CHILD OUTCOMES

Using Music to Increase Child Outcomes

In Math and Language/Literacy

Christee L. Jenlink; Ed.D.

Associate Professor of Education Assistant Dean for Assessment, Research, and Accreditation College of Education Office

Northeastern State University

A Study funded by the Kirkpatrick Foundation and the Raymond and Bessie Kravis Foundation

INTRODUCTION

Can musical keyboard training for three and four years old children increase skill acquisition in mathematical and language/literacy abilities?

The merits of the utilitarian aspects of musical training have long been debated. (Jenlink, 1993). However, with the increased emphasis upon quality early childhood education programs that serve as a positive impetus for later academic excellence, educators are searching for enrichment activities that will assist in forming strong instructional foundations. As a result, the arts are being scrutinized as to their ability to contribute to academic success in young children.

To that purpose, musical keyboard instruction was used with children three and four years old to determine what impact the instruction had upon academic skills, specifically, mathematics and language/literacy. The program was designed to provide basic music keyboard instruction through a variety of visual, verbal, listening, and pretend activities. A group of children from a Head Start program was chosen for the study.

Both quantitative and qualitative data would be analyzed.

BACKGROUND

The music program that was the basis for the keyboard training was “Horace Hopper’s Musical Adventures” developed in 1999. Studies from Neurological Research (1999, 1998, and 1997) provided the basis for the development of the music program. This body of research concluded that there were increased spatial-temporal reasoning abilities in the experimental groups exposed to music instruction.

This 2000-2001 music study was conducted with the cooperation of the Community Action Project of Tulsa County (“CAP”). CAP is a comprehensive anti-poverty agency designed to help individuals and families in economic need achieve self-sufficiency. The agency was begun in 1973 and is currently the major service provider for Tulsa’s low-income community. In August, 2000, CAP opened two new Head Start and First Start facilities, one of which was Frost Elementary. An educational goal of the new centers was to provide academic and cultural enrichment activities to the children and their families.

Directors for the new centers were made aware of the “Horace Hopper Musical Adventures” program in the summer of 2000, and the decision was made to write grants to fund a pilot music keyboard program at Frost as an enrichment activity. Results of the pilot program would determine the viability of having similar programs throughout the Head Start facilities under the auspices of the Community Action Project. Financial resources for the study were provided by the Kirkpatrick Foundation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the Kravis Foundation, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

METHOLODOLOGY

The research project was comprised of an experimental group of fifty children and a control group of fifty children. The children in the groups were three and four years old. All parents of the enrolled children at Frost were solicited in November, 2000, for participation in the project. The parents were presented the following as benefits of the program:

  • Child learning of elementary musical keyboard concepts
  • Educational benefits derived from the program’s activities
  • The opportunity to learn and work with the child on skill-building at home

through a curriculum that is presented as a series of stories, adventures, and

games

Each student who participated was provided the music program, a compact disc player, a set of headphones, and an electronic Casio 551 keyboard. At the conclusion of the program the families were allowed to keep all the materials and equipment.

The first fifty children returning informational sheets requesting inclusion in the music activity were selected as the experimental group. No distinctions were made for gender, race, or age. The fifty control group participants were chosen from the school’s remaining general population with age and gender alignment to the experimental group. The fifty families in the experimental group met with the music program’s designer, the researcher, and other teaching mentors for an orientation meeting in November. At that meeting, each child’s parent/guardian signed a contractual document ( see Appendix) to participate in the program and also signed a media/confidentiality release form.

Each child was assigned to a group of ten that would receive mentoring for thirty minutes per week after school. Mentors were adults who volunteered their time to assist the children. The mentors included the program’s designer, the researcher, classroom teachers at Frost, the family support worker, and community members. Two mentors met with an assigned group of children once a week. Initially, each mentor worked with five children. Approximately half way through the program, some groups were combined to accommodate schedule conflicts with mentors. If a child was absent on the day his group was to meet with the mentor, the child could make up the class on another day that week. Students who missed three consecutive lessons were required to return the keyboard, compact disc player, and the musical program to the family support worker. These materials were reassigned to another family who wanted to be in the program.

