Effects of a Preschool Music and Movement Curriculum on Children's Language Skills [Music and movement intervention that supports language skills vs. business as usual]
Yazejian, Noreen; Peisner-Feinberg, Ellen S. (2009). NHSA Dialog, v12 n4 p327-341. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ865822
-
examining207Students, gradePK
Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: March 2022
- Practice Guide (findings for Music and movement intervention that supports language skills)
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it uses a cluster quasi-experimental design that provides evidence of effects on clusters by demonstrating that the analytic sample of individuals is representative of the clusters and satisfying the baseline equivalence requirement for the clusters in the analytic intervention and comparison groups.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Adaptive Language Inventory (ALI) |
Music and movement intervention that supports language skills vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
3.49 |
3.30 |
No |
-- | |
|
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III |
Music and movement intervention that supports language skills vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
55.12 |
55.67 |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
-
Female: 50%
Male: 50% -
Rural, Suburban, Urban
-
- B
- A
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- I
- H
- J
- K
- L
- P
- M
- N
- O
- Q
- R
- S
- V
- U
- T
- W
- X
- Z
- Y
- a
- h
- i
- b
- d
- e
- f
- c
- g
- j
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- q
- r
- s
- t
- u
- v
- x
- w
- y
Kentucky, North Carolina, New York
-
Race Black 63% Other or unknown 18% White 19% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 9% Not Hispanic or Latino 91%
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in Head Start classrooms in three sites - a suburban area of North Carolina, a rural area of Kentucky, and an urban area of New York.
Study sample
The sample consisted of 50% female students and 50% male. The average age of students in the study was 53 months of age at pretest. Sixty-three percent of the children were African American, 19% were Caucasian, 9% were Latino, and 9% were of other races.
Intervention Group
Classrooms in the intervention group received the music and movement intervention delivered by an early childhood music educator 2 days a week for 30 min each time throughout the Head Start program year. In addition, the teachers in these classrooms were asked to incorporate two of the curriculum activities twice a week, and the materials were left in the classroom for use by children during free choice and center times. Each lessons had 10 separate activities that included gross motor activities and quiet activities. The activities targeted language development, rhyming, expressive language, and listening. Most of the activities involved talking to the child about the song/activity, singing, or asking questions about the song or activity.
Comparison Group
The students in the comparison condition received their business-as-usual curriculum and received no supplemental lessons.
Support for implementation
The development and provision of the intervention was overseen by an early childhood music educator who founded and directed two early childhood music companies. The two additional intervention music teachers codeveloped the intervention.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).