Parental Responsiveness during Musical and Non-Musical Play for Preschoolers with ASD

Background: Although a growing body of research is examining connections between music and social development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is limited research investigating musical play in parent-child interactions. Parent-child play interactions offer an important avenue for supporting children’s social development. Shared engagement and parent responsiveness to children’s focus during play are associated with children’s social and language development (Gulsrud et al., 2016). Musical play may support interactions because it is familiar, reinforcing, and predictable, which may help children attend to activities and provide parents with an accessible way to be responsive (Lense & Camarata, 2018). However, musical play may also impede interactions due to its sensory and repetitive components.

Objectives: Examine whether use of musical play/toys during parent-child play is related to children’s attention and parental responsiveness.

Methods: 8 parent-child dyads of preschoolers with ASD were video recorded for ten minute play sessions that included both musical and non-musical toys (5 male children; M=35.88 months). Videos were coded using a 5-second partial interval schema for engagement in musical play, as well as use of musical toys apart from musical play (e.g., building with drums). Additionally, children’s attentional leads and corresponding parental physical toy play or verbal responses were identified. Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests compared differences between children’s leads and parental responsiveness during musical and non-musical activities.

Results: Children with ASD spent 35.8%±12% of time engaged in musical play and an additional 22.1%±11% of time engaged with musical toys apart from musical play. Children provided similar numbers of attentional leads when engaged with musical play/toys and non-musical play/toys (W= 9, p = 0.25). Parents showed somewhat greater responsiveness to children’s musical play/toy leads (62.1%±16.2%) versus non-musical leads (46.8%±17.0%) (W=5, p = 0.078) but this differed depending on type of responses. Parents provided significantly more physical play responses to musical vs. non-musical leads (p=0.039) but there was no difference in verbal responsiveness (p=0.15). Follow-up analyses restricted only to children’s active musical play leads (e.g., playing xylophone, singing) suggested continued parent physical play responsiveness but somewhat reduced parental verbal responsiveness during active music making (p=.078) vs. non-musical play.

Conclusions: While there are substantial individual differences in ASD children’s use of musical toys and play during a parent-child free play, engagement with musical play/toys impacted parental responsiveness. Parents provided more physical play responses when their child engaged with musical play/toys potentially due to the familiarity and accessibility of musical activities. Parental verbal responses was not impacted by use of musical toys alone but may be reduced during active musical play perhaps due to the competing auditory stimuli. Results have implications for incorporation of music into therapy including using musical activities to support parents in following their children’s leads and providing responsive input. Follow-up analyses with an expanded sample size will further address different types of play leads and responses.