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

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.