An important component of the music instruction was parent involvement. The critical portion of this consisted of an adult, preferably the parent/guardian, working with the child on that particular week’s lesson for approximately fifteen minutes per day. The adult did not have to have a musical background to assist the child. Parents were strongly encouraged to attend the weekly mentoring sessions to watch the teaching of that week’s lesson and/or to assist the mentors.

The Community Action Project’s Head Start program used the “Galileo Individual Development Profile” by Assessment Technology, Inc., to measure each child’s monthly progress throughout the school year. These assessments served as the basis for the quantitative data. The assessments were maintained on computers in the classrooms with the November and March assessments used to compare skill attainment in early math and language/literacy of the experimental group to the control group. A limited number of April assessments were available to allow for comparison from March to April for the four years old children (see “Recommendations”).

Qualitative data was gathered through interviews and observations. The primary purpose of the qualitative data was to examine the causal relationship of the music program to the academic success of the students through a naturalistic paradigm. Parental involvement and the social/personal growth of the children became important elements emerging from the qualitative data.

A key component of the musical program was a culminating lesson. The culminating lesson consisted of a story that combines the skills learned in the previous set of lessons. In January, 2001, a performance of the first culminating lesson was given at Frost for parents of children in the program. Some children performed on the keyboards while others acted out the story using props and costumes. The second performance was presented in March with the final performance given in May.

A mentor meeting was held in early March. The purpose of the meeting was to review responsibilities of being a mentor and to discuss parental involvement with the home lessons. A parent meeting was held in March. Preliminary results of the research study based upon November and March comparisons were given to the parents, and they had an opportunity to ask questions regarding the music program and the study.

QUANTITATIVE RESULTS

The skill categories in early math for the four years old children as measured by the Galileo assessment were sorting objects, counting, addition, subtraction, fractions, seriation, constructing patterns, constructing sets, estimating how many there are, measurement, geometric shapes, time in daily living, understanding logical relationships, graphing, math communications. In language/literacy the categories were listening to stories, reasoning about fiction and nonfiction, story telling, letter names and sounds, repetition and rhyming, listening and speaking to others, expressive language, writing, print and book knowledge, reading.

For the children who were three years old the skill categories for assessment in early math were counting, addition, subtraction, fractions, seriation, geometric shapes, time in daily living, and math communications. In language/literacy the assessed areas were listening and responding to stories, story telling, listening and speaking to others, expressive language, writing, print knowledge, and reading words in context.

Each skill was assessed according to the following scale; ready later, ready soon, ready now, and learned. The classroom teacher conducted each child’s assessment. The researcher compared the November assessments (when the music program was begun) with the assessment conducted in March (at the end of the second set of music lessons).

A point value system was used to determine gains in each skill area. A child’s advancement from one scale level to the next scale level resulted in a value of one point. If a child moved two categories on the scale, two points were given, and if a child moved three categories on the scale, three points were given. If a child did not move on the scale, no points were given.

The points were totaled for each category in early math and for each category in language/literacy. The categories were added to generate math points total. The same was done for language/literacy. The total math points were averaged for the experimental group and for the control group. The same was done for both groups in language/literacy. The average points gained in early math and gained in language/literacy were compared (see Graphs, Appendix). The results were as follows:

  • The three years old children in the experimental group had an average gain of 10.8 points in early math, the control group had an average gain of 9.9 points. This result indicates the experimental group had a 9.1% greater gain in early math skills than did the children in the control group.
  • The three years old children in the experimental group had an average gain of 12.1 points in language/literacy, the control group had an average gain of 9.8 points. This result indicates the experimental group had a 23.5% greater gain in language/literacy skills than did the children in the control group.
  • The four years old children in the experimental group had an average gain of 30.1 points in early math, the control group had an average gain of 20.3 points. This result indicates the experimental group had a 48% greater gain in early math skills than did the children in the control group.
  • The four years old children in the experimental group had an average gain of 20.6 points in language/literacy, the control group had an average gain of 27.9 points. This result indicates the experimental group had a 26.2% less gain in language/literacy skills than did the children in the control group.

