Name:Ella Shalev

School/Affiliation:Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Co-Authors:Julie Mazzone, Stephen Camarata, Courtney Venker, Amy Smith, Jess Knoble, Christina Berninger, Miriam Lense

Virtual or In-person:Virtual

Short Bio:

Ella is a Board-Certified Music Therapist and Neurologic Music Therapist currently pursuing her PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. As a Graduate Research Assistant at the Vanderbilt Music Cognition Research Lab, working under the guidance of Dr. Miriam D. Lense, Ella is training in experimental operations and behavioral and neural methodologies, including eye-tracking and EEG, while continuing to facilitate intervention sessions with toddlers with autism spectrum disorder as a music therapist. Ella is working towards becoming a clinical translational researcher, integrating findings from fields such as neuroscience and developmental psychology to inform music-based clinical practice.

Abstract:

Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs) target the early development of social communication and language acquisition in young children on the autism spectrum (ASD). Musical interaction activities have been suggested as an effective platform for NDBIs, since they emphasize proposed key active ingredients driving early social engagement and communication in ASD, such as shared attention, predictability, reinforcement, emotion regulation, and social play (Lense & Camarata, 2020). Yet, scientific research has yet to synthesize the role of musical activities within NDBI interventions. This narrative review analyzed the official manuals of seven well-established NDBIs to explore if and how music is implemented in NDBI practice.
We identified six themes directly connecting musical activities to social communication within NDBIs: (1) using songs as motivators for interaction, (2) prompting and expanding gesture skills through song, (3) employing dynamics and predictability in songs to cue target words, (4) integrating musical instruments in play, (5) utilizing songs for cross-domain multi-modal learning, and (6) using songs for multi-step models. These themes demonstrate various ways to incorporate music into therapeutic practices beyond traditional, highly structured music interventions. The review also reveals an opportunity to increase consideration of how musicality principles can adapt standard NDBI elements. For example, emerging approaches such as music-enhanced Reciprocal Imitation Training (meRIT) intentionally leverage rhythmicity and singing to potentiate RIT elements such as repetition and animated child-directed speech. This review reveals the interconnected clinical application of music within NDBIs, and highlights the integration of musical and NDBI practices in the development and implementation of music-infused NDBIs.