The long-term effects of auditory training on children with autism.
Daily music listening—any music—can cut autism severity and raise IQ for at least a year.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers split children with autism into two groups. One group got daily auditory training with filtered sounds. The other group simply listened to regular music. The team tracked behavior, autism severity, and IQ for a full year.
This was a true experiment: kids were picked by lottery for each group. No extra teaching or drugs were added.
What they found
Both groups improved. Parents saw fewer tantrums and better focus. Autism scores dropped and IQ scores rose. The gains stayed for 12 months.
Surprise: plain music worked just as well as fancy filtered sounds.
How this fits with other research
Durbin et al. (2019) later showed the same boost can happen in real classrooms. They mixed autistic and neurotypical kids in school music clubs. Victimization fell and prosocial feelings grew.
Vaiouli et al. (2015) pushed the idea younger. Three preschoolers got improvisational music therapy in kindergarten. Joint attention and social smiles went up.
Palka Bayard de Volo et al. (2021) looks like a contradiction. A teen with autism showed no change after four months of pandemic lockdown. The key difference: this teen had no planned music sessions, just life disruption.
Why it matters
You do not need special equipment. A playlist and headphones can calm sound distress and lift IQ scores for a whole year. Start each session with a short listening routine. Track behavior weekly. If gains stall, switch genres or add peer music games like Anna’s team did.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Eighty children, 3-17 years of age, with autism or Asperger syndrome and mild to severe distress in the presence of some sounds, were randomly allocated to two groups. The experimental group received auditory training and the control group listened to the same unmodified music under the same conditions. Significant improvements in behavior and severity of autism were maintained for 12 months by both groups. Informal data suggested that a range of abnormal responses to sound and other sensory abnormalities may also have improved. Verbal and performance IQ increased significantly 3 to 12 months after interventions. Findings suggest that some aspect of both auditory training and listening to selected unmodified music may have a beneficial effect on children with autism and sound sensitivity, and indicate a need for further research into the effects that led to these changes and the mechanisms involved in the sensory abnormalities commonly associated with autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1996 · doi:10.1007/BF02172480