Dear Ms. Deolinda,
We are writing in response to your recent article, Dance Therapy for Autism: What are the Benefits. We appreciate your efforts to provide information to parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) regarding the scientific support for different therapies they may be considering. We applaud the care you took to describe how dance therapy might help people with different symptoms of ASD, including people who communicate using methods other than speech. Awareness and specific support for different profiles and presentations of symptoms is critically important. While the outcomes of dance therapy appear promising in a number of areas, we suggest more caution be applied when considering if this is an effective therapy for the core symptoms of ASD. We argue that more research on dance therapy for autism is needed before conclusions can be drawn about its effectiveness.
Although Koch et al. (2019) reviewed research on the effectiveness of dance therapy for individuals with autism, they did not actually identify any beneficial outcomes for this population. The researchers suggested that additional research is necessary before claims of efficacy can be made for most of the populations (autism, anxiety, depression, cancer, eating disorders, etc.) they included in their study. In fact, Koch et al. referenced research by Hildebrandt et al. (2016), who found that dance-movement therapy did not meet the standards of clinical efficacy when used to address symptoms of autism.
We encourage readers to select educational and behavior supports for autism that are guided by research and proven effective. Our practice guide, “What is Evidence-Based Practice and Why Should we Care,” discusses why treatments that feel good and look like fun may cause unintended harm when presented them as options for parents. We have also published guides designed to support consumers of these therapies to ask informed questions about and evaluate the research behind the therapies they’re considering.
The desire to share information about dance/movement therapy is understandable. There are many possible benefits from increased activity, and engagement in social events that dance/movement therapy could possibly foster. Given the social and health benefits of dance, we believe that dance (and other sport and recreation activities) should be made more inclusive, so people with autism can participate. However, dance/movement therapy does not yet have an established research base as a therapy for autism. It may be useful to review a similar critique of equine-assisted therapy, as there are parallels between both the apparent desirability of the activity and the difficulties in properly researching it as a therapeutic approach for autism.
We encourage your readers to visit our website to learn more about the evidence for specific therapies for autism, and we look forward to sharing new research findings once they become available.
Sincerely,
Dr. Hazel Baker, PhD, BCBA-D, LABA
Dr Erin Leif, PhD, BCBA-D
Association for Science in Autism Treatment
References
Hildebrandt, M. K., Koch, S. C., & Fuchs, T. (2016). “We dance and find each other”: Effects of dance/movement therapy on negative symptoms in autism spectrum disorder. Behavioral Sciences, 6(4), 24. http://doi.org/10.3390/bs6040024
Karkou, V., Aithal, S., Zubala, A., & Meekums, B. (2019). Effectiveness of Dance Movement Therapy in the Treatment of Adults With Depression: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 936. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00936
Koch, S. C., Riege, R., Tisborn, K., Biondo, J., Martin, L., & Beelmann, A. (2019). Effects of Dance Movement Therapy and Dance on Health-Related Psychological Outcomes. A Meta-Analysis Update. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1806. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01806
