LI School To Study Music's Impact On Autism

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY — Using a $90,000 grant, Molloy University is creating a study to determine the impact of music therapy on autistic children.

The research will examine whether improvisational music therapy can improve neurological outcomes for autistic children. The study will be done by graduate assistants and music therapists at the Rebecca Center for Music Therapy at Molloy University.

The funding is from the National Endowment for the Arts.

"Our work at the Rebecca Center has shown the anecdotal evidence that music therapy can help reach autistic," said John Carpente, Professor of Molloy’s Music Therapy department and Founding Director of The Rebecca Center for Music Therapy.

In partnership with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, researchers will look for a relationship between children's engagement ability and activity within the mirror neuron system.

Assessments will include family quality of life, behavioral observations of engagement and interaction.

Molloy is currently recruiting participants for the study, ages seven to nine years old of age.

Children will watch a short video while wearing an elastic EEG cap so that they can record their brainwaves in a single one-hour session. Autistic children will participate in 12 weekly, 30-minute music therapy sessions.