Autism is defined as a neuro-developmental disorder and is characterized by a chronic and severe impairment in social relations. Children with autism have limited development in both verbal language and non-verbal language, relative to eye contact, gestures, facial expression, and body language. The cause of autism is not known; however, genetic factors appear to play an important role. Autism is widely regarded as the most severe of childhood psychiatric disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact that music has on the development of social skills of children diagnosed with autism. The short-term objective of the study determined whether or not compliance, social interaction, and social acknowledgment improved through children's daily participation in music activities in the classroom for 15 minutes during a period of three weeks. Additionally, the long-term objective will acquaint parents with the importance and use of the body of knowledge garnered from autistic children's classroom participation in music intervention activities. The sample consisted of thirty-two subjects, 16 were randomly selected for the experimental group and 16 for the control group. The Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), the Music Therapy Assessment Checklist, and the Jemison Pollard Demographic Data File were used to collect data. The One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) and the One-Way Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used to determine whether or not there were significant differences between selected variables and music to improve social skills development in autistic children. All hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level or better. From this study it was concluded that autistic children in the experimental group improved in compliance, and social interaction. The experimental and control groups showed significant improvement in social acknowledgment by gender. It is recommended that school counselors work with teachers and family members in incorporating music activities in the daily schedule for a few minutes for autistic children. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]