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Updated: Jun 8, 2026
Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
The MIND Randomized Controlled Trial: An Intervention to Improve Neural Speech Processing and 2-Year Language
Nathalie L Maitre1, Caitlin P Kjeldsen1, Arnaud Jeanvoine2
1Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA.
Objectives:
To assess whether contingently administered caregivers' infant-directed voice in a multisensory intervention would have a larger effect than standard care on preterm neural speech-sound differentiation and to determine if effects of the intervention causally mediated differences in 2-year language outcomes.
Study Design:
A randomized controlled trial of the MIND (Multisensory support to Improve Neural processing and Development) intervention (contingent caregiver's recorded voice, scent cloth, holding by therapist in kangaroo binder; 20 sessions, 20 minutes each, over 2-3 weeks) compared with an enhanced standard care control (passive listening to recorded caregiver's voice, same dose) starting at 32-36 weeks of corrected gestational age (GA) among infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. Speech-sound differentiation was measured by auditory time-locked electroencephalogram (EEG) pre- and post-intervention and language outcomes using Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development and Preschool Language Scales at 2 years. Analyses were conducted through ANCOVA and causal mediation modeling.
Results:
Of enrolled infants (mean GA 28.8 weeks), 100 completed MIND and 98 completed enhanced standard care, with usable EEG data pre- and post-intervention. Infants receiving MIND had greater neural speech-sound differentiation compared with controls (F ranging 5.33-7.87; P ranging .03 to .04). MIND effects included small-to-medium size effects on language outcomes that were mediated by EEG with total effects model R2 ranging 0.39-0.57 (P ranging .05 to <.001), all adjusting for GA and maternal education.
Conclusions:
MIND, a parent-supported, therapist-implemented intervention, can improve preterm speech-sound differentiation in the neonatal intensive care unit and 2-year language outcomes. Efficacious parent-engaging neuropromotive interventions can change neurodevelopment, even without bedside presence.
Trial Registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03232931.
