Abstract
As a doctoral student in music education at Michigan State University (USA), I was fortunate to take classes and seminars in research with doctoral students in music therapy. Seeds were planted then that would mature later when I started working with special needs students, using the iPad as a musical instrument (Randles, 2013; Randles, in press-a, in press-b). I have come to know intimately the parallels that exist between doing music with individuals for medicinal purposes and doing music with groups of people for performance and/or for recording (Randles, 2012). It seems to follow that the end goal of music therapy – enriching the livelihood and overall well-being of individuals or groups of individuals – aligns nicely with what music education has come to mean for me and my students.
The editors intended for this book to be a manual or handbook for early childhood music therapy for use by music therapists. It was developed to be at the same time practical, theoretical, and research-based. It seems in many ways that the book has delivered in all of these areas. Part 1 (Chapters 1–3) provides an introduction to the topic and a framework for understanding the literature. Chapter 1 is a primer on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) where Kern provides a definition, brief history, data on prevalence, specific information including the tests commonly used for screening, and approaches to intervention. The meta-analysis in Chapter 3 is a great starting point for anyone working with individuals with ASD and music. Part 2 contains a chapter on assessment. Part 3 (Chapters 5–9) covers the primary treatment approaches, including Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Social Stories, Nordiff-Robbins Music Therapy, and the DIR/Floortime Model. Part 4 (Chapters 10–14) contains chapters devoted to bringing all of the information presented previously in the book together by highlighting collaboration that the editors and authors suggest are required for meaningful application of the strategies espoused in Part 3, given what we know about the disorder as it relates to musical interventions (Part 1), of course after the disorder has been properly identified (Part 2). Part 5 provides a wealth of information for both research and practice in the form of an annotated bibliography and a collection of resources for practitioners.
Unique features of this book make it refreshing among scholarly books in music research. It contains the most creative ‘Acknowledgements’ section that I have ever seen in a book of this nature with a conceptual model representing a thank you to contributing authors, family & friends, the publisher, and colleagues. In a similar fashion, each chapter begins with an image and focus sentence by the authors that helps illustrate the content of the chapter. Author photos are included along with the short biographies in the back of the book. All of these qualities work to set the book apart from other scholarly handbooks.
Early Childhood Music Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorders would be an excellent introduction to music therapy for non-music therapists. As a music teacher educator and an advisor of doctoral dissertations, I see this book as an excellent place to send students who are interested in music therapy but who do not know where to start to learn more. As I mentioned previously, there are so many intersections between music therapy and music education if one is open to the possibilities. I see this book as informing my own work with students with ASD and am thankful to the editors and authors for their fine contribution to the literature.