Music Entertainment Effects on Attention in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction, communication, and attention (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Previous research has shown that music can enhance the attention of children with ASD and promote active social interaction. To extend these findings, music from singing bowls will be explored as a method to improve the attentional abilities of children with ASD. The acoustic properties of singing bowls have been widely used in Eastern traditions to induce relaxation, which can benefit focused attention. The research goal of this study is to determine whether exposure to singing bowl music during a structured play task can enhance ASD children’s performance in a subsequent visual attention task. It is predicted that exposure to the calming acoustic features of singing bowl music, in comparison to a no music condition, will enhance performance as shown by increased accuracy and decreased latency in the search for a visual target among distractor items. In addition, the benefit will be greater for children with ASD than for neurotypical children. The findings can be used to inform the development of accessible therapeutic techniques to improve children with ADS’s attention, which will enhance their cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tara Vongpaisal