The effect of the apparatus designed to support the piano hand positions of children with autism spectrum disorder on piano education

The fact that the piano has a large number of key systems that seem complicated at the beginning can affect the learning processes of children with. In the relevant literature, It has been concluded that teaching instruments and, making instrumental music to children with ASD helps them to develop their ability to communicate and, interact with the world around them and, that musical material is needed to support the learning of these children, and, that it enables the resolution of sensory-motor difficulties with instrument training. It is planned to design the piano auxiliary apparatus (PIYAP) in order to concretize an abstract process in piano education and, to ensure that training is effective, fast, easy and efficient. In this context, it was aimed to design the piano training beginner level hand position support apparatus and, the development process of PIYAP was carried out within the scope of the design development research. During the research process; The stages of examining the relevant literature and determining the needs, forming the design framework, structuring the design with 3 expert opinions regarding the framework of the design, and applying and testing the design in the multi-probe model among the participants from singlesubject research were carried out. In this context, a research was conducted with three children diagnosed with ASD, and the effectiveness of PIYAP, which supports the hand position of children with ASD, in piano education was determined during the application process. In this process, data on the baseline, teaching, post-teaching, monitoring and generalization sessions, and the participants' pre-piano training, post-teaching and sustainability of acquired behaviors were obtained. After the piano instruction with PIYAP, it was observed that 90% and, more of the participants met the correct behavior criteria, and fulfilled 9 of the 10 criteria goal-behaviors. The application of PIYAP, which is used in piano education, on participants with ASD has been found effective. In addition, it was observed that the behavior gained in the sessions performed after 3, 5 and 8 weeks continued permanently. In the generalization sessions, 90% correct behavior was observed when the participants were able to transfer their behaviors to a similar new work.