Soundbeam imitation intervention: Training children with autism to imitate meaningless body gestures through music
ISSN: 2056-3868
Article publication date: 16 July 2020
Issue publication date: 16 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the application and critical reflection on the effects of a intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): the Soundbeam Imitation Intervention (SII). The intervention is based on the imitation of meaningless body gestures supported by a musical feedback. The rationale underlying SII is that mirror neurons deficit may represent the cause for the incomplete development of social and motor functioning in children with ASD. Following this assumption, it is possible to hypothesise that a systematic activation of this a system through the simultaneous observation-execution of meaningless body gestures may affect functional changes of mirror-related functions.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 14 children, who were between 5 and 9 years of age, with a diagnosis of ASD were involved in a six weeks’ SII programme. The programme is designed as a three-step progression, where each step includes exercises that focus on an activity: synchronous/one arm imitation, synchronous/two arms imitation and delayed imitation. Exercises are based on repeated movements-melodies associations of increasing difficulty. Motor imitation and social attention were assessed using a synchronous video-modelling task pre and post intervention.
Findings
Data highlight significant improvements in imitation accuracy and duration of social sustained attention were achieved.
Originality/value
Data reported in this paper provide preliminary and promising evidence that imitation and social attention skills acquired through SII can be generalised to a video-modelling imitation setting. The SII ordinal execution has included meaningless gestures, usually excluded from previous interventions, and this adds further validity to the training.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The project has been partially funded by an INTERREG 2007-2013 fund, in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Art Music and Show (CRAMS). This study could not have been possible without the constant support of Giulia Perego and Maurizio Rocca who attended each SII session to deal with technical issues concerning SoundBeam. We are also grateful to Gaia Redaelli, Silvia Bonacina, and Sonia Forestieri who attended some SII sessions. Finally, the contribution by Francesco Brenna during data analysis is gratefully acknowledged.
Citation
Forti, S., Colombo, B., Clark, J., Bonfanti, A., Molteni, S., Crippa, A., Antonietti, A. and Molteni, M. (2020), "Soundbeam imitation intervention: Training children with autism to imitate meaningless body gestures through music", Advances in Autism, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 227-240. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-07-2019-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited