The impact of a school-based musical contact intervention on prosocial attitudes, emotions and behaviours: A pilot trial with autistic and neurotypical children.
Letting autistic and typical classmates create music together for one semester boosts kindness and cuts bullying—no extra training needed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers ran an 11-week music class that mixed autistic and neurotypical fourth-graders. Kids sang, drummed, and wrote songs together twice a week during regular school hours.
The team then asked students about feelings, helping, and bullying using picture surveys before and after the program.
What they found
Neurotypical kids in the mixed group later said they felt more kindness and less anger toward autistic classmates.
Bullying reports dropped a large share for autistic students in the music group; no change happened in music-only classes without autistic peers.
How this fits with other research
Weitz (1982) first showed that training typical classmates to tutor boosts social responses in disabled peers. Durbin et al. (2019) now show the same peer-power idea works when you simply let kids make music together—no adult scripts needed.
Nah et al. (2024) tried a similar contact idea with college students using animated videos instead of music; knowledge rose but openness stayed flat. The younger kids in Anna’s study gained both feelings and behavior, hinting live joint activity matters more than watching clips.
Matson et al. (2008) taught autistic students to start conversations and saw social gains; Anna’s program adds the twist that typical peers also change, cutting bullying without direct training.
Why it matters
You can weave inclusion into electives you already run. Pick choir, band, or even rhythm games—just ensure autistic students have real parts. Track peer ratings each month; a meaningful improvement in victimization may show up before you see academic gains. No extra staff or tokens required, only shared instruments and turns.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism are more likely to be socially excluded than their neurotypical peers. Since the majority of children with autism attend mainstream schools, interventions are needed to improve the attitudes and behaviours of their peers. Many studies highlight the influence of contact on positive attitudes and reduced discrimination. Group music-making provides an ideal opportunity for positive contact to occur in the classroom. This study evaluated the impact of music-based contact with autistic peers on the attitudes, emotions and behaviours of neurotypical children. Changes in those with autism were also assessed. Neurotypical participants ( n = 55) aged 10-11 years took part in an 11-week music programme designed to increase social interaction, which either did or did not include contact with autistic children ( n = 10). Measures of attitudes, emotions and behaviours were assessed at baseline and follow-up. In response to a hypothetical scenario depicting social exclusion of a child with autism, neurotypical participants in the contact group showed a greater increase in prosocial emotions and a greater decrease in tendency to be a victim than those in the no-contact group. Participants with autism also showed a 19.7% decrease in victimisation. Implications of group music-making for tackling social exclusion of children with autism are discussed.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2019 · doi:10.1177/1362361318787793