What are the effects of long-term interactive music therapy on young adults with severe autism?

What are the effects of long-term interactive music therapy in young adults with severe autism?

• i am not looking for anything scholarly and want to read your comments on the topic

• Answer:

  I can't really say much about young adults, but music plays an important role in my 8 year-old son's life (who has Asperger's). From what I've read, it's been shown that children with autism have increased abilities when it comes to music (with pitch processing and so forth). From the time he was a toddler, my son could sit at our piano and play what sounded like music and not just childish banging. He's also extraordinary on the drums. For him, it gives him an outlet and something to build his self-esteem since it's something he excels at. My son is high-functioning, but I definitely think it's worth a try across the board. With my son, I ignored the advice that music therapy has to be from a trained and licensed therapist only. We plan to send him for lessons, but not until he's old enough to really benefit from them. In the meantime, we let him experiment at home with various instruments, and we make sure he's exposed to a wide variety of good music. If you're just wanting to test the waters without laying out a lot of cash only to find it's of no benefit, you may want to research what goes on in the therapy sessions and try simulating some simple sessions at home to discover what the reaction will be. Or maybe you could find a music therapist willing to allow a free trial day.