Parental Responsiveness During Musical and Non-Musical Engagement in Preschoolers with ASD

Abstract

Parent-child play interactions offer an important avenue for supporting social development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Musical play is a natural and ubiquitous form of parent-child play. As a familiar, reinforcing, and predictable activity, musical play may support parent-child interactions by scaffolding children’s attention to the play activities, while also providing parents with a familiar and accessible context to promote parental responsiveness. However, musical play may also impede interactions due to its sensory and repetitive components. 12 parent-child dyads of preschoolers with ASD were video-recorded during a ten-minute play session that included musical and non-musical toys. Interactions were coded for parent and child musical engagement, as well as parental responsiveness. Parent-child dyads varied in their amount of musical engagement during play, which was not related to children’s language level. Overall, parents showed similar levels of responsiveness to children’s play across musical and non-musical activities, but type of parental responsiveness differed depending on the play context. Parents provided significantly more physical play responses and significantly fewer verbal responses during musical vs. non-musical engagement with their child. There are substantial individual differences in children with ASD’s musical engagement during a parent-child free play. Children’s musical engagement impacted type of parental responsiveness, which may relate to the familiarity, accessibility, and sensory nature of musical play/toys. Results suggest that musical play/toys can both support and hinder different types of parental responsiveness with implications for incorporation of musical activities into interventions.

Comparing the benefits of parent–infant flute and singing groups for communication and parenting: A feasibility study

“…The current research showed that the musical intervention not only created a positive place for the parent-infant dyads but also enhanced the parents' abilities to observe their infants' communicative behaviors, and to perceive and respond to their babys' cues. This finding is consistent with Boorom et al (2020), who examined the influence of parent-child musical engagements on parents' responsiveness. Although the authors focused on preschool children with autism and their parents, their findings shed light on the bi-directional impact of musical experiences.…”

A neurodevelopmental disorders perspective into music, social attention, and social bonding

“…Investigations of MSB must consider the bidirectionality of the interaction and the needs and goals of both social partners. For example, musical activities between parents and their child with a neurodevelopmental disability are increasingly recognized as modulating parent behaviors such as parent responsiveness (e.g., physically supporting child's play through contingent imitation) (Boorom, Muñoz, Xin, Watson, & Lense, 2020; Thompson, Shanahan, & Gordon, 2019) and parent mood (Williams, Berthelsen, Nicholson, Walker, & Abad, 2012), thus enhancing the likelihood of child engagement downstream. Music and song may be a particularly meaningful platform for social communication in light of the altered language and social communication abilities in ASD and Williams syndrome (Mervis & Velleman, 2011; Tager-Flusberg, 2000).…”

Parent-child nonverbal engagement during spoken versus sung book-sharing in preschoolers with and without autism

“…Parents of young children with ASD reported that musical activities (e.g., family-centered music therapy) provided an interactive context in which they could share a play experience with their children (Thompson, 2018; Thompson et al, 2019). Parents of children with ASD also provided more physical play responses to their child during musical versus non-musical toy play (e.g., imitating child; Boorom et al, 2020). As parent responsiveness is linked to children’s social communication development (e.g., Gulsrud et al, 2016), musical activities may provide a context conducive to parents being available for and responsive to their child in order to support their child’s social engagement.…”