For approximately half of the students in the four years old experimental and control groups, a third assessment was made available. That assessment was completed in April, one month after the second assessment. The following was determined by comparing the March assessment to the April assessment:

  • The four years old children in the experimental group had an average gain of 16.1 points in early math, the control group had an average gain of 12.2 points in early math. This result indicates the experimental group had a 33% greater gain in early math skills than did the children in the control group for the March to April assessments.
  • The four years old children in the experimental group had an average gain of 17.6 points in language/literacy, the control group had an average gain of 17.3 points in language/literacy. This indicates the experimental group had a 1.7% greater gain in language/literacy skills than did the children in the control group for the March to April assessments.

A third assessment was not available for the three years old children.

QUALITATIVE RESULTS

Qualitative data was gathered through observations and interviews with the mentors, parents, classroom teachers, family support worker, and administrators in the Community Action Project. The primary purpose of the qualitative data was to examine the causal relationship of the music program to the academic success of the students through a naturalistic paradigm. However, the role of parent involvement and the social/personal growth of the children became important elements that emerged from the data.

Academics

During the March parent meeting, a classroom teacher told the parents she had noted “positive effects” on performance in the classroom by those students who were in the program. Another classroom teacher stated that the program had helped the children in listening and comprehending what they had heard, math concepts, gaining self confidence, learning the concepts of left and right, and how to count. One of the parents interviewed stated that she “…was amazed at the leaps and bounds of her (the daughter’s) progress.” She also stated that her daughter had grown greatly in “her math skills and letters”, but especially her math skills since participating in the music keyboard instruction.

Parental Involvement/Reaction

At the first performance by the experimental group, approximately 150 people attended. During the highlight of the performance, one of the mentors commented, “A couple of people had tears in their eyes.” When questioned about the reaction of the parents to the performance, a mentor stated, “The parents liked it.” Another said, “I’m going to do it (the program) with my son when he’s old enough.” Parents’ reactions to the performances included, “Parents were talking about it. They were real impressed.” Approximately 40 people attended the second performance and about 350 attended the final performance. This performance was held in conjunction with the end of the year activities for the school.

An afternoon parent meeting was held in March with approximately half of the parents of the children in the experimental group attending. The purpose of the meeting was to (1) answer questions the parents had regarding the program, (2) encourage them to continue to be involved on a daily basis with their child’s keyboard training, and (3) present preliminary findings of the study. One parent asked if the preliminary findings were indicative of the “Mozart Effect”. A discussion then ensued regarding the varied attributes of musical training for children. The parents stated they wanted the program to be continued for the school year 2001-2002. The family support worker for the school said, “I feel children and parents have truly enjoyed the experience of working together at home and in the performances at school.”

There were problems with parent participation in the home lessons. The lack of improvement in some of the children’s playing skill from week to week was noticeable starting in February. This indicated that those children were not receiving reinforcement lessons at home. By the conclusion of the program in May, the family support worker identified six parents as continuing to be involved with the music lessons in the home on a daily basis. These same six children were far more advanced in the musical skills than the other children in the experimental group were.

The qualitative data suggests the following regarding the parents:

  • They wanted their children involved in the music program.
  • They recognized school improvement in their children
  • They came to the performances.
  • Most failed to follow-through consistently with the home lessons.

Social/Personal Growth

The education manager for the Community Action Project stated, “When I attend the Horace Hopper Adventure productions, I am amazed at the confidence these children exhibit as they perform for parents and friends.” A mentor, who was also a classroom teacher, related that one day she told the children she was going to bring a keyboard into her classroom to demonstrate some of the songs the children in the program were learning. A child, who was in the experimental group exclaimed, “Go get it (the keyboard). I will teach them all (emphasis the child’s) Horace Hopper.”

The family support worker at Frost was an integral part of the program. She served as the primary liaison between the program’s implementers and the parents as well as being a mentor for the weekly sessions. She stated that she felt the children learned discipline and self-confidence through the program. “I can see the joy in the three and four years old faces in learning music, and that makes it worthwhile,” she said. A parent stated, “He (her son) has more self-confidence and learned to follow directions.”