Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Comprehension in children; Music in education; Music, Influence of; Academic theses;
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of music paired with story book reading on young children's comprehension of narrative text. More specifically, children's abilities to verbally retell stories, answer questions regarding explicit text based story facts, and attention levels were compared when stories were orally read or presented through audio-recorded sung versions of each story. Thirty kindergarten and first grade students who exhibited a speech and/or language impairment, had a history of a speech and/or language impairment, or were at-risk for reading difficulties participated in the study. Subjects were identified through a local university speech and hearing clinic in Northeastern Iowa, and through the local Area Education Agency. Each subject attended a total of three sessions. The first session involved pre-testing to determine a child's level of language comprehension and/or phonological processing abilities. The two remaining sessions included the reading of two different storybooks and the audio recorded singing of two additional books. Subjects' narrative retellings were analyzed based on three criteria which included text-based comprehension, reader response, and language use. Subjects' answers to comprehension questions were analyzed based on total points and percentage of questions answered correctly. Subjects' attention, disposition, on-task behavior, and level of interest were evaluated based on a five-point behavioral rating system. A series of one and two-way within-subjects analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to analyze findings between conditions (sung versus spoken). No significant difference was found for subjects' narrative retellings when comparing sung and spoken conditions. However, a significant difference in subject's language use versus text-based comprehension versus reader response was found for the narrative retellings. A significant main effect favoring the sung condition was also revealed for subjects' type token ratios, which were computed on narrative retellings. No significant difference was found for subjects' answers to comprehension questions when comparing conditions. Subjects' behavioral ratings indicated that significantly more attention and on-task behaviors were demonstrated when books were spoken. Based on the overall results, a sung context for story book reading does not facilitate comprehension of narrative text in children with histories of language impairments and/or reading difficulties.
Year of Submission
2003
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Communicative Disorders
First Advisor
Clifford L. Highnam
Second Advisor
Theresa A. Kouri
Third Advisor
Deborah L. Tidwell
Date Original
2003
Object Description
1 PDF file (72 leaves)
Copyright
©2003 Karen Kay Fatka
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Fatka, Karen Kay, "The Effects of Music Paired With Story Book Reading on Kindergarten and First Grade Children’s Comprehension of Narrative Text" (2003). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2609.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2609
Comments
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