The Project Outline
Stage 1: Gathering Information
- Structured interviews with carers and parents from varied socio-economic backgrounds in urban and semi-rural settings, Central and SW England about how they use music at home;
- Interviews with practitioners working with families and young children; health visitors, language and speech therapists, play workers, inclusion workers and Sure Start outreach workers.
- Interviews with experienced music practitioners working in a range of settings with families and children under two.
All interviews cover knowledge of repertoire and activities and their perceptions of the significance, value and purposes of music with young children. Taking into account these views and needs is a necessary consultation process before designing appropriate and feasible approaches for promoting musical activity between carers and under-two-year-olds.
Stage 2: Designing approaches
Design a range of approaches to fostering musical activities which are both developmentally beneficial and likely to be perceived by carers as relevant, enjoyable and practical.
Stage 3: Trialling approaches
Two six-week trials using musical activities are planned in existing settings in Oxfordshire and Exeter Sure Start areas with volunteer parents/carer and their under-two-year-olds between April and June, 2005. The first trial will be jointly evaluated by practitioners and carers. The approaches will then be refined in the light of the outcomes from interviews with parents. Trial 2 in Exeter will involve:
- Pre- and post-testing using the CARE-index measure of attachment
- Pre- and post-interviews to mothers and to practitioners.
These tests will be carried out by a parent-infant specialist and clinical psychologist trained in the CARE-index.
Stage 4: Promoting and sharing findings
This will be through:
- accessible information on this linked web-page;
- practitioner and academic journals and presentations;
- consultations with larger organisations and programmes;
- offering training and materials.
An important purpose of the work will be to feed the outcomes into existing programmes, campaigns and training structures as appropriate. Consultations to explore how the findings could best be incorporated will be offered to key personnel in relevant organisations. If bespoke training programmes and/or materials are required, these may, depending on the scope and scale required, either be provided within the final stages of the project or through follow-up applications for funding.
