Not all pupils of average intelligence can be said to make
satisfactory progress at school. Frequently some of them,
for some reason or other, fall behind in certain areas of
the curriculum. Unless timely action is taken, serious
learning problems may develop with ultimate detrimental
effect upon the pupil's progress.
This study is aimed at determining to what extent music
therapy can be successfully applied in the case of Std. I
pupils whose progress at school is not commensurate with
their I.Q.
First of all a study was undertaken of the available
literature on learning problems and subsequently of that
dealing with music therapy. Finally a programme was devised
for using music therapy with groups. This programme
is particularly concerned with the development of the
following: motor skills, perceptual abilities, language,
acquisition of mathematical concepts and social adaptability.
Seven pupils from a primary school were then selected as
experimental subjects and a six-month individual music
therapy programme was presented to each after establishing
their individual problems. This information was derived
from class teachers' reports, pupils' scores in the various
school subjects and from the results of standardized scholastic
and perceptual tests. The progress of each subject
was discussed per se and illustrated by means of tables
explaining the various data. During the period of presentation
due attention was paid to: Fine muscle co-ordination,
eye-hand co-ordination, left-right co-ordination, exercises
in reading, visual and auditory discrimination and memory,
spacial awareness, succession of sounds, foreground-background
differentiation, number skills, spelling, sustained
attention and perseverance, musical development and improvement
of pupils' self-image.
When the programme had been fully presented, the battery of
tests was repeated and the class teachers were once more
consulted to determine the extent of the progress. These
data were then also included in the tables previously
mentioned. The following conclusions could be drawn from
the results of the individual music therapy programme that
had been presented to the seven pupils:
All the pupils concerned had made progress;
subjects in which there had been significant improvement
were reading, mathematics, spelling and hand-writing, with
notable increase in writing speed;
the experimental subjects showed improved ability to concentrate
and their self-image had also improved.
One can therefore arrive at the conclusion that music
therapy can be successfully used with groups or individuals
to help them overcome their learning problems. / Thesis (MEd)--PU vir CHO, 1983
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/9567 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Pieterse, Ria |
| Publisher | Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | other |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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