第十屆 This abstract intends to present the effectiveness of music therapy for a duet of a child with autism and a child with ADHD in discussion of selective attention and joint attention.

作者: 李蕙如Objective:
This abstract intends to present the effectiveness of music therapy for a duet of a child with autism and a child with ADHD in discussion of selective attention and joint attention.

Case Reports:

         Six years old male client Payton and six years old male client Mike were referred to music therapy requested by both moms separately approximately one year ago.  Mike started his music therapy alone for his ADHD/autism half year before their duet music therapy session.  Payton was diagnosed of autism at the age of three and he started music therapy at the age of five for his self-play. 

         According to the different diagnoses of these two clients, the individual goals for each one of them were different.  For Payton, the three main goals in music therapy were: a) maintaining eye contact while talking b) being able to understand/follow verbal direction c) being able to communicate.  For Mike, the three main goals in music therapy were: a) emotional control b) maintaining eye contact while talking c) being able to stay with music. 

         The pair were able to come to music therapy at the same time for four consecutive sessions.  In the duet, the main music therapy goal was for them to work together.  The social interaction between Payton and Mike increased over time measured by the parts of the songs and the time the pair played together.
Discussion:

         Attention is the key to the path of learning.  Researches have pointed out that attention is a critical skill to develop social and language skills in children with autism and children with ADHD(Charman, 2003;Cohen, 2003).  While these children with various impairments have difficulty in the realm of the society world, music therapy provides them with a common playground.  This paper is going to discuss selective attention (concentration on a stimulus or event with attendant disregard for other stimuli or events), and joint attention (using cues to identify and share the attentional focus of another), and how ADHD child could help the autistic child.
Reference:Charman, Tony (2003) Why is Joint Attention a Pivotal Skill in Autism? The           Royal Society.  Behavioural and Brain Sciences Unit, Institute of Child            Health

Geurts, l., Luman, M. & Catharina S.(2008) What’s in a game: the effect of

        social motivation on interference control in boys with ADHD and  

        autism spectrum disorder.  Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry.

        49(8):848-857
 

Keywords: attention, ADHD, autism, music therapy