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

Abstract

This Stage 1 Registered Report describes the design and analysis plan for a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the Music-Speech Integration Pedagogy (MSIP), a small‑group programme for boosting kindergartners’ tonal-rhythmic sensitivity and transfer to phonological awareness. As music and speech share acoustic attributes and overlapping neural systems, training that strengthens tonal-rhythmic processing may enhance phonological awareness. We will enroll 40 Cantonese‑speaking children aged 4–5 years in Hong Kong. Half will learn with MSIP and half proceed as usual. We will primarily assess pre–post changes in music and speech ability with the Abbreviated Primary Measures of Music Audiation (aPMMA‑T/R) and in English Phonological Awareness (EPA) test. Also, these children will complete an absolute pitch test (APT). We will analyse the RCT data with multilevel, multivariate outcome differences‑in‑differences models, supplemented with sensitivity analyses and statistical matching methods. Our findings will show whether MSIP is feasible and its efficacy for strengthening foundational auditory skills and prosody perception. Furthermore, it will clarify music-speech links in a tone‑language context.