Music and Child Health and Development

Not Applicable

Completed

Brief Summary: The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effects of a music enrichment program on the quality of parent child interactions, a child's motivation to eat, and a child's language environment in 9 to 24 month-old children from low-income families. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does participation in a music enrichment program improve the quality of parent-child interactions?

2. Does participation in a music enrichment program reduce motivation for food

3. Does participation in a music enrichment program improve the quality of the language environment?

Participants will:

1. Be randomly assigned to participate in either 2, 8-week semesters of weekly music enrichment classes or play group sessions.

2. At the beginning, after the first 8 weeks and after the second 8 weeks, a researcher will come to the participants house and parent-child pairs will:

1. be video recorded during 10 minutes of playtime and meal time.

2. fill out questionnaires

3. wear a small wearable language recorder for 16 hours

3. At the beginning, after the first 8 weeks and after the second 8 weeks, the parent and child will come to the baby lab and will:

1. Play a computer game to test motivation for food

2. have height and weight measurements collected

Researchers will compare the music and play groups to see if there is a difference in the quality of parent child interaction, food motivation or language environment.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Family income meets criteria for the National Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program
Family is able and willing to commit to a 6-month program

Exclusion Criteria

Mother <18 years old at the time of delivery
During pregnancy:
Mother smoked >10 cigarettes/day
Mother used >1 marijuana joint/day
Mother used any other illicit drugs
Mother drank > 3 standard drinks on a single occasion or >1 standard drink on a daily basis
Preterm birth <37 weeks gestation
Child with significant health issues, and/or genetic conditions (e.g., cerebral palsy, down's syndrome)
Mother with major health concerns during pregnancy (e.g., gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, etc)
Parent/child who do not speak English

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Relative Reinforcing Value of Food (RRV) Task	Baseline, 8 weeks, 16 weeks	RRVfood is a proximal measure of obesity risk. It measures how motivated one is to work to gain access to food versus non-food activity. RRVfood is the score for food divided by the total score (food + music). Scale range is 0-1. Lower number is the better outcome. The score for food is determined by a computer game to test motivation for food. The score for music is determined by a computer game to test motivation for music.
Use of Music at Home	Baseline and 16 weeks	The Music @ Home Questionnaire was used to quantitatively assess the range of musical behaviors occurring in the home environment of families with young children. Participant score is based on a questionnaire with 18 questions each with a range of 1-7. Total score range of the questionnaire is 7- 126. The higher outcome is better.
Conversational Turns	Baseline, 8 weeks and 16 weeks	Back-and-forth vocalizations between a parent and child, even with pre-linguistic children, are considered a pivotal component of a high-quality early language environment because they associate with growth in specific brain regions responsible for language and cognitive development.