Effects of Prescribed Music Therapy on the Psychosocial Development of Disadvantaged, Preschool Children

Abstract: A class of five boys and three girls was divided by age, pairing into experimental and control groups with mean ages of 5.3 and 5.0 respectively. Music therapy based on a psychologist's prescription was used with these disadvantaged preschool children to enhance lagging psychosocial development and to help rework already developing attitudes that would hinder progress in school. Pre- and posttests included the Children's Apperception Test, the Hand Test, the Stanford Preschool Internal-External Scale, Coopersmith's Behavior Rating Rorm, and tests of visualmotor coordination, and observation. Slight to significant shifts were indicated in all children, in both positive and regressive derections. Assessment measures suggested a relationship between skill-learning through music, freedom to explore psychological and emotional issues stimulated by the learning experience, and progress in psychosocial development.

Keyword(s): music-therapy, disadvantaged, preschool, children, psychological, social-development, psychosocial-development, Children's-Apperception-Test, Coopersmith's-Behavioral-Rating-Form, Hand-Test.

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