Music notation to improve the speech prosody of hearing impaired children

Journal/Book: Journal of Music Therapy. 1987; 24: 146-159.

Abstract: Examined the effects of 3 modeling conditions, a high ratio of positive reinforcement, and slow and fast tempos of recorded music on the motor movements of 8 moderately retarded 13-21 yr old adolescents. No significant findings resulted from the modeling conditions as imitated in dance movements; however, percussion performance showed marked improvement when simultaneous modeling was compared to a condition without modeling. Ss overestimated the tempo more when performing on hand percussion than when dancing. No significant differences were found between verbal and visual identification of tempos, but Ss seemed slightly better in labeling slow tempos. A mean ratio of 74% instructor approvals motivated individual interest in dancing and group support of peers. ABSTRACT 2: This study was initiated to determine whether a treatment program using music notation would improve the verbal rhythmic and intonational accuracy of hearing impaired children, and to determine the degree of transfer to other reading and verbal skills. Thirty-five hearing impaired children ages 3-12 participated in a treatment program for 40 consecutive days. Verbal elements included both rhythmic and inflectional patterns presented with progressive complexity. During treatment sessions, children vocalized these patterns at their highest individual verbal level. Results indicated that, while all children learned a substantial number of rhythmic and inflectional patterns, youngsters capable of reading made the greatest gains in transferring their skill to novel verbal material. It is suggested that the use of music notation written below printed words could be a beneficial visual cue for verbal, rhythmic, and intonational accuracy in reading tasks with this population. For younger children. a more long-term treatment program is suggested to develop initial prosodic skills.

Note: modeling vs reinforcement vs music tempo; imitative rhythmic responses in dance & percussion performance; moderately retarded 13 21 yr olds

Keyword(s): Imitation learning; positive reinforcement; music therapy; dance ; trainable mentally retarded; adolescence ; adulthood

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