Home musical activities boost premature infants' language development

Article

Franco, F., Chifa, M. and Politimou, N. 2024. Home musical activities boost premature infants' language development. Children. 11 (5). https://doi.org/10.3390/children11050542
TypeArticle
TitleHome musical activities boost premature infants' language development
AuthorsFranco, F., Chifa, M. and Politimou, N.
Abstract

Infants born prematurely are considered at risk for language development delay and impairments. Using online parental reports, the present study investigated the influence of early musical experience in the home environment (Music@Home Infant Questionnaire) on language development (MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory) while controlling for general enrichment at home (Stim-Q Cognitive Home Environment Questionnaire) and perinatal post-traumatic stress disorder (Perinatal PTSD Questionnaire). Caregivers of 117 infants between 8 and 18 months of age (corrected age) without reported developmental difficulties completed an online survey. Results revealed that the musical home environment significantly predicted outcomes in reported infants' receptive vocabulary and gestural communication, independently from infants' corrected age and general enrichment of home activities. These findings constitute the first evidence that an enriched musical experience can enhance the development of early communication skills in a population at risk for language delays, namely infants born prematurely, opening the path for future intervention research in home and/or early childcare settings. Given that the majority of participants in this study were highly educated and from socioeconomically stable backgrounds, considerations regarding the generalizability of these results are discussed.

Keywordslanguage development; prematurity; musical activities; parenting
Sustainable Development Goals3 Good health and well-being
4 Quality education
Middlesex University ThemeHealth & Wellbeing
PublisherMDPI
JournalChildren
ISSN
Electronic2227-9067
Publication dates
Online01 May 2024
Print01 May 2024
Publication process dates
Submitted30 Nov 2023
Accepted03 Apr 2024
Deposited07 Jun 2024
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Copyright Statement

© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3390/children11050542
PubMed ID38790537
PubMed Central IDPMC11120229
Web of Science identifierWOS:001232614300001
National Library of Medicine ID101648936
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