cue information or may more accurately facilitate the children's processing of the cues. A paired sample t test was conducted to examine differences in the frequency and accuracy of RJA behaviors depending on the types of the attention cues administered. With regard to the RJA frequency, significant differences were found in four sets: M(E) and V(E); M(E+D+P) and V(E); M(E+D+P) and M(E); and M(E+D+P) and V(E+D). M(E+D+P) elicited the highest number of RJA behaviors (M = .60, SD = .86), followed by M(E) (M = .43, SD = .73), while V(E) led to the least (M = .17, SD = .38). Comparison of all paired cues in terms of the RJA accuracy exhibited that five sets of comparisons yielded statistical significance: M(E+D+P) and V(E); M(E+D+P) and V(D); M(E+D+P) and V(E+D); M(E+D+P) and M(E+D); and M(E+D+P) and V(E+D+P). M(E+D+P) led to the highest accuracy of RJA (M = .52, SD = .80) and increased the accuracy of RJA behaviors significantly, compared to all types of verbal cues. The significant increases in RJA with the use of musical cues observed in this study indicate that the incorporation of musical elements into an attention cue may add information enough to improve RJA behaviors of children with autism. Also, the highest frequency and accuracy rate of RJA behaviors observed when M(E+D+P) was provided suggests that the use of M(E+D+P) would be the most effective choice among different cues for teaching RJA behaviors to children with autism.
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2010-01-01
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Music, Autism, Joint attention, Music therapy, Musical cues