Music Therapy for Language and Social Skills in Autistic Children

This research is a single-blind randomized controlled trial, where the investigators plan to recruit 40 children with autism, randomly divided into two groups. The music therapy intervention group will receive an hour of group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy. The control group will receive only traditional language therapy. The trial will last for 8 weeks, and participants in both groups will be assessed before and after the trial.

During the study, the investigators will assess the language abilities, autism trait performance, adaptive function, emotional behavior, and parent-child stress levels.

The study hypothesizes that music therapy can contribute to improving language development delays in children with autism and may enhance their language development. The investigators hope that this research can propose more diversified therapeutic methods for language development in children with autism.

• music therapy, speech therapy (Behavioral): receive group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy
• speech therapy (Behavioral): receive only traditional language therapy

Primary outcomes

• Chinese version of the Preschool Language Scale (PLS) [8 weeks]: assess the language abilities of children, minimum value 0, maximum value 83, higher scores means a better outcome

Secondary outcomes

• Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1½-5 (CBCL 1½-5) [8 weeks]: evaluate emotional behavior
• Parenting Stress Index [8 weeks]: evaluate parent-child stress levels, minimum value 36, maximum value 180, higher scores means a worse outcome
• Checklist for Autism Spectrum Disorder-Chinese Version (CASD-C) [8 weeks]: evaluate autism trait performance

Sex: All, ages: 3 Years to 5 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* children with autism
* aged 3-5 y/o
* children with speech delay (T-score of Preschool Language Scale < 40)
* Mandarin as first language

Exclusion Criteria:

* children with other neurological diseases
* children without verbal output
* children with articulation or voice disorder