For people who can’t easily communicate, music therapy can be a way of communicating and interacting. Instead of using words to communicate, people can use a range of musical activities like singing, playing instruments, improvising, songwriting and listening to music. These activities promote communication and social skills like making eye contact, sharing attention and taking turns.

Therapists can also use musical activities to teach new skills. This happens by pairing new skills with their own musical cues. Once children have learned the skills, they no longer need the cues. The cues are gradually phased out until the skills happen by themselves.

For an autistic child, a music therapist might also write lyrics about specific behaviour – for example, turn-taking. The therapist sings the lyrics to the melody of a song the child knows well. The idea is that the child might be better able to focus on sung information than spoken information.