A casestudy on the use of an innovative, technical, musical instrument, Skoog, in a special needs education setting with a child with autism and its effects on social skills

Abstract

The aim of the study was to explore the use of a unique musical instrument called Skoog in a special needs education setting with a child with autism. A case-study approach was adopted. Emphasis was placed on the potential of Skoog, which increases the participant’s initiation to make eye-contact and to initiate a conversation or other forms of communication. The participant was a 4-year-old boy with autism. The participant received 21 sessions of therapy, with outcomes from the sessions utilizing Skoog being compared to the outcomes from sessions not utilizing Skoog. The sessions were filmed, and pre- and post-intervention evaluations were carried out. The results did not yield any statistically significant difference between Skoog and non-Skoog sessions. A greater amount of verbal communication was recorded during the non-Skoog sessions. This might be because the participant used music, instead of language, to communicate when using Skoog. These results contradict findings from previous studies. A large-scale study with a greater number of participants is needed to further evaluate the use of Skoog in special needs education setting.