Developmental Therapy and Music Therapy Together To Address Abstraction In Autism

This presentation will focus on the essential role improvisational, interactive music therapy plays in work on the core deficits of autism spectrum disorder, both theory and practice. Basics of Developmental and Music Therapy in the school setting will be introduced, including the problem of “generalization” in autism treatment. The presentation will highlight how music therapists can directly attack the lack of abstraction and move children and adults to a higher developmental level. Pedagogical points will be supported by video examples. This presentation will explain the synergy between developmental models of intervention for neurodevelopmental disorders of relating and communicating, particularly the Developmental, Individual difference, Relationship-Based (DIR) Model, and Music Therapy.  Three case studies, specifically chosen to show how these two ways of conceptualizing Autism intervention work together across child development, will be used to illustrate and clarify key concepts and points, including: improvising to meet emerging developmental thresholds, creating music to address the dynamic emotional range of individuals, and how experiences in music therapy relate to the broader context of development.

Particular emphasis will be given to the synergy of DIR and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.  Specifically, greater detail will be given to what the Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities of the DIR methodology look like in an interactive, improvisational experience.  The presenters will carefully outline what ‘abstraction’ (a key milestone in child development) looks like in music therapy, and offer detailed improvisational techniques and theories regarding how to work musically in this higher developmental level.  Using video examples of case studies, the presenters will illustrate the particular qualities in a child’s playing (vocal, rhythmic, and melodic) that suggests an abstract understanding of music, and how, as music therapists, we meet this developmental threshold through clinically tailored improvisation.  In the end, the participants will learn about how music therapy can be key in attacking the issue of “generalization, the problem of how to broaden a child’s functioning across different situations, different persons, and perhaps most importantly, across different affects, or moods.”  The presentation will include views from a school team of psychologists and music therapists.

First, a Clinical Psychologist with extensive knowledge of, and experince with, multiple ways of intervening with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) will outline a developmental approach to thinking of ASD's, and how this perspective can be used in a school setting.  Particulars of the Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based (DIR) method will be used as an example, and the developmental capacities from that model will be fully explained.  This will lead to a discussion of specifics of the developmental capacities, and how interactive, improvisational music therapy can be instrumental in reaching developmental goals.

Next, in a series of 3 case studies, chosen for the way in which they illustrate the move to abstraction in the treatment of ASD's, three different licensed music therapists will show how their work helps facilitate this difficult developmental jump.  Students chosen for the case studies will be chosen with an eye to diversity of deveiopmental level, diversity of age, and diversity of diagnosis.  Each case study will be supported with video from the actual treatment sessions of the individuals profiled, and explainations will accompany each video clip.  No previous knowledge of developmental models or of interactive music therapy will be necessary for full participation in this session.  Students will range from nine to twenty-one years old. 

By the end, participants should be able to:

-Understand how Music Therapy supports the necessary continuous communicative flow.

-Understand how Music Therapy is an indispensable component of an effective Autism intervention.

-Understand the basics of the DIR © model.

-Understand what abstraction looks like in the context of a music therapy intervention in ASD.

-Understand how Music Therapy promotes “generalization.”