Observers back the benefits of music therapy

A Victoria University researcher has used a team of observers to evaluate the impact of music therapy on children with autism in her latest research project.

Findings from the study back the view held by many music therapists and families that music therapy provides a range of benefits for children with autism spectrum conditions.

Six years ago, with funding from the IHC Foundation, Associate Professor Daphne Rickson set out to find a way to provide evidence about the benefits of music therapy because standard research methods, such as randomised controlled trials, didn’t suit the way music therapists work.

Music therapists employ flexible approaches that allow them to respond to the individual needs of their participants ‘in the moment’ and outcomes are not easy to measure for funders of services who want to see evidence-based practice.

Daphne designed a research project that used a ‘mixed-methods’ approach. The data gathered was submitted to ‘evaluators’ for appraisal.

The idea of using observers came from her earlier research which found that people who witness music therapy can develop understanding and appreciation for music therapy.

Her latest project involved 10 music therapists each working for up to one year with a child with autism who had not had music therapy before. At the end of that year they produced their case material (descriptions, photographs, videos), for autism experts to evaluate.   

“The evaluators suggested that music therapy supported children to manage cognitive tasks, such as listening, attending, waiting, initiating, taking turns, and negotiating or following instructions,” Daphne says, in a paper in the latest New Zealand Journal of Music Therapy.

“They also believed it helped them to manage and express their emotions in safer ways, with several of the evaluators proposing that children became less anxious in this setting. Music seemed to support sensory regulation, both stimulating and calming children’s senses, because they had more control over their environment, making it feel safer for them.”

“This piece of work is looking at what these experts saw,” Daphne says. “It’s a matter of them seeing with their own eyes.

“I was truly surprised how passionate they were; how positive they were and how moved they were. One person with a lived experience of autism said, ‘I wish my mother had known about these things’.”

Daphne’s research has already attracted a book contract.