[Effect of parent-child cooperative music therapy on children with autism spectrum disorder and their mothers: a prospective randomized controlled study].

OBJECTIVES: To study the effect of parent-child cooperative music therapy on the core symptoms of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their mothers. METHODS: =56 each). The children in the ABA group were treated with ABA, and those in the music therapy group were given parent-child cooperative music therapy in addition to the ABA treatment. The duration of intervention was 8 weeks for both groups. Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), Parenting Stress Index-Short form (PSI-SF), Family APGAR Index, and Herth Hope Index (HHI) were used to evaluate the core symptoms of children with ASD and the parenting stress, family APGAR index, and hope level of mothers before and after intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Parent-child cooperative music therapy combined with ABA can alleviate the core symptoms of children with ASD, reduce the parenting stress of their mothers, and improve family APGAR index and hope level.