Effect of music therapy on children with autism spectrum disorder:a meta-analysis
ZHANG Yong
CAI Zeng
XU Fengping
LIU Dan
CHANG Hongjuan
Abstract：Objective To explore the effect of music therapy on children with autism spectrum disorder(ASD).
Methods A systematic search was conducted in databases including CNKI,Wanfang data,VIP,PubMed,Elsevier Sci-ence Direct and Google Scholar for randomized controlled trials(RCT)on the effect of music therapy on children with ASD.The search period was from database inception to April,2024.The control group received non-music therapy interventions,including medication,educational therapy,cognitive-behavioral therapy,and structured treatment.The observation group received music therapy.Studies were systematically reviewed following the Co-chrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews,with two researchers independently screening literatures,extracting data,and assessing the risk of bias in the included studies.Statistic analysis was performed using Review Manag-er 5.4.
Results Nine RCTs were included,involving 828 patients from France,China,Norway,Iran,the United States and Aus-tralia.The intervention types mainly included music therapy,parent-child cooperative music therapy,Orff music therapy,group music therapy,improvisational music therapy,Orff-Schulwerk-based music therapy,music inter-vention and family-centered music therapy.The overall outcomes(SMD=-0.30,95%CI-0.55 to-0.04,P=0.02),language function(MD=-2.09,95%CI-2.89 to-1.30,P<0.001)and physical behavior(SMD=-0.27,95%CI-0.53 to-0.01,P=0.040)improved better in the observation group.
Conclusion Music therapy can improve the overall outcome of children with ASD,especially in language function and physical behavior.
Keywords：autism spectrum disorderchildrenmusic therapymeta analysis
Publication Date：2025-04-25
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：8( 423-430 )