April is Autism Acceptance Month – a month to celebrate the shift from “awareness” to “acceptance” and promote true inclusion and acceptance of autistic individuals. Let’s talk about autism and music! Music tends to be an area of strength for autistic folks. Why is that? Well, autistic individuals have enhanced auditory perception, and research shows that it is more likely for an autistic person to have perfect (or absolute) pitch than a neurotypical person.
“The prevalence of absolute pitch in the general population is estimated to be less than 0.01%. Therefore, it is a rare finding. In the autistic population, on the other hand, enhanced pitch, discrimination ability, and pitch memory are often reported strengths and the prevalence of absolute pitch is estimated to be 5% to 11% (Frith, 1989, p.8) and it is constant in savant autistic musicians (Miller, 1999, cited in Mottron et al., 2013).“
Music can be predictable but is flexible. Strong musical cadences at the beginning and end of a song can provide a sense of structure and familiarity. Those clear musical endings (V I for example) can provide a satisfying feeling of completion. As music therapists, we are lucky to have music as a mode of communication when purposeful verbalizations are limited. In the attached picture, you see a child using musical and nonverbal communication to indicate musical preferences to the MT-BC.
