Sparks for Success is excited to announce the 2023-2024 music therapy student progress results! This year, Sparks was able to provide 93 students in 15 schools across Austin, Manor, Elgin, and San Marcos school districts with weekly music therapy sessions.
Therapist Progress Reports
Sparks’ primary goal was for 75% of students who attended at 4 music therapy sessions to demonstrate progress on one or more of their targeted social-emotional learning (SEL) goals. All students were assigned 1-3 goals that were assessed weekly by their music therapist. Sparks saw 89% of our students making “significant” or “some” progress on one or more of their SEL goals.
More specifically, students progressed within the categories of “emotional intelligence” (e.g: emotional expression, identifying emotions), “social intelligence” (e.g: active listening, leadership skills) and “healthy behaviors” (e.g: making choices, creative expression).
- 83% made some or significant progress on emotional intelligence
- 92% made some or significant progress on social intelligence
- 72% made some or significant progress on healthy behaviors.
Student Self-Reports
Sparks also provided a survey for students to self-report their experience of music therapy sessions and progress made during the year.
- Of 64 students who responded, roughly 2/3 said that music therapy both helped them make good choices at school and helped them feel better on hard days:
- More than half said that music therapy helped them express their feelings and improve their impulse control:
- Over 82% of students said they liked coming to music therapy and that participating in sessions made them feel good about themselves.
- Similarly, over 85% said they would recommend music therapy to a friend:
Additionally, self-confidence levels measured in therapist reports showed particularly notable improvement. 53% of students with low self-confidence (9 out of 17) showed significant progress, meaning that over time, they were given fewer prompts by the therapist or school staff to exhibit behaviors showing increased self-confidence. Another 35% (6 students) showed some progress. Examples of self-confident behaviors included sharing their own thoughts and feelings in the group, trying something new, active participation in group activities, speaking positively of themselves, or leading an activity.
All of these results indicate that Sparks’ students are enjoying and benefitting from music therapy. The results also show that some skills can take a while to develop. Ongoing music therapy is vitally important for these kids to develop these skills to cope with their traumas and move forward in life, and is made possible through your generous support of Sparks!
