• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.69-87
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• 2024

This study investigated whether joint attention response behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) change in response to musical cues and reinforcing stimulus, and compared them with neurotypically developing (NT) children. The participants included 13 children with ASD and 14 NT children aged between 3 to 5 years. The study established six task conditions, involving cues (verbal vs. musical) for responding to joint attention (RJA) behaviors and reinforcing stimulus (verbal vs. sound vs. musical) for social referencing behaviors. These tasks were presented 12 times with two repetitions each. The results of the study showed that providing musical cues during the RJA phase increased levels of RJA in children with ASD, consistent with prior studies. Subsequently, musical reinforcing stimuli increased the frequency of social referencing behaviors in these children. This indicates that musical stimuli can extend beyond mere sensory cues, helping individuals to understand and respond to social and emotional cues from others. Moreover, these musical stimuli could serve as effective social reinforcement factors for this population.