Using a Music Therapy Collaborative Consultative Approach - World ...

part would have changed the target children’s performance during this step. No data are
available that suggest that the change in music would have resulted in a change of the target
children’s behavior, and other explanations for the children’s difficulty with this step (e.g.,
the lack of understanding of conventional gestures) might be more likely. Furthermore,
teachers did not explicitly perform musical elements such as expression or change in tempo
and dynamics. The songs were mostly sung in a linear voice with little punctuation. Elefant
(2001) describes musical elements such as tempo, vocal play (sound effects), inner tempo
(accelerando, riterdandos and fermatas), dynamics, rhythmical and melodic patterns and
upbeats as having influence on the song preference and response of girls with Rett
Syndrome. We do not know if these or other musical elements would have an influence on
the response of young children with autism, too. This study did not provide experimental
analysis of the specific mechanisms supporting the treatment effects; the procedure was
based on the assumption that the songs would improve the target children’s morning greeting
routine.
For future clinical applications, it might be more practical to use songs that require
fewer musical skills and/or provide more intensive staff training where specific musical
elements and techniques are mediated. At least for this study, assurance, motivation and
monitoring of the teachers’ implementation of the interventions were needed. Therefore,
prior to, during and after the intervention procedure, ongoing collaborative consultation was
provided. And yet, we do not know whether or not teachers’ implementation of the
intervention would continue or decline over time if they were not supported. Put simply,
there exists no counterfactual against which to compare this component with the intervention.
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