Using Group Music Activities with Families to Support School-readiness Skills in Preschool Children with Hearing Loss

Age appropriate development in areas of school readiness such as language, literacy, social skills, executive functions, and balance contribute to the successful transition into a typical classroom setting. These areas of development pose a challenge for children with hearing loss and often require additional support to be on par with their peers. As traditional listening and spoken language therapy focuses mainly on skills related to speech and language, other areas of development may lag. The overarching aim of this thesis then, is to review the challenges faced by families of preschool children with hearing loss at school entry and explore how to better support development of school readiness skills using music as a medium. As music has been used for the development of these skills (Habibi, Cahn, Damasio Damasio, 2016; Putkinen, Tervaniemi, Saarikivi, Huotilainen, 2015), this was incorporated. Three inquiries were completed, namely: How might Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) be incorporated into a music and movement intervention, can a music intervention help to support school readiness skills, and how can this intervention also support families? Six NMT techniques were chosen and used in a twelve week intervention for 10 preschool children with hearing loss. Pre and post intervention test outcomes in the areas of interest were not statistically significant, however observations by both parents and the facilitator reported many positive gains in both groups. A higher percentage of intervention group participants made gains in, preliteracy (100% music and movement, 66% craft-based, 40% control), balance (71% music and movement, 66% craft-based, 0% control) and social skills (70% music and movement and craft-based, 0% control). Parents also completed a post intervention interview. Themes related to gains for themselves and their children and connections and joy were consistently described. It is hoped that outcomes from this study support the addition of group music and movement to assist school readiness skill development. The inclusion of non formalized measures would also add to the overall assessment of progress. Parent to parent support, resources, and strategies would encourage a holistic method of supporting the family during this time of transition to school and hopefully beyond.Ph.D