Effectiveness of Teaching of Persian Language with Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) on the Executive Function in 7-10 Year Male Persian Autistic Children

The purpose of the present research is to determine the effectiveness of teaching method of Persian Language with melodic intonation therapy (MIT) on the executive function in 7-10 year male Persian autistic children.  Quasi-experimental method and pretest and posttest procedures were used due to topic’s nature in this research. Five 7-10 Persian speaking children were chosen from Autism Home in Khomeini-Shahr, Iran, by means of available sampling. At first, the biography form of children was completed with the help of their parents and coaches. In the pretest step, Newsha Developmental Scale was used to measure the language skills such as expression, reception and speech while Tower of London Test was used to measure the executive function. Teaching Persian language through melodic intonation therapy individually was used for each child in 46 sessions, every session 20-30 minute. Posttests were taken after teaching.  Newsha Developmental Scale, after teaching, showed the increase in the language skills of expression, reception and speech. A significant difference was observed between the pretest and posttest in Tower of London Test (p<0.05).   Teaching Persian Language with melodic intonation therapy can improve the executive functions of autistic children but a wider sampling size is required in order to attain more salient effects.