Link between language development and musical interactions in premature infants

Engaging in home musical activities positively influences language development in premature infants, offering a cost-effective intervention accessible to families of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

To evaluate the impact of early exposure to music within the household (assessed via the Music@ Home Infant Questionnaire) on language proficiency (measured by the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory). This investigation accounted for overall enrichment levels at home (evaluated by the Stim-Q Cognitive Home Environment Questionnaire) and the presence of perinatal post-traumatic stress disorder (assessed using the Perinatal PTSD Questionnaire).

Parents or guardians of 117 infants born prematurely, aged between 8 and 18 months, who did not report any developmental challenges, participated by completing an online questionnaire.

The findings demonstrated that the presence of a musical environment at home was individualistically associated with improvements in infants' receptive vocabulary and gestural communication, irrespective of their corrected age and the overall enrichment level of home activities.

These results mark the initial evidence suggesting that a nurturing musical environment can boost the advancement of early communication abilities, particularly in infants susceptible to language delays such as those born prematurely. This underscores the possibility for additional research into interventions within home or early childcare environments. Most participants in this study had higher education and came from socioeconomically secure backgrounds, prompting considerations about the applicability of these findings to wider populations.