A comparison of the effect of music induction and intentional movement imitation on the increase in the average number of verbs in a sentence in autistic children

This current and interdisciplinary research in the fields of cognitive science, clinical linguistics, neurobiology of language, and language pathology tries to solve language-related problems and disorders. The present research aims to provide a comparison of the effect of stimulating mirror neuron system through music induction and intentional movement imitation on the increase in the average number of verbs in a sentence in free speech of autistic children. For this purpose, first, two pilot studies were performed in 12 sessions on 2 autistic girls aged 6 and 7 for four weeks in Iran University of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences. After observing the positive and effective results of these two methods, other samples, i.e. 6 autistic monolingual Farsi speaking girls aged 5-8 were selected by convenience sampling, and underwent 42 sessions (i.e. three 20-30 minute session) of training over 14 weeks. The samples divided to two groups; during training intentional movement imitation in the first group including 3 subjects, no music was played in the class, while instrumental music (wordless music) was played in the class for the second group including 3 subjects during training intentional movement imitation. To evaluate the index of average number of verbs in a sentence, speech of the subjects, after and before intervention, was recorded during the play and everyday conversation. Then, the average number of verbs in their sentence was measured. The research findings were examined using SPSS software (version 20) by Paired-samples t-test and ANCOVA test. The obtained results indicate that the average number of verbs in the sentence significantly increased after the training course in both groups. In addition to the significant changes in all the subjects, the average number of verbs in the sentence in the subjects of the second group showed a significant difference compared to the first group. Based on the research findings, it can be said that stimulation of mirror neuron systems through music induction and intentional movement imitation positively affects the increase in the average number of verbs in the sentence in autistic children. However, it should be mentioned that audio-visual-motor stimulation of the neuron system has a greater impact on verbal skill development of autistic children.