Music and Attention for Children with Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of the use of music in the form of a song with instructional lyrics on the attention of children with developmental disabilities. The study took place in a self-contained special education classroom, which served third through fifth grade students. A single-subject with ABA or reversal design (Creswell, 2012) was utilized, including five days of baseline, 15 days of intervention, and five days of reversal data collection. During the intervention phase, the teacher sang a cappella an original song with instructional lyrics that explain the type of attentive behaviors that students should be displaying. Measures included momentary time sampling on five attentive behaviors: appropriate vocalizations, visual focus, appropriate hand movement, sitting upright, and appropriate foot movement. All students made gains in their overall attentive behaviors score, while analysis of individual attentive behaviors had varying results.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Education (MEd)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Special Education

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bentley, Mallory M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Janet Spybrook
• Cristina Santamaria Graff
• Janet Finke

• Education
• special education music song developmental disabilities children school reading
• Other Music
• Special Education and Teaching

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/71

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1077