Hong Kong Med J 2026;32(Suppl 1):S43-5
Music therapy for social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability: abridged secondary publication
YN Yum1, KW Lau2, KY Poon3, FC Ho1
1 The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2 Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong SAR, China
3 The University of New South Wales, Australia
 
 
  1. Group music therapy was effective in decreasing autistic features and negative behaviours among children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, comparable to non-musical behavioural interventions.
  2. Children who received music therapy were more engaged and made more initiations, compared with those who received non-musical behavioural interventions, although there was no significant difference between groups concerning changes in autistic features.
  3. Children with positive neural responses to social scenes showed increased initiation behaviour during both interventions, whereas children with positive neural responses to music showed increased initiation behaviour during music therapy alone.
  4. Children’s social or musical affinity may affect outcomes. Neural markers may help match children with the appropriate intervention.
  5. Children did not generalise the learned social skills to other settings. Future research may aim to increase skill transfer by assigning home practice.