Study designs of evaluations included in the review
To be eligible, the studies needed to have a no-intervention control condition.
Specific interventions included in the review
To be eligible, the studies needed to compare group or individual music treatment that incorporated both pitch and rhythm versus no music. Most interventions in the included studies were targeted at the individual. The studies were from either a music therapy, education, psychology or occupational therapy discipline. Half of the studies were conducted by music therapists. Three different theoretical approaches were used: developmental social-pragmatic, discrete trial-traditional behavioural, and contemporary applied behaviour analysis. Some studies used live music whilst others used recorded music. A variety of musical interventions were explored: social stories set to music, sung instructions, background music, picture identification and direction following, music therapy session and music to accompany activities.
Participants included in the review
To be eligible, the studies needed to be of children or adolescents diagnosed with autism. Studies of diverse populations of children with special educational needs, even where these included those with an autistic spectrum disorder, were excluded. The participants were aged from 3 to 21 years and the majority were male.
Outcomes assessed in the review
To be eligible, the studies needed to report quantitative results in sufficient detail to extract an effect size. The studies were classified according to whether they examined outcomes relating to social behaviour, cognitive skill or communication.
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The author did not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many reviewers performed the selection.