What is it about?
This project investigated feasibility measures (limited-efficacy, acceptability, and adaptation) of a six-week music therapy program anchored in the Parent-Early Start Denver Model to coach parents in strategies that could enhance their children’s social interactions. Three parent-child dyads participated in group sessions. The children showed important improvements in communication. The parents found this modality developmentally, culturally, and age appropriate. These preliminary results indicate that parents can learn the principles of the ESDM within a music intervention, and that the ESDM and P-ESDM might provide music therapists with a well-researched theoretical framework for their practice.
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Why is it important?
Parents of young children diagnosed with or at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder may face many struggles when looking for or starting treatment. Parent coaching and parent-mediated therapy are available alternatives to give parents the tools for effective parenting, based on professional treatment models such as the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM).
Perspectives
As a certified ESDM therapist, and a board-certified music therapist, I found in the ESDM an evidence-based treatment model that could make my practice more meaningful and effective. My training and experience in the P-ESDM (parent-mediated version of the ESDM) gave me hope that we can share those strategies with those that need them most: the parents. By doing this, we empower them, support them, and help them become better parents. That is also my motivation to share these strategies with my music therapy colleagues.
Dr. Eugenia Hernandez-Ruiz
Arizona State University Herberger Institute
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Music Therapy and Early Start Denver Model to Teach Social Communication Strategies to Parents of Preschoolers with ASD: A Feasibility Study, Music Therapy Perspectives, December 2017, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/mtp/mix018.
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