A Dissertation Defense Mary K. Lespier

Participatory Drumming and Expressive Oral Language

What to Expect TodayWhat I didWhy I did itHow I did itWhat I foundWhat conclusions I reachedWhat I recommend

Overview of the Study--What I DidIntroduction

Speech and Language DelayCauses

Physiologic and NeurologicTheoretical Underpinnings

Music TherapyRhythmic Auditory Stimulation Melodic Intonation Therapy

OPERA (Patel, 2011)

What I DidHypothesisResearch QuestionsLimitationsDelimitationsSignificance of the Study

Why I Did it

Dissertation

EducationMusic

Family

Why I Did it

How I did itReview of Literature

Music and LanguageWermke & Mende, 2006; Moreno, 2008; Miranda and Ullman, 2007

Language AcquisitionPiaget, Chomsky, Paul, Pinker

Music and the BrainGenes to Cognition Online http://www.3dscience.com/3D_Models/Human_Anatomy/

Sensory/Inner_Ear.php

How I did itMusic Therapy

addiction, Alzheimer’s, depression, autismEntrainmentDrumming

History

How I did itMethodology

Descriptive, ontological, mixed methodologyDesign

Solomon Four-Group Pretest/posttestParticipants

Students—mention student STeachers

Methodology

How I did itInstrumentation

Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4 th editionTeacher survey—The Arts Education in Elementary and

Secondary Schools—U. S. Dept. of Education, Westat and Office of Budget and Management.

How I did itData collection

Survey questions for teachers—16 qualitative and quantitative questions about music therapy in the curriculum

Pretest and posttest scores

Data AnalysisQualitative data—Small sample size allows for identifying

over-arching themes and meaning from the responses without the need for qualitative software

Quantitative data—SPSS Student version 20.0

Procedures

Group A

Mean # of words = 45.4 Mean # of words = 51.9

Group B

Mean # of words = 50.5 Mean # of words = 54.8

Group CMean # of Words is

55.2

Group D

Mean # of words is 48.2

What Does it All Mean?

Test Pretest Intervention Posttest Pre result Post result

A X O X 45.4 51.9

B X X 50.5 54.8

C O X 55.2

D X 48.2

What Does It All Mean?The mean of posttest of C and D scores = 56.3The mean of posttest of A and B scores = 53.3Difference between these scores should be small to

demonstrate that the act of pretesting did not have an effect on the posttest scores.

What Does it All Mean?Comparing the Group B posttest with the Group D posttest

speaks to priming and learning effects. Group B had a mean # of words of 54.8, which is 6.6 more

words than Group D at 48.2.

What Does it All Mean?Posttest results by age: 3 year olds –mean average of 51.3 words4 year olds –mean average of 53.6 words5 year olds –mean average of 57.5 wordsThe four students identified as having speech-language delay

showed an improvement of 14%

What Does it All Mean?Comparing Group A posttest scores with the posttest scores

of Group C should yield little deviation. This is a check on the design of the experiment.

Group A posttest score is 51.9, while Group C posttest score is 55.2—a difference of 3.3 words

Next up—the survey of teachers

What Does it All Mean?Question 1-level of confidence in the use of adjunct therapiesQuestion 2-what adjunct therapies are effective?Question 3 –What adjunct therapies merit more attention?Question 4 – How long in education?Question 5 - Gender

What Does it All Mean?Question 6- How many students?Question 7- How many identified as speech-language

delayed?Question 8-perceive the inclusion of students?Question 9- Accommodations usedQuestion 10- the importance of listening to a piece of music

What Does it All Mean?Question 11- More arts activities in curriculumQuestion 12-Teaching time for artsQuestion 13- Access to music materialsQuestion 14- BudgetQuestion 15-Teaching urban childrenQuestion 16-component of participatory drumming predicts

an improvement in expressive oral language

What Did I Conclude?The participatory drumming appeared to help all students The 4 students identified as speech-language delayed showed

a 14% improvementThe variation in age proved to be an important factor,

because 3-year-olds don’t have the vocabulary of 4-year-olds or 5-year-olds. That difference alone could account for some of the variation in scores and averages

The teacher survey did not ask the education level of the teacher. I would want to see if their answers correlate with their level of education. I suspect they would.

What Do I Recommend?Do the study with 7 years olds. 0-7 years is when most of the diagnoses for speech and

language delay occur.Get an adequate sample with less age variationFind ways to incorporate music in the classroom

Questions?Thanks for attending