Our Guardian Foundation

Avera Family-Based Wellness
Violin Training

Background
The intention of this proposal is to provide “Our Guardian Foundation” the basis of a pilot program that will involve violin instruction to children who are between the ages of 3 and 5 years, and identifying if this program aligns with their foundation criteria for funding. This music training curriculum will be utilized as one of the interventions for the Family-Based Wellness Program (FBWP), which is a collaborative effort between the Avera Institute for Human Behavioral Genetics and the Sioux Falls (SD) School District. The goal of the FBWP is to improve overall child and family wellness through child development activities, family wellness coaching and therapeutic family-based interventions. By providing individualized wellness strategies, including musical training, that aim to improve the quality of life and a greater sense of well being, children and families will become aware of, and make better choices toward a more successful existence.

Critical to the success of this program is providing a variety of purposeful activities to children, which will give them an opportunity to further develop at a cognitive and socio-emotional level. More specifically, the FBWP aims to provide activities that have been proven effective through research literature in stimulating neurological growth and fostering skills necessary for a child’s success early in life. Based on this notion, violin instruction is an essential component in achieving these results as presented below.

Rationale
For years, claims have been made concerning a relationship between musical abilities and cognition. These claims, though, were not backed by sufficient evidence confirming the relationship. However, recently, though both the methods of music instruction and types of assessment have varied, researchers have demonstrated evidence that musical training does contribute to positive effects on the developing brain.

In a study published in 2003, Ho and colleagues addressed one of the oft-cited weaknesses of previous research claiming the benefits of musical training by conducting longitudinal and cross-sectional research. They found that “children who had received 1 year of music training, regardless of their music training background, demonstrated improvement in verbal learning and retention abilities” (p. 446).

In 2005, Schlaug and colleagues provided music training and instruction to children, but pre-screened participants to look for evidence that might influence their decision to pursue music instruction or not. They found “no pre-existing cognitive, music, motor, or structural brain differences,” which indicates that it is “unlikely that children who choose to play a musical instrument do so because they have atypical brains” (p. 223). Further, preliminary results of their longitudinal research in five- to seven-year-old children indicate cognitive and brain effects related to music training, as compared to a matched control group (p. 228).

And in 2006, Fujioka et al demonstrated that music training for four- to six-year-old children over a one-year period led to “enhanced behavioral performances in musical demonstration and non-musical working memory” (p. 2603).

However, while it is important to note these improvements occurred in largely music-related abilities, the authors of these studies also discuss evidence that points to the likelihood that music training provides transfer effects to other cognitive, IQ and memory abilities.

Schlaug et al cites the possibility that music training may enhance spatial reasoning, phonemic awareness skills, and mathematical skills, including pattern recognition, proportion, ratio, fractions, and subdivision (p. 226). Likewise, Fujioka et al suggests that transfer effects may benefit children in the areas of “literacy, verbal memory, visuospatial processions, mathematics, and IQ,” and discusses the possibility that training may benefit working memory capacity, perseverance skills, and the ability to sustain focused attention (p. 2606).

While not every one of these specific measures will be assessed through the conduct of this program, the violin instruction program is meant not only to develop musical ability, but also to nurture the cognitive and memory developments that may be achieved through the training.

The Intervention
The training will be provided through the Avera Institute for Human Behavioral Genetics and by local Suzuki trained instructors who will facilitate the violin curriculum to children participating in the program.

The violin training program will be adapted from the Suzuki method. One notable diversion from the Suzuki method is that this program will not require parents to be present at each in-class practice session. Also, due to time constraints within the school day, instruction will be within a group structure, as opposed to more traditional Suzuki programs involving individual instruction.

Instruction will be provided to 75 children who are either HeadStart or Title I eligible and enrolled within the Garfield Elementary early childhood program; as such, they will attend activities at Garfield Elementary four half-days per week. The afternoon children participating in the FBWP will be transported by bus an hour prior to their schooling to receive this instruction. Additionally, the morning children participating in the program will stay an hour after their schooling to receive this instruction, prior to being transported by bus to their homes.

