The Effectiveness of Music Therapy on Aggression and Stereotypical Behaviors of 9 - 11 Years old Autism Children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of music therapy on aggression and general behaviors of 9 - 11 years old autistic children and its impact on their parents' mental health.

The present study was semi-experimental with pre-test design with the control group. The statistical population consisted of all children with autism in Gorgan (No.137). out of them, 30 people were secreted using a targeted sampling method and randomly divided into two groups (15 experimental) and (15 control) The experimental group was subjected to 16 sessions and the control group did not receive any intervention until the end of the research. The research instrument included Garz Scale (1994), Obvious and Hidden Aggression Questionnaire (1996) and Goldberg's Mental Health Questionnaire (1979). Analysis of variance (An oval) was (used to test the hypothesis.

The results showed that music therapy was effective on the stereotypical behaviors, physical aggression, and verbal aggression, relational aggression of children with autism and mental health (P<0.005).

Using music therapy can reduce aggressive and stereotypical behaviors and kilosy children with autism and improve their parents’ mental health.