A Study on Effect of Thai Music Therapy Activities on Autism and Learning Disabilities

Jareeluk Ratanaphan* (Ph,D), Wattana Makkasman and Taweewat watthanakuljaroen

School of Educational Studies,  Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University,Bangpood, Pakkret, Nonthaburi 11120,Thailand

e-mail address: jareeluk@yahoo.com 

Abstrsct:

The objectives of this research were to: 

1. Compare  the attention span of autism and children with LD between before and after participate with Thai Music Therapy Activities
2. Compare  the communication skill of autism and children with LD between after and before participate with Thai Music Therapy Activities
3. Study the relation between attention span and communication skill of autism  who participate with Thai Music Therapy Activities
4. Study the relation between attention span and communication skill of children with LD who join with Thai Music Therapy Activities
5. Study the opinion of teachers and parents toward Thai Music Therapy Activities.

The design of the experiment was the Single Subject Design. The research sample consisted of 5 autism and 5 children with LD. The employed research instrument comprised:

1. Thai Music Therapy Activities
2. A behavior observation form to assess attention span and communication skill
3. An interview form to assess opinions on Thai Music Therapy Activities. Sign test and content analysis were used for analyzing.

The finding were followed:

• The post-attention span of autism and LD was significantly higher than their pre-attention counterpart at the.05 level 
• The post-communication skill of autism and children with LD was significantly higher than their pre-attention counterpart at the.05 level
• The relation between attention span and communication skill of autism was significantly in the same direction at the.05 level 
• Study the relation between attention span and communication skill of LD was not significantly in the opposite direction
• The opinion of teacher and parent about Thai Music Therapy Activities were follows:
  • Listen to a song: They are agree with listening to a song in morning, at lunch and at noon for 5-15 minutes. Everyone like Thai song, listener take a peaceful and clam down during listen to Thai song 
  • Play a musical instrument: it’s not difficult for children who’s autism and LD to play a musical instrument like castanets, drum, wooden rhythm clappers etc. children like it and look so happy during playing musical instrument
  • Rhythmic activities: they agree with rhythmic activities. It made children still concentrate on listening and waiting for rhythmic which they must move
  • Sing a song: they agree with this activities. It made children still concentrate on listening and waiting for “word” which they must sing or not sing
  • Applying an activities: teacher and parent sure that they can apply this activities at classroom or at home.it’s simple to understand the activities 
  • Suggestion: Training teachers and parents on the beginning of academic year

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  *Assistant Professor, Leader of researcher