Lauren S. Aaronson Pilot Awardee: Deanna Hanson-Abromeit, Ph.D., MT-BC, University of Kansas Lawrence.

By Frontiers , Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Aug 27, 2024

Lauren S. Aaronson Pilot Awardee: Deanna Hanson-Abromeit, Ph.D., MT-BC, University of Kansas Lawrence. Co-investigators: Brenda Salley, Ph.D., University of Kansas Medical Center Baby Lab, Amy Smith, Ph.D., MT-BC, Children’s Mercy Research Institute

Pilot Study Title: Group parent-infant music-based intervention to support pre-linguistic language acquisition for infants at-risk for language delay due to living in under resourced environments

Language development in infancy and childhood is surprisingly robust but infants who have minimal language input in their environment can end up with language delays. Research has shown that higher levels of caregiver language input yield higher language skills for children. So, Deanna Hanson-Abromeit, Ph.D., MT-BC, has developed an infant-directed singing intervention to help alleviate and prevent language delays in infants from under-resourced communities.

“We have an intervention that’s very music based but also designed to target prelinguistic skills and parent-infant conversational turns,” Hanson-Abromeit said. This program could supplement music that the child is already exposed to with their families and promote real time caregiver-infant shared language-rich experiences, something that might be missing from other popular child-focused musicians or music education programs.”

As part of their intervention, Hanson-Abromeit and her team have created a collection of baby-friendly songs that vary in musical elements such as tempo, pitch range, melodic contour, and rhythm. By manipulating these elements, the team believes they can help infants who are at risk of developing a language delay learn language and social communication. For example, by creating a song that has built-in pauses for the child to respond, the caregiver could be implicitly teaching their baby about how to take turns during a conversation.

Hanson-Abromeit said, “We’re really trying to be more specific about what the active ingredients of change are, rather than using familiar children’s songs.”

With her Lauren S. Aaronson Pilot Award, Hanson-Abromeit will implement this intervention in small groups in the Lawrence, Kan. area. In addition to making sure that the intervention can be properly implemented by therapists, Hanson-Abromeit is also looking at parent behaviors to see if parents are attuned to the music-based intervention and whether parents change their singing and communication behaviors with their infants throughout the intervention. The team will also be collecting information about how much they utilize the program’s music and guidance in their everyday lives.

Frontiers

Clinical and Translational Science Institute

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