Dear Mr. Dean,
We are writing in response to your article, “How Music Therapy May Help Children with Autism.” Thank you for discussing the importance of evidence-based interventions for autism. We agree that there are no medications to effectively treat autism, and that we need to turn our attention to other therapies that build skills and improve quality of life for individuals on the spectrum. While we appreciate your effort, we are concerned that many of your claims lack scientific support.
In your article, you mentioned evidence by Cochrane Collaboration that shows music therapy and music lessons may enhance verbal communication, social interaction, and other core functions of individuals with autism. However, the link you provided does not lead to such studies. Rather, the link takes readers to a review of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), which is a scientifically supported intervention for young children on the autism spectrum. In subsequent sections of the article, several purported outcomes of music therapy are listed, including the possibility of changing the structure and connectivity of the brain, which may lead to improvements in core functioning for people with autism. However, these statements were made without mentioning the original sources or providing appropriate citations. In making an argument for the role of music therapy in healing communicative disorders, a link to a 2009 study was included; however, this study only investigates the connection between music and the possible neuroplastic changes in adult and developing brains, without any discussion of autism. While we appreciate that music is an enjoyable activity that all people with autism should be able to access, we recommend reserving the word “therapy” for those educational and behavioural interventions and supports with robust evidence to support their effectiveness.
Our mission at the Association for Science and Autism Treatment is to share accurate information about evidence-based treatments and counter pseudoscience. While we appreciate your effort to highlight music therapy as a therapeutic approach for autism, we are concerned that the lack of appropriate citations and supporting sources can make readers question your article’s credibility. We believe that media professionals have a responsibility to present reliable, transparent, and science-based information regarding treatments of autism to professionals and parents, as this information can have a great impact on their decisions about how to support individuals with autism. As a reference for your future writing on this topic, we invite you to read an article published on our February newsletter titled Five Principles of Ethical Journalism: Implications for Media Representations of Autism Treatment. Thank you again for your article and please reach out to us if we can be of any assistance.
Sincerely,
Mi Trinh
Erin Leif, PhD, BCBA-D
Association for Science in Autism Treatment
