Music exposure through the life cycle: musical sophistication in adults and the benefits of an online music program for children with cochlear implants and their mothers

This dissertation presents three studies: one focuses on aspects of musicality in the adult population and two emphasize the relational benefits of musical exposure in the pediatric clinical population. In particular, we investigate the impact of early exposure to interactive musical experiences in the home environment on the vocabulary of children with cochlear implants, and on their families’ well-being, The first study concerns the Italian adaptation and validation of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) (Müllensiefen et al., 2014). This tool measures self-reported musical abilities and behaviors in the general population, regardless of musical expertise. The primary aim of the study was to ascertain whether the Italian version conformed to the bifactor model of the original version and showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. To achieve this, the instrument was validated on a large Italian sample (N = 429; M = 31.0 years; SD = 11.7). Analyses of test-retest reliability were conducted on a subsample (N = 57; M = 34.68; SD = 10.80). The secondary aim of the study was to explore the influence of socio-demographic factors, such as age, gender, and socio-economic status, on scores of musical sophistication. The second study describes the development of a 12-week online music program for early implanted children with CIs and their mothers, intended to support children’s language development in the first months after CIs activation. The program uses a website containing multi-sensory musical activities and focuses each month on a specific music module (rhythm, pitch, and songs). The activities involve listening, movement, musical instrument playing and turn-taking. The program was piloted on a sample of children with CIs (N =10; M =16.8 months, SD = 3.2). We were interested in two areas: first, mothers’ engagement and enjoyment at home, along with their behaviors during the online sessions and, second, changes in their own and their children’s behavior after the end of the program, Questionnaires about the overall feedback on the website were administered. The third, longitudinal, study explores the effects of the online music program on the expressive vocabulary of children with CIs and on their mothers’ stress. In order to explore differences in the outcomes investigated, a group of children with CIs and their mothers who participated in the music program (CI-T group) (N = 14; M =16.4 months, SD = 2.9) was compared with a group of children with CIs and their mothers who did not participate in the music program (CI-C group) (N = 14; M = 18.0 months, SD = 4.0). The CI-T group started the online music program three months after CI activation and completed it six months after activation. The CI-C group attended the visits to the hospital on the same occasions. As the quality of the acoustic environment could have a positive impact on the language development of children with CIs, the study also addresses the associations between the changes in children’s vocabulary production that might result from the online music program, maternal perception of parental stress, and the role of exposure to speech in quiet.