Veritas, Vol. 38, No. 01, July/August 1995

              For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
Juiy/August 1995 Volume 38 Number 1
Study explores link between music and how children learn
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^ "W “V T" ~T ith your foot you make a tap, tap, tap,77 the children sing in unison. “With your hands you make a clap, clap, clap.”
But when this group of four-year-olds joyfully engage in what appears to be a simple pre-school exercise, they are actually reaching beyond play and into a serious examination of the possible link between music, movement and how children learn.
This group of Miami area at-risk youngsters are participating in a study of early communication skills being conducted by Joyce Jordan, associate professor of music education. The 30-week project, which began in the fall of 1994, involves six Head Start programs throughout the country. A total of 120 four-year-old participants receive specialized training from a visiting music teacher, who in turn works with a general classroom teacher to facilitate ongoing musical activities.
The study is funded by the Foundation for Music-Based Learning in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“All research with young children is important now,77 says Jordan, “because in many respects, the national agenda
Joyce Jordan tests discrimination with Sound Box.
is focusing on young children. The more we know about a young child’s developmental needs, the more accurate the information can be for policymakers.
“My greatest concern is for those children who do not have access to music in the early years,77 she continues. “Kids at risk seldom get access.77
Innovative singing and movement activities—as a group, as individuals, and with partners—are essential elements of the training. But as the children, sitting in the I circle, experiment by i making sounds with resonator bars, bells, and wooden sticks, lessons in sound discrimination and language skills are constantly reinforced in subtle ways. Other aspects of the lessons explore how to share and make choices.
“Musical enrichment not only helps develop their musical abilities,77 says Jordan, “but because of the nature of musical interaction, they develop interpersonal and language skills, too.77
Music makes learning a natural. “With music you have self-motivation because it’s so enjoyable,77 she observes.
a child’s aural the Music
Children engage in a variety of fun learning activities designed to assess communication skills development.
In just six months the children have progressed from being a highly distracted band of four-year-olds to a more focused ensemble, listening for cues of when to sing or clap.
“The most essential thing for learning is motor skills,” emphasizes Jordan. For example, children must learn fine motor skills, such as coordinating both hands to play their musical instruments, as well as gross motor skills, such as tiptoeing or walking in a confined space. Active movement in space can be difficult, she adds.
Besides music and dance, children work with poetry and listening exercises that develop the ear and increase an awareness for environmental sounds and sounds of nature, such as insects or airplanes.
Could these skills set the stage for high order thinking, Jordan wonders.
“One of our long range goals is to see if what we’re doing has any effect
on the child’s ability to communicate or decode language aurally,” Jordan explains. “In other words, is this training making the ear more discriminating?”
“We anticipate that these activities will have some effect on children’s abilities,” she says. She and her colleagues from across the country plan to study this year’s results, refine their techniques, and regroup for another study in the fall.
“If music and movement can contribute to the child’s total development, it is a very useful way to provide early physical, emotional, and intellectual success. That’s a goal worth striving to attain,” she concludes.
Seven new members join Board
Rep. Meek exhorts 2,300 graduates to ‘go forward and serve’
Seven new members have joined the University’s Board of Trustees. Leonard Miller was named the new chairman, replacing Ambassador Charles E. Cobb, who served in the post since 1992.
The four elected trustees include alumni Gloria Estefan, the acclaimed recording artist, and former state legislator Mike Abrams, vice president of the investment banking company Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, Inc. The other elected trustees are the Reverend Marta S. Weeks, a priest-at-laige in the Diocese of Southeast Florida, and Jay Weiss, founder of Southern Wine and Spirits, Inc.
Appointed to a three-year term as an alumni representative to the board
was alumnus Roger E. Peterson, president and CEO (retired) of Ace Hardware Company. Edward A. Strongin, a partner in the accounting firm Pinchasik, Strongin, Stein & Company, will serve a three-year term as an ex officio trustee representing the Alumni Association. Serv ing a two-year ex officio term is Julie A. S. Williamson, a real estate attorney with Greenberg Traurig, et. al. who serv es as presidentelect of the Citizen’s Board.
Miller, president of Lennar Corporation, a national building, community development, and financial services firm, has served on the board since 1983- Active in the Miami community, he is a trustee of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
U.S. Representative Carrie P.
Meek urged the 2,300 graduates of the class of 1993 to take their new-found power to become involved with the community and “keep the flag of idealism flying.”
More than 10,000 people attended the morning ceremony that in no time proved sunshine was plentiful in South Florida.
“Good morning!” Meek called out.
“I love them ’Canes!” a cry that instantly endeared her to the commencement gathering.
Then, she grabbed the crowd by its ear.
“Look at me, listen to me. I’m the granddaughter of a slave, the daughter of a sharecropper, and my mother washed and ironed to send me to school,” said the Congresswoman who was given an honorary Doctor of Laws
Her advice to the grads focused on responsibility to community. She also shared her concern about the estimated $73 billion in federal budget cutbacks in education and social services. “Opportunities given to many of you may not be given to students six to eight years from now,” she explained.
“So keep your hand on the plow, hold on, and make the knowledge that you received from the University of Miami a stepping stone to a greater life . . . and share with others. What I am asking of each of you is that you go forward to serve.”
At subsequent ceremonies at the James L. Knight Center, Senator Bob Graham, a UM law school alumnus, addressed the law school graduates.
A. Frederick Schild, professor of clinical surgery at UM/JMMC, addressed the 1995 medical school class.
Leonard Miller