Piano Music as a Behavioral Intervention at the Ellensburg, WA Developmental Preschool

Limited empirical support presently exists for the use of music as a behavioral intervention for students with disabilities. The purpose of this research was to study whether the social behaviors of children enrolled in a developmental preschool classroom changed in response to live piano music. The principal investigator hypothesized an increase in dyadic and/or other group-oriented play in the presence of live piano music, compared to when no piano music played. This eight-week study used a single-subject, A-B-A-B-C withdrawal design and a 30-second partial interval sampling procedure to sequentially observe and analyze the frequency of six operationally defined behaviors among nine students, ages three and four years. Visual analyses revealed largely insignificant effects and high data variability. Noteworthy behaviors were proximity-based play, play in the presence of an adult, and solitary play behaviors. Limits to the present study and suggestions for future research were discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Education Specialist (Ed.S.)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Hull, Christopher

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stephanie Stein
• Heidi Perez
• Bret P. Smith

• passive music intervention
• music therapy
• developmental preschool
• child social behavior
• single-subject design
• social behavior
• passive intervention
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/735

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1736