Music Therapy for Speech and Prosody in Autistic Children (MTSPAC)

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This research is a single-blind randomized controlled trial, where the investigators plan to recruit 40 children with autism, randomly divided into two groups. The music therapy intervention group will receive an hour of group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy. The control group will receive only traditional language therapy. The trial will last for 8 weeks, and participants in both groups will be assessed before and after the trial. During the study, the investigators will use professional recording equipment to record their speech and use the speech analysis software to objectively compare whether there are significant differences in prosody between the two groups of children with autism before and after the intervention. Besides the acoustic measurement the investigators also assess the language abilities autism trait performance, adaptive function, emotional behavior, and parent-child stress levels.

Detailed Description
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This research is a single-blind randomized controlled trial, where the investigators plan to recruit 40 children with autism, randomly divided into two groups. The music therapy intervention group will receive an hour of group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy. The control group will receive only traditional language therapy. The trial will last for 8 weeks, and participants in both groups will be assessed before and after the trial. During the study, the investigators will use professional recording equipment to record their speech and use the speech analysis software to objectively compare whether there are significant differences in prosody between the two groups of children with autism before and after the intervention. Besides the acoustic measurement the investigators also assess the language abilities autism trait performance, adaptive function, emotional behavior, and parent-child stress levels. The study hypothesizes that music therapy can contribute to improving language development delays in children with autism and may enhance their language development further by ameliorating prosody abnormalities. The investigators hope that this research can propose more diversified therapeutic methods for language development in children with autism.

Official Title
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Effectiveness of Music Therapy for Speech Delay and Prosody Disorder in Children With Autism

Conditions
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Autism, Language Delay, Speech Disorders in Children

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: music therapy, speech therapy
* Behavioral: speech therapy


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: children with autism aged 3-5 y/o children with speech delay (T-score of Preschool Language Scale < 40) Mandarin as first language Exclusion Criteria: children with other neurological diseases children without verbal output children with articulation or voice disorder

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 3 Years
Maximum Age: 5 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Music therapy group<br> | Behavioral: music therapy, speech therapy<br>* receive group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy<br>|
| Active Comparator: Control group<br> | Behavioral: speech therapy<br>* receive only traditional language therapy<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised version of the Preschool Language Scale (PLS) | assess the language abilities of children, minimum value 0, maximum value 83, higher scores means a better outcome | 8 weeks | 
| Checklist for Autism Spectrum Disorder-Chinese Version (CASD-C) | evaluate autism trait performance | 8 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1½-5 (CBCL 1½-5) | evaluate emotional behavior | 8 weeks | 
| Parenting Stress Index | evaluate parent-child stress levels, minimum value 36, maximum value 180, higher scores means a worse outcome | 8 weeks |