Music and Child Health and Development

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.

Conditions

• Obesity, Infant
• Language Development
• Parent-Child Relations

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Music Together

The intervention consists of 45-minute weekly classes for 16 weeks. Each class is delivered by a trained Music Together facilitator and includes music activities such as singing, dancing, moving and playing musical instruments. At the start of the program, participants receive materials for home use that consist of a song book and online access code for song recordings used in the class.

BEHAVIORAL

Play Group

The play group consists of 45-minute weekly classes for 16 weeks. During each class parents are encouraged to play with their child and interact with other participants using the provided age appropriate toys. At the start of the program participants receive an age appropriate toy for use at home.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Kansas Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Kansas

  collaborator OTHER

• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

  collaborator NIH

• Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kai Ling Kong, PhD · Children's Mercy

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

9 Months

Max Age

24 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-01-16

Primary Completion

2024-02-13

Completion

2024-02-13

Countries

• United States

Study Locations