THE EFFECT MUSIC THERAPY IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: A SCOPING REVIEW

To carry out a scoping review of the scientific literature to help answer the question: “What do studies published from January 2014 until February 2021bring about the effect of music therapy in children with autism?”; summarize and disseminate research data and identify existing gaps.

Method:  PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR): checklist and explanation (Tricco et al., 2018). Search strategies were developed in national and international databases in health sciences: PUBMED, EMBASE, WEB OF SCIENCE, PSYCHINFO, SCOPUS and LILACS to retrieve articles published between 2014 and February 2021.

Results:  50 articles were read in full and analyzed by reviewers, and 16 were selected for their eligibility. Only one article failed to determine the gains of music therapy.

Conclusions:  The results of this review showed the positive effects of music therapy for communication and social interaction in children with autism. Most of the works are case studies, and the sample size is small, but the results achieved were quite favorable. Some works invested in long-term accompaniments to verify that the benefits of music therapy are stable and lasting; more follow-up work needs to be done and published. This review focused on the lack of a father figure in the music therapy process, a point that could be analyzed in future research.

Keywords:
Child; autismo; music therapy