Implementation

What Does This Look Like in Clinical Practice?

Incorporating these evidence-backed principles to Speech-Language Pathology clinical practice can improve therapeutic outcomes. Although research studies vary in dosage and format, several principles translate well to school services. SLPs can start by:

Choosing appropriate musical stimuli

- - Songs and musical activities can be:
    - - Sourced from internet resources
      - Learned in other classes and practiced in session
      - Improvised to supplement speech
  - Match songs and musical activities to therapeutic targets, including vocabulary words, routines, or phonological processes.
  - Consider adapting existing approaches like SMTA - Speech-Music Therapy for Aphasia (see Hurkman et al., 2015 and Van Tellingen et al., 2023).

Maximizing therapeutic effects

- - Repeat songs regularly to increase exposure.
  - Incorporate turn-taking and joint attention, ideally with peers.
  - Follow the child’s lead.

Extending benefits beyond the speech session

- - Collaborate with other important adults invested in the child, including caregivers, therapists, teachers, and paraprofessionals.

Collaboration

Collaboration enhances functional application and generalization.

Parents: encourage parents to incorporate music and singing into the child’s routines at home to support language learning, social communication, and speech planning.
Music Therapists: in school districts with access to music therapists, consider partnering to tackle goals together in group sessions.
Teachers: partner with classroom teachers, music teachers, and special education teachers to incorporate songs and music from other classes into speech and language intervention.

Progress Monitoring Measures

The following measures were used in the research to document intervention progress.

Measures of Social Pragmatics

(Williams et al., 2024; Zhou et al., 2025)

Parent and teacher questionnaires (ex. Social Responsiveness Scale - SRS and Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist - ATEC)
Video sample coding for social behaviors

Measures of Vocabulary

(MacDonald et al., 2024; Williams et al., 2024)

- - Language sample analysis
  - Number of target words understood and produced
  - Assessments (ex. Expressive and Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4 - EOWPVT-4 and ROWPVT-4)
  - Number of words and phrases understood and produced (ex. MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Gestures Form - CDI)

Measures of Speech Intelligibility

(Van Tellingen et al., 2023)

Speech sample analysis
Parent questionnaires (ex. Intelligibility in Context Scale - ICS)

References

Burns, J., O’Connor, R., & Moss, H. (2024). Music therapy for young children with acquired communication impairments: An international survey of clinical practices. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 33(5), 391–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/08098131.2024.2329898

Hurkmans, J., Jonkers, R., de Bruijn, M., Boonstra, A. M., Hartman, P. P., Arendzen, H., & Reinders

Messelink, H. A. (2015). The effectiveness of Speech–Music Therapy for Aphasia (SMTA) in five speakers

with Apraxia of Speech and aphasia. Aphasiology, 29(8), 939–964.

https://doi org.libproxy.lamar.edu/10.1080/02687038.2015.1006565

Frizelle, P., McMullan, E., Looney, E., Dahly, D., O'Toole, C., & Hart, N. (2024). The Feasibility of an Online Language Program Delivered Through Music and the Impact of Dosage on Vocabulary Outcomes in Young Children With Down Syndrome. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 33(4), 2002–2022. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_AJSLP-23-00375

MacDonald-Prégent, A., Saiy, F., Hyde, K., Sharda, M., & Nadig, A. (2024). Response to Music-Mediated Intervention in Autistic Children with Limited Spoken Language Ability. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 54(4), 1438–1452. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05872-w

Van Tellingen, M., Hurkmans, J., Terband, H., Van de Zande, A. M., Maassen, B., & Jonkers, R. (2024). Speech and Music Therapy in the Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech: An Introduction and a Case Study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research: JSLHR, 67(9S), 3269–3287. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00619

Williams, T., Loucas, T., Sin, J., Jeremic, M., Meyer, S., Boseley, S., Fincham-Majumdar, S., Aslett, G., Renshaw, R., & Liu, F. (2024). Using music to assist language learning in autistic children with minimal verbal language: The MAP feasibility RCT. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 28(10), 2515–2533. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241233804

Ke, X., Song, W., Yang, M., Li, J., & Liu, W. (2022). Effectiveness of music therapy in children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.905113

Zhou, Z., Zhao, X., Yang, Q., Zhou, T., Feng, Y., Chen, Y., Chen, Z., & Deng, C. (2025). A randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of music therapy on the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 158, 104942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2025.104942

Shi, Z., Wang, S., Chen, M., Hu, A., Long, Q., & Lee, Y. (2024). The effect of music therapy on language communication and social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1336421

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