Popular Music as a Socializing Agent for an Adolescent Boy with ASD

This paper describes two case studies and follow-up, taking place over a three-year period, with an adolescent male diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). At the time of the first case study the 13-year-old subject was mainstreamed in a traditional middle school 7th grade setting. The subject was given an MP3 player and told that he could keep it if he asked five boys and five girls his age to tell him what their favorite song was and why they liked it. When writing about the songs, and why peers liked them, the subject identified both musical and social aspects of the songs he felt made them attractive to peers and him. In the second case study the boy, now 15 year-of-age, was given a copy of a novel that included a character with autistic characteristics (but not identified as such in the book). The subject was asked to read the book and pay particular attention to the relationships between the characters. After independently identifying the “autistic” character (prior to finishing the book) he was told that his next task was to create a “Soundtrack” by finding five songs that he thought might improve the characters’ relationship. The subject was asked to write a short paragraph for each song. In the follow-up the subject, aged 16, was given an assignment by his high school literature class teacher to be accomplished “over the summer” for his fall literature class. The writing prompt assigned by the sophomore-year literature teacher was “This I Believe”. The resulting essay was subtitled “There Really Are Hidden Messages in Music”. In the essay the subject refers to his use of popular music to help analyze “life” and “literature” as his “secret weapon”.