Parents and Young Children with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of parent-child dyads' participation in a home-based music education program on parent-child interactions. All participating dyads included children with disabilities or developmental delays between one and three years of age. Secondary purposes of the study were to examine parents' use of education materials within daily routines, and parents' perceptions regarding the benefits of program participation. A pretest-posttest within-subject single group design was used for this study. The independent variable was a six-week education program provided to families in their homes. Responsive teaching strategies, proposed by Mahoney and MacDonald (2007), were incorporated into the education program. Responsive teaching strategies refer to affect (using animated expressions), match (adjusting responses according to children's developmental levels, interests and behavior styles), reciprocity (engaging in frequent physical or verbal exchanges), shared control (facilitating children's lead in play), and contingency (responding immediately to children's behaviors). Dependent measures included behavioral observations of parents' positive physical and verbal responses, and children's positive physical and verbal initiations, as well as parent questionnaires. Results indicated parents' positive physical and verbal responses increased significantly pre- to post-intervention. Children's verbal initiations also increased significantly pre- to post-intervention; however, children's physical initiations did not increase significantly. Results also revealed that parent-child synchrony improved significantly pre- to post-intervention. Furthermore, results from parent questionnaires indicated significant post-intervention effects on parents' perceived: music abilities, degree of comfort using music with their children, and parent-child interaction characteristics. Overall parent-child playtime increased pre- to post-intervention, as well as the quantity and quality of musical play. Among the four types of music activities (singing, playing instruments, moving to music, and listening to music), the home-based music education program had the greatest impact on parents' use of instrument-playing activities. Parent-participants identified playing musical games as the most beneficial music activity for their children and the family. Parents reported the most beneficial responsive teaching strategy was matching <—> adjusting their responses according to their child's developmental level, interests, and behavior styles. Lastly, follow-up data indicated 92% of the parent-participants continued to use the music activities and education materials with their children three months after completion of the study.