Education-oriented Music Therapy as an after-school program for students with emotional and behavioral problems

The purpose of this study was to examine how an after-school Education-oriented Music Therapy (EoMT) program can impact students’ emotional and behavioral problems and academic competency. The study implemented a 16-week music therapy program using music activities and interventions to promote academic, social, and emotional skills. The Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990); which measures social skills, academic competency, and problem behavior, was administered before and after the intervention by the classroom teachers. The results showed that the areas of social skills and problem behavior improved significantly after program implementation; however, there were no improvements in academic competency. Results suggest that this structured music therapy program benefits students who have behavioral issues, though the positive changes in their emotional and behavioral problems did not influence academic competency.