Improving the Performance of a Young Child with Autism during Self-Care Tasks Using Embedded Song Interventions: A Case Study

Abstract

The collaboration of music therapists, occupational therapists, and classroom teachers can provide innovative, effective, and evidence-based interventions that support independence in basic self-care tasks for young children with autism. This case study investigated the effectiveness of adding songs embedded in ongoing classroom routines as structural prompts to increase the independence of a 3-year-old boy with autism during multi-step self-care tasks (i.e., hand-washing, toileting, and cleaning up). The effectiveness of the musical versus verbal presentations of the task sequence were compared using an alternating treatment design replicated across three tasks. The teacher effectively embedded both forms of the presented sequencing in the ongoing classroom routines and results indicated that the implementation of both forms of the intervention were successful in increasing the child's independent performance for each task though task-specific differences were noted.