This program will provide violin instruction each day a child attends school, which will consist of 113, thirty-minute sessions. The goal is to provide an instructor support ratio of 1 to 8 children and a mentor support ratio of 1 to 4/5 per session. The program will begin in mid-September 2008 and run through early May 2009.

Intervention Goals
Intended musical goals of the program will be the ability to meet goals and milestones for each semester, including a “performance” of music they have learned for friends and family.

Semester 1: September-December 2008
• Parent "informance" • Show and tell foot charts • Rest position and playing position • Bow hold poem • Songs, “See the Pretty Flowers" and "Kiddie Opera" • Concentration/Focus/Self Control • Aural recognition of various Twinkle rhythms • Develop other listening skills

Semester 2: January-May 2009
• Parent "Informance" • Show and tell learning activities • Song, “Twinkle Var. A”, “Kiddie Opera #2”, and possibly others using real violins and using fingers (not just rhythms on open strings) • Developing nice tone during Var. A and other rhythms • Continue to develop aural listening skills • Recital for family and friends

A non-specific outcome of the program will be changes in results of the Preschool Child Observation Record, which will be conducted at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year, from September 2008 to May 2009. Teachers rate the children on a 5-point scale based on observed abilities or milestones relative to their (1) approaches to learning, (2) language, literacy and communication, (3) social and emotional development, (4) physical development, health and well being, and (5) arts and sciences. Albeit varying degrees, program evaluation will occur on the impact that violin training has on the participating children at Garfield as compared with a control group of HeadStart and Title I children at other early childhood sites within the Sioux Falls school district who will not be receiving any intervention outside of their education.

Also, additional assessments will be completed on participating children through emotional-behavioral tools, temperament scales and quality of life surveys to assess if violin training, in combination with other child development activities, has any positive impact on the well being of participating children.

Future Goals
Upon validation and appropriate funding of the FBWP, the program would extend throughout the early childhood sites within the Sioux Falls School District and expand longitudinally at a minimum through the elementary school grades. More importantly, the result from this program will be an evidence-based, developed curriculum that can be duplicated in other communities.

The violin program will no doubt have a positive impact in stimulating our young children. More importantly, this program is centered on providing support to those children who are most in need within our community. The violin instruction will help in creating a positive, enriching environment, and provide an introduction to arts and music to children at a very early age. Our hope is that by providing this early introduction, the program establishes a mechanism for these children to further enhance their lives and the community through the growth of our local arts and music.

Community Benefit
We believe that the FBWP, and its components which include the violin training program, will have a tremendous impact on the community. In participation of this program, children will succeed at a higher level, improve their overall mental and physical health, and promote positive health behaviors. Over time, and through further expansion and longitudinal development of the program, a safer community and environment will exist, that will allow children to live a more successful existence.

Also, the early education of young violinists may prove to be a benefit to the overall quality of the Sioux Falls Youth Orchestra. In the fall of 2008, DAPA & SEYO will merge into one youth orchestra run by the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (SDSO). Also, many of our violin teachers also perform in the SDSO. Through this violin training program, the goal is to further develop community music and arts for many years to come.

References
Gottfried Schlaug, Andrea Norton, Katie Overy, Ellen Winner. Effects of music training on the children’s brain and cognitive development. New York Academy of Sciences (2005). 1060, 219-230.

Terry D. Bilhartz, Rich A. Bruhn, and Judith E. Olson. The effect of early music training on child cognitive development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (2000). 20 (4): 615-636.

Takako Fujioka, Bernhard Ross, Ryusuke Kakigi, Christo Pantev, and Laurel J. Trainor. One year of music training affects development of auditory cortical-evoked fields in young children. Brain (2006). 129, 2593-2608.

Yim-Chi Ho, Mei-Chun Cheng, and Agnes S. Chan. Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children. Neuropsychology (2003). Vol. 17, No. 3: 439-450.