Effectiveness of musical activities on the executive functions of students with Educable Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Present study aimed to determine efficacy of musical activities on executive functions students with educable intellectual disability. This study was a quasi-experimental method with pretest-posttest and a control group design. Statistical population included all students with educable intellectual disability 11-14 years of old from two exceptional schools in Karaj sity in the academic year 1395-96. 30 students were selected from the population through available sampling method and randomly allocated to either a control or experimental group (n=11). meantime the study, 4 students from experimental group and 4 from control group left the intervention(n=11). The experimental group participated at 24 group sessions of one hour musical activities 3-time per week for 8 weeks. The control group did not receive any intervention along with this period. All participants administered computerized Wisconcin Card Sorting Test (WCST), to assessing cognitive flexibility; Go/no Go Test, to assessing inhibitory control; and Digit Span Subtest of WISC-IV, to assessing working memory, befor and after the intervention. Results of data analyzing through Covariance analysis indicated that, there was no differences between post-test scores at the level of ?=0/05. This means that these musical activities program has had not a significant effect on improvement of experimental group functioning on administered executive functions tests.

Keywords

• musical activities
• executive functions
• intellectual disability