Relações entre a Educação Musical Especial e o desenvolvimento da comunicação social em crianças autistas

: This article, the result of a doctoral research in music, addresses the relationship between special music education and the development of social communication in autistic children identified through a mixed methodology study, through the combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods. In the research, 15 autistic children were selected and randomly allocated into two groups. Each Group participated in two formats: Group 1 (Experimental/Follow up) and Group 2 (Control/Experimental). Three scales (ABFW-Pragmatic Test, DEMUCA Scale and IMTAP) were used to measure the musical and social-communicative development of children, at each stage of the research, in their respective groups (quantitative stage); and a Focus Group was carried out with the parents of