Browsing by Author "Ohraluoma, Jenna"

Objectives. A lot of research has been done during recent years on children’s language development and creative ways to support it during early childhood. Studies have shown that one significant factor which can support children in learning to read and write is music. The objective of this Master´s thesis is to study music education’s effect on under school age children´s language development measured by Rapid Automatized naming test. In addition, I investigate if there are differences in development between boys and girls or native Finnish speakers and children who speak Finnish as a second language during the two-year longitudinal research. Data for this Master thesis has been collected as a part of Tanja Linnavalli´s dissertation (2019) “Effects of musical experience on children’s language and brain development” which studied the effect of music intervention on children’s language development. Methods. There were 72 participants who were between four-to-five-year-old in the beginning of the study. Data was collected during 2014-2017. There were three study groups: one receiving music play-school, another group receiving dance classes and a third group that acted as a passive control group. Children were evaluated four times during the two-year long research for their speed in naming colours and objects by Rapid Automatized naming test by Niilo Mäki Institute. This Master´s thesis compares the differences between the groups using independent samples t-test. Results and conclusions. The study shows that children who participated to music playschool improved more on naming tests during the follow up than the other groups. Girls improved statistically significantly more than boys and Finnish as a second language speakers improved slightly better than native Finnish speakers. The results support the view that music has a positive impact on the development of language skills. In early childhood education and care, it is important to understand the support music education may offer to language development e.g., children with Finnish as a second language or learning challenges on reading and writing.