From intuition to intervention: developing an intonation-based treatment for autism.

Autism affects ∼1.5% of children under age 8; its core symptoms include impairment in social-communicative functioning and repetitive behaviors/restricted interests. Music-based interventions have been considered one modality through which to treat autism. This report discusses considerations to take into account when developing a music-based intervention for a core symptom of autism. Treatment modality must be matched to symptom both clinically and theoretically, the behavior to be treated must be carefully defined and assessed, and outcome measures must be capable of showing improvement in that behavior over the course of the study. Fidelity assessment and rater blinding reduce experimenter bias. High inter-rater reliability for perceptually determined outcome measures helps obtain accurate estimates of treatment response. Later stages of testing compare the experimental intervention to matched control treatments or other validated therapies, isolating the intervention's "active ingredients." Such systematic investigation of a new music-based intervention can provide information of different types, ranging from an assessment of whether the intervention has any effect at all to an assessment of its outcomes and risks in uncontrolled community settings. Findings ultimately compose the evidence base that clinicians and families can use to decide the most effective way of addressing symptoms of autism for particular children.