Our objective
The USC Child Development Study aims to learn more about the effects of different extracurricular activities on child brain development, self-control, and decision making.
What does participating in this study entail?
-
Parents will be asked a few questions to determine whether their child is eligible for the study.
-
If your child is eligible, we will schedule an in person visit to USC where your child will be asked to complete an MRI followed by a set of assessments that help us measure their cognitive development. This should take approximately 2.5-3 hrs.
-
Your child will be randomly assigned (like a coin toss) to either an afterschool music program or a general enrichment program. The program will last 2 years.
-
Every 6 months, parents will be asked to complete a set of questionnaires about their child’s environment and development.
-
One year after the start of the after-school program, we will schedule a second visit to USC where your child will be asked to complete the same set of cognitive assessments as in visit 1 to help us measure their progress. There will be no MRI during this visit. This visit should last 1.5-2 hours.
-
When the after-school program ends 2 years later, we will schedule a third visit where your child will be asked to complete the same set of cognitive assessments and an MRI scan to help us measure their progress. This visit should last 2.5-3 hours.
What do the after-school programs entail?
-
Children will be randomly assigned to participate in one of the following programs:
-
Participants will attend a one hour group class twice per week.
-
Participants will also receive 30-45 minutes of private instruction once per week.
-
Each participant will be paired with a student teacher for private instruction and will coordinate lesson times according to individual availability.
-
Time devoted to the program each week will be about 3 hours plus homework.