PP1116 - Eye Tracking and Parent Report as Measures of Music Training Effects in Children With and Without Hearing Loss

Abstract:
Music training has been shown to have a positive correlation with performance on reading, phonological awareness tasks, attention and self-esteem in children with both typical and atypical hearing. Early music training applied during the critical period is of interest for children, especially those with hearing loss so that perceptual patterns may be established during a developmental period when there is a great degree of neural plasticity. The purpose of the Baby TEMPO project is to assess the effects of the Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) musical training for infants/toddlers with typical and atypical hearing using subjective and objective measures.

Summary:
This project focuses on music training during the critical period of auditory development, the first three years of life. Using the Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) program, children are taught repetitive movements, focused attention, and melodic features of music that may result in enhanced music perception abilities. Number of fixations, fixation duration, and pupil diameter are used as measurements of recognition. Research has shown that longer fixations indicate recognition of auditory stimuli. Pupil diameter is used as a measurement of arousal. Pupil diameter research in infants shows an increase in pupil diameter when listening to their mother’s voice compared to an unknown female’s voice, indicating recognition. Parental weekly observation reports are used as an indication of music recognition and overall benefit of the music classes.

In the Baby TEMPO project, we evaluate the effects of the SECE music training program for children with typical and atypical hearing. The previous pilot study (Thibodeau & Gayer, 2024) included both familiar and unfamiliar visual and auditory stimuli, whereas the current study includes familiar and unfamiliar auditory stimuli, but only unfamiliar visual stimuli. Results from the pilot study indicated that some participants showed greater interest in the familiar image while the familiar music was playing, demonstrating recognition of familiar songs. The current project included two groups, ages 3-36 months, with typical (TH1, TH2, TH3, TH5) and atypical (ATH1, ATH2) hearing who participated in the same six week, one-hour SECE music training classes. During each class, the parents promoted their child’s participation by demonstrating activities, encouraging and supporting their child’s participation, and recording their observations from class and from playing the recordings at home.

Pre- and Post-training testing consisted of showing participants a series of photos of unfamiliar objects not used in training while six familiar and six unfamiliar songs were played. Their number of fixations, fixation duration, and change in pupil diameter were measured using the Tobii Pro Eye Tracking System. Only one participant (TH5) showed the recognition effect for at least three of the songs for all three outcome measures. Participants with hearing loss showed recognition when measured by number of fixations (ATH1) and pupil diameter (ATH2) for at least 3 of the songs. Overall, fixation duration showed the most promise as an outcome measure because all four of the typical hearing participants showed the recognition effect. No child showed the expected effect for all songs or all measures. This may be due to arousal to the unfamiliar song, short music training duration, or the child’s attention at the time of testing. Analyses of parent weekly written reports showed that all the children benefitted from the music classes through increased movements and singing when playing the recordings. These results suggest the need for further research in early childhood music training benefits for children with and without hearing loss.

Reference
Thibodeau, L & Gayer, E. (2024). Baby TEMPO Project: Training Early Music with Parent Opportunities for Children with Hearing Loss. Poster presented at the American Academy of Audiology Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.