Educating Children at Risk Through the Arts

Tazhe Cooper Arts enrichment is often the first program to be eliminated when schools are facing budget cuts. Recent research by West Chester University psychologist Ellie Brown shows that for some preschoolers, instruction in music, dance and art can be the most effective way to engage them in learning - eliminating achievement gaps and the barriers to education that many low income children with racial and ethnic backgrounds face.

"It's clear that the arts can be used not just for developing young children's artistic skills, but for training them in core school readiness skills such as language literacy, mathematics, science, and social and cultural learning," says Brown.

"In one particular preschool where arts enrichment is fully integrated into the curriculum, low income children are showing gains in standardized vocabulary scores three times the size of their peers who attend a more traditional program," she claims.

"In the same arts integrated program, children with developmental difficulties related to poverty also show achievement growth equal to that of their typically functioning peers."

In a report entitled "Arts enrichment and school readiness for children at risk," which appeared in the Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Brown, an assistant professor at West Chester University, and co-authors Barbara Benedett and M. Elizabeth Armistead, both formerly with the Settlement Music School of Philadelphia, examine children's achievement within the school's Kaleidoscope Arts Enrichment Preschool program. They then compare their verbal ability with those of children attending another preschool that also serves low income children from diverse backgrounds and needs.

"Historically, minorities have been marginalized in all areas of education, but to a lesser extent in the arts," says Brown. "This study suggests that the arts may increase the cultural relevance of education for children from racial or ethnic minority backgrounds."

According to Brown, prior research has found that low-income children with racial or ethnic minority backgrounds often experience a disconnect between their home and school environments. "In the Kaleidoscope art classes, the children are bringing in different cultural traditions which give students one more way to connect."

The study also confirms prior research that suggests that a combination of verbal and nonverbal means of expression may make the classroom more accessible to students with developmental disabilities. "Because of the multiple modes of learning that are provided through visual arts, dance and music, we believe an arts integrated curriculum may increase the possibilities for growth among children with developmental difficulties, some of which involve language," says Brown.

Launched by Philadelphia's Settlement Music School in 1990, the Kaleidoscope program offers a unique integrated arts curriculum whose "early learning themes" are systematically applied across all of the children's classes. If the theme for a particular day or week is "shapes," explains Brown, children learn about shapes by labeling them in their early learning class, painting them in art, forming them with their bodies in dance class and selecting instruments of different shapes to play music.

"It's the only preschool program I know of where the arts are being used in such a full, intentional and structured way to promote development in core school readiness skills," says Brown.

Brown adds that she and her colleagues are continuing their study of the Kaleidoscope model. "We're hoping to shed additional light on how and why these art classes are promoting such positive effects for children."

Founder and director of the Early Childhood Cognition and Emotions Laboratory, Ellie Brown has worked for many years with children and families in economically disadvantaged communities. Her research on the influence of poverty and economic stress on children's lives - particularly on their emotional wellbeing and how that affects their ability to learn well - appears in a number of scholarly journals.

A graduate of Haverford College, Brown received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Delaware. She joined West Chester University's psychology faculty in 2005.