Effects of Rhythmic Motor and Behavioral Intervention on Motor and Social Performance in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Study.

The team ran a small RCT with preschoolers who have autism plus intellectual disability.

Kids got either music therapy or a social-skills playgroup. Both met once a week for 45 minutes across 12 weeks.

Therapists tracked autism severity, social initiations, and brain waves before and after.

Both groups improved the same amount on the CARS-2 autism checklist.

Only the music group showed more spontaneous greetings, sharing, and eye contact during play.

Brain-wave patterns at the start hinted which children would gain the most social initiations.

Liu et al. (2025) also added music to social coaching, but used telehealth parent training. Their parents hit fidelity, yet child gains were spotty. The in-person music therapy here got clearer social boosts, showing setting may matter.

Peters-Scheffer et al. (2010) gave low-dose DTT in preschool years earlier. They saw big developmental jumps, but no change in autism severity. Pou-Leng et al. now show a different low-dose weekly program can soften autism scores while also lifting real-time social bids.

Pan et al. (2016) ran a 12-week motor program for kids with ADHD and saw executive-function gains. The same 12-week span here targeted preschoolers with ASD, suggesting the timeline is workable across diagnoses and goals.

You can add a short music circle to your preschool plan without pulling kids out for long hours. The equal CARS-2 drop means music therapy is at least as good as a social playgroup, and the extra initiations give you a free social boost. Use brief rhythm games during transitions or snack to keep the gains going.