Musical and emotional attunement - unique and essential in music therapy with children on the autism spectrum

Background: In improvisational music therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), facilitating musical and emotional attunement has been found to be one of the unique and essential principles.
Methods: Using videotaped sequences of therapy sessions from an international study (TIME-A), independent raters assessed therapists’ competence in using their behaviour and expression (e.g., through music, voice, arousal level, movement, facial expression) to allow for moments of synchronisation and attunement. Sequences with frequent occurrences of attunement were then examined in relation to musical parameters, aspects of timing in the interaction, joint vitality forms and emotional expression.
Discussion: Attunement unfolds in different ways, including regulation, selective attunement and gentle redirections of the dynamic in order to regulate the child’s arousal, attention or mood. Both attunement to the child’s vitality forms and selective attunement can be seen as essential for music therapy in ASD. They allow for joint changes in time and thereby possible steps towards early forms of joint attention.