Musical stimulation as an educational tool for the integral development of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the school environments

Abstract

Music is a crucial strategy for promoting communication, social relations and behavioral development, thanks to its benefits in the main areas of human development, such as language and communication. The main objective of this research is to analyze the benefits of musical stimulation in the development of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), based on an innovative educational project implemented in an educational center in the Primary Education stage with a group of students with special educational needs associated with ASD. This project uses musical stimulation as an educational tool to improve the teaching-learning process of these students. This qualitative and quantitative study uses direct observation, interviews and questionnaires as data collection instruments. The results obtained reveal that musical stimulation is a very useful tool for working on the common difficulties of ASD, obtaining a positive impact on the integral development of the participating students. Specifically, improvements have been observed in different dimensions, including better communication among these students, increased social relations and normalization of conduct and behavior.