Musical development of autistic children in different learning contexts:

an exploratory study

Abstract

This research, resulting from a Master's degree in Music, analyzed the musical development of two autistic children, inserted in two different musical learning contexts, with the aim of identifying likely influencing factors in the process. To this end, the children underwent a semester of Music Education, allocated into two groups: a special one, composed only of neurodivergent students, and an inclusive one, composed of neurodivergent and neurotypical students. The classes were filmed and the children's musical development was evaluated by a jury. The data obtained went through the Content Analysis technique and identified patterns that, in turn, outlined categories that served as a basis for evaluating the development obtained by children from music classes. Partially structured interviews were also carried out with parents, to better understand the data obtained. The results point to a significant musical/general development of children in their respective learning contexts, demonstrating how beneficial it is to make music, regardless of the learning context, in addition to showing that music, in fact, can affect human beings in its entirety. It was concluded that the learning context suffers numerous influences, ranging from the individuals present in the classroom, to family habits and the individual characteristics of autism. As a contribution, this research outlined the protocol that gave rise to the XXX Scale, currently validated.