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

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playground, while Eric’s teacher encouraged other peers playing in the Music Hut to interact
with him.
Eric’s lead teacher finally implemented all sessions. As the procedural fidelity data
shows she performed the tasks mediated during the staff development activities on a
moderate level (M=48%). After the fifth session, her task behavior dropped to one step only
and stayed at a very low level for the entire intervention phase. It is very likely that it is for
this reason that Eric’s positive peer interactions decreased. Eric’s teacher expressed some
frustration with “peer buddies” leaving the Music Hut and with redirecting Eric to a
structured playground activity (versus a free choice of play). This teacher’s decrease in
accuracy in implementing the intervention might be owed to the challenge of keeping both
Eric and the other children engaged in the activity, and to her belief that playground time
should be a free-play setting in which peers have a free choice of play and peer interactions
occur naturally. That Eric’s peer interactions do not occur naturally has been demonstrated
by the baseline data. Clearly, teachers’ attitudes and beliefs have a major impact on
providing successful learning experiences for students with autism in inclusive settings. This
observation is consistent with previous studies, which evaluated the influence of teachers’
attitudes and beliefs on successful inclusion (e.g., Mulvihill, Shearer, & Van Horn, 2002;
Odom & Diamond, 1998), and is consistent with findings from previous studies providing
evidence that interventions are necessary to produce increases in social interaction in children
with autism (e.g., Myles et al., 1993).