Investigating the impact of Music-Speech Integration Pedagogy (MSIP) on children’s music aptitude

Last registered on March 10, 2026

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Investigating the impact of Music-Speech Integration Pedagogy (MSIP) on children’s music aptitude

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0017895

Initial registration date

March 06, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

March 10, 2026, 10:31 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Siu-Hang Kong

Affiliation

The Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Ming Ming Chiu

PI Affiliation

Analytics/Assessment Research Centre, The Education University of Hong Kong

Contact Investigator

PI Name

William Choi

PI Affiliation

Speech and Music Perception Laboratory, The University of Hong Kong

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Alfredo Bautista

PI Affiliation

The Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2026-02-28

End date

2026-04-26

Keywords

Behavior, Education

Additional Keywords

music intervention, kindergarten, randomised controlled trial, phonological awareness, tonal-rhythmic sensitivity, Cantonese, absolute pitch, Hong Kong

JEL code(s)

I21, C93

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This study is a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the Music–Speech Integration Pedagogy (MSIP), a small-group aural-training programme designed to strengthen kindergarten children’s tonal and rhythmic sensitivity and to examine potential transfer to English phonological awareness. Forty Cantonese-speaking children aged 4–5 years in Hong Kong will be randomly assigned to either (a) MSIP (twelve 30-minute sessions delivered outside school hours in small groups) or (b) business-as-usual kindergarten music instruction. Children will complete individual assessments at pre-test, immediate post-test, and a delayed post-test (approximately two months later). Primary outcomes include tonal and rhythmic discrimination measured by the abbreviated Primary Measures of Music Audiation (aPMMA-T and aPMMA-R) and English phonological awareness measured by an English Phonological Awareness (EPA) task. An additional outcome is performance on an absolute pitch–like pitch identification task within one octave. The analysis plan will estimate intervention impacts using multilevel difference-in-differences models and will explore whether improvements in tonal or rhythmic sensitivity mediate changes in phonological awareness. Findings will inform the feasibility and efficacy of an integrated music–speech pedagogy in a tone-language context.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Bautista, Alfredo et al. 2026. "Investigating the impact of Music-Speech Integration Pedagogy (MSIP) on children’s music aptitude." AEA RCT Registry. March 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17895-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The treatment group receives the Music–Speech Integration Pedagogy (MSIP), a manualised small-group aural-training programme for kindergarten children. MSIP consists of twelve 30-minute sessions delivered outside school hours. Sessions emphasise (a) attentive listening, (b) tonal and rhythmic training using fixed-do solfège and rhythm syllables, and (c) imitation/repetition through call-and-response. Activities include body percussion, simple percussion (e.g., cabasa), movement to melodic contour, solfège echo-singing, and reproducing short pitch patterns on an electronic keyboard/organ. The control group continues with business-as-usual kindergarten music instruction.

Intervention Start Date

2026-03-07

Intervention End Date

2026-04-19

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Primary outcomes are (1) tonal and rhythmic music aptitude measured by the abbreviated Primary Measures of Music Audiation (aPMMA-T and aPMMA-R; accuracy scores), and (2) English phonological awareness measured by the English Phonological Awareness (EPA) task (percent correct). Outcomes are assessed at pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test (~2 months after the intervention). The primary estimand is the between-group difference in change from pre-test to post-test (and to delayed post-test).

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

For each assessment wave (pre-test, post-test, delayed post-test), aPMMA-T and aPMMA-R are scored as the number (or proportion) of correct same/different judgments across 15 tonal items and 15 rhythmic items, respectively (accuracy-based scores). English phonological awareness (EPA) is scored as percent correct across 23 items total (6 syllable-deletion items and 17 onset-phoneme deletion items), with each item scored 1 (correct) or 0 (incorrect). Primary impact estimates focus on between-group differences in changes in these scores from pre-test to post-test and from pre-test to delayed post-test.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary outcome: performance on an absolute pitch–like pitch identification task (APT) within one octave (C4, D4, E4, F4, F#4, G4, A4, B4). The outcome is accuracy (proportion correct) across test trials at each wave (pre, post, delayed).

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

APT is administered using electronically generated instrumental tones (A4=440 Hz). After each tone is presented, the child identifies the corresponding fixed-do solfège label (do, re, mi, fa, fi, sol, la, ti). The score is computed as the proportion of correctly identified pitch categories across the administered trials at each assessment wave.

Experimental Design

A two-arm parallel-group randomised controlled trial (RCT) will evaluate the Music–Speech Integration Pedagogy (MSIP) for Cantonese-speaking kindergarten children aged 4–5 in Hong Kong. Eligible children will complete baseline (pre-test) assessments of music aptitude (abbreviated Primary Measures of Music Audiation: tonal and rhythm subtests, aPMMA-T/R), pitch identification within one octave (Absolute Pitch Test; APT), and English phonological awareness (EPA). Children will then be randomly assigned to either (i) MSIP small-group instruction (12 sessions × 30 minutes; total 6 hours) delivered outside school hours or (ii) a control condition that continues usual kindergarten music instruction (“business-as-usual”). Outcomes will be reassessed immediately after the intervention (post-test) and two months later (delayed post-test). The primary analysis will follow an intention-to-treat approach and estimate treatment effects as differential changes over time between groups.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Computer-based randomisation conducted by the research team using a computer-generated sequence with permuted blocks of variable size, stratified by child age (4 vs 5 years) and gender. Allocation is concealed using sequentially numbered, opaque, sealed envelopes opened only after baseline assessment completion.

Randomization Unit

Individual-level randomisation (each child is randomised to MSIP or control). MSIP is delivered in small groups (approximately 3–5 children per session group) for logistical delivery, but assignment occurs at the individual child level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A – individual-level randomisation (0 clusters)

Sample size: planned number of observations

40 children (Cantonese-speaking, aged 4–5 years, Hong Kong).

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Planned allocation: 20 children in MSIP treatment; 20 children in control (business-as-usual).

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Planned power analysis (G*Power) assumes a standardised mean difference of d = 0.50 for main outcomes, α = .05, power = 0.80, and 10% attrition. Under these assumptions, the minimum detectable effect size (MDE) is approximately 0.50 SD (standard deviation units) for primary outcomes such as changes in aPMMA-T/R and EPA from pre- to post-test between groups. The planned sample size is N = 40 (20 per arm) to maintain power given potential attrition (minimum required N≈28; 14 per arm).

Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC), The Education University of Hong Kong

IRB Approval Date

2024-09-03

IRB Approval Number

2023-2024-0610

Analysis Plan