Parental Responsiveness During Musical and Non-Musical Engagement in Preschoolers with ASD.
Musical toys boost parents’ physical play responses yet cut verbal responses—balance toy types to target both modalities.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lindly et al. (2020) watched parents play with their preschoolers who have autism. They compared two play sessions: one with musical toys and one with regular toys.
The team counted how often parents talked to the child and how often they used touch or gestures. Each family served as their own control, so the only thing that changed was the toy type.
What they found
Parents stayed equally responsive overall, but they swapped styles. With musical toys they used more hugs, taps, and rocking. With non-musical toys they used more words, questions, and labels.
The total amount of parent engagement did not go up or down; it just shifted from verbal to physical when music was added.
How this fits with other research
Xenitidis et al. (2010) showed that warm, sensitive parenting at 18 months predicts better language growth in toddlers later diagnosed with ASD. Olivia’s team adds that the same parents can flex that sensitivity into physical forms when music is present.
Marcell et al. (1988) found mothers already tailor speech to match their autistic child’s verbal level. Olivia extends this idea by showing parents also tailor modality—verbal versus physical—to match the toy context.
Bassett-Gunter et al. (2017) argued we should measure parent outcomes, not just child skills. Olivia answers that call by treating ‘verbal versus physical responsiveness’ as a parent outcome worth tracking.
Why it matters
If you want both language and social touch goals, mix toy types within the same session. Start with musical toys to spark physical play, then switch to non-musual toys to invite words. One simple rotation gives you two different parent response channels without extra training.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: 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. METHOD: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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.
Research in autism spectrum disorders, 2020 · doi:10.1093/jmt/thv01