Otizm spektrum bozuklu?u olan ?ocuklarda müzik terapinin otizm belirtileri ve ya?am kalitesi üzerine etkisi

摘要

Objective: The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of music therapy on autistic symptoms and quality of life in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: In this research, 24 ASD diagnosed chil-dren in two groups; one group that received no treatment except monthly routine child psychiatric follow-up and special education, and the other group that received additional music therapy were compared in terms of pre and post music therapy autistic symptoms and quality of life. The children in the music therapy group received twice-weekly forty minute sessions of improvisational music therapy for eight weeks by a music therapist. Autistic symp-toms were assessed with the Autism Behavior Checklist (AuBC) and quality of life was assessed with Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL). Results: There was statistically significant difference in relationship building, language skills, total scores of AuBC and in emotional quality of life scores of PedsQL between two groups after music therapy with no statistically significant difference in AuBC or PedsQL scores before music therapy. In addition, it was revealed that ASD children in music therapy group had statistically significant lower scores in relationship building, body-object use, language skills, social self-care, total scores of AuBC and statistically significant higher scores in emotional, social, school, psychosocial, total quality of life scores of PedsQL after music therapy com-pared to before. Discussion: In our research, it was revealed that music therapy provide additional positive results in autism spectrum symptoms and quality of life in children with ASD. These results obtained in our study were consistent with the literature and suggested that music therapy could be used as a complementary method in addition to routine treatment in children with ASD.