Should teaching strategies emphasize emotion or competence? Enhancing audience acceptance of children with autism through online music performances - evidence from China.

This study looked at how people respond to autistic children performing music online. After watching 949 adults view these performances, researchers found that people became more accepting of the children. Both the children's musical skills and their ability to express emotions through music helped audiences connect with and accept them. Importantly, emotional expression had a stronger positive impact on acceptance than technical skill alone, suggesting music teachers should focus on helping autistic children learn to express feelings through their performances.

This Chinese study examined how 949 adults perceived online music performances by autistic children, investigating whether emotional expression or demonstrated competence more strongly influenced audience acceptance. Using surveys and statistical modeling, researchers found that audience acceptance significantly increased after watching performances. Both competence and emotional expression positively affected audience immersion and acceptance, with emotional expression having a larger impact on acceptance (β=0.401) compared to competence (β=0.211). The researchers propose a Music-Driven Acceptance Model suggesting that music instruction should emphasize teaching emotional expression alongside skill development to enhance social acceptance of autistic children.

Music therapy and education programs should prioritize teaching emotional expression alongside technical skills. Online performance platforms may serve as valuable tools for improving social acceptance. Findings support incorporating music-based interventions in social skills programs, with emphasis on emotional communication rather than solely technical proficiency.

Single study from China may limit generalizability to other cultures. The abstract doesn't specify the age range of children or details about their autism diagnoses. Online performance format may not reflect in-person interactions. No control group comparison or long-term follow-up of attitude changes reported.

This study investigates the experiences and perceptions of audiences watching online music performances by children with autism, focusing on how the emotions and competence displayed by the children during the performances affect the audience's sense of immersion and acceptance. We conducted an online survey with 949 respondents, t-tests was used to compare the differences before and after the respondents watching the performance, and structural equation modeling was used to analyzed the path relationships among variables. The results showed that audience acceptance was significantly higher after watching the music performances (t = -6.104, p < 0.05). We found that the competence demonstrated during the performances had a medium effect on both the audience's sense of immersion (β = 0.337, p < 0.05) and acceptance (β = 0.211, p < 0.05).

Emotions expressed through the performances also significantly influenced the audience's immersion (β = 0.323, p < 0.05) and had a large effect on their acceptance (β = 0.401, p < 0.05). Based on these findings, we propose the Music-Driven Acceptance Model (MDAM), which suggests that while fostering the competence of children with autism, teachers might consider placing instructional emphasis on guiding children to learn methods of expressing emotions through music.