The use of music therapy interventions to improve pre-reading skills and reduce off-task behaviors during reading tasks of a child with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the music therapy interventions used to improve pre-reading skills and reduce off-task behaviors during reading tasks of a 6-year-old child with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study employed A-B-A-B and qualitative single-case design. In the study, the music therapy interventions (B) were provided four days a week alternatively with non-music conditions each week including five days of baseline phase (A). The Word Reading Test (WRT) was used to evaluate pre- reading skills and Off-task Behavior Observation Form was employed to measure the off- task behaviors of the participant. The results were represented using visual inspection and qualitative case analysis. The results showed that the word reading scores of the participant were increased during both music and non-music conditions, but the scores improved faster during participating in music therapy sessions. In addition, during the baseline, the participant exhibited off-task behaviors about 50% of the sessions. On the contrary, the off-task decreased dramatically while engaging in music therapy sessions and also reduced during participating in the second turn of non-music phase.;