Music programs may contribute to children's musical and behavioral development. This study investigated the development of musical skills and behaviors associated with executive functioning among students in one urban elementary school, across one academic year of participation in an intensive after-school music program. This study provides evidence that music programs may be particularly well-suited to helping children develop executive functioning skills important to success in school and life. This type of evidence may support the existence of music programs, particularly those that serve underprivileged children.The first research question asked to what extent children participating in a music program demonstrate musical development as indicated by measures of developmental music aptitude and performance. Music program participants demonstrated significant growth across the year in tonal developmental music aptitude. The music program seemed to have a greater effect on students' tonal music aptitude than their rhythmic music aptitude, but rhythmic music aptitude scores were high at both time-points. There is also evidence that students' tonal and rhythmic performance skills increased across the year. The second research question asked how music instruction activities differ in the extent to which they provide opportunities for children to practice behaviors associated with executive functioning (shifting, inhibition, updating and attention) and in students' rates of active vs. passive engagement and off-task behavior. Many music activities afford and constrain the use of attention, inhibition, updating and shifting, and provide frequent feedback to students and teachers. Musical tasks differed in levels of executive functioning affordances and constraints. Overall the music activities observed in this study were associated with high levels of student engagement, particularly active engagement, and low levels of off-task behavior. These levels differed significantly by activity. Further analyses revealed some relationships between executive functioning affordances and constraints and students' levels of engagement and off-task behavior. When students are actively engaged in music class, they are more likely to be practicing the important skills of attending, inhibiting, updating and shifting. Good music instruction can teach us about ways to engage students with any kind of instructional material. The third research asked to what extent students participating in a music program demonstrate, over time, improved behaviors associated with executive functioning in the general education classroom compared to students not participating in a music program. Music students' behaviors associated with executive functioning, as rated by classroom teachers, did not improve relative to control students. In fact, music students showed increasing difficulties in the areas of inhibition and shifting. This study did not find evidence of the executive functioning skills practiced in the music program generalizing or transferring to the general education setting. Sensitivity of behavior to environmental context, teacher bias and the short timeframe may also have contributed to lack of support for the hypothesis.The fourth research question asked, for students participating in a music program, whether musical development correlates with development of executive-functioning-related behaviors in the general education classroom. Overall, data trended toward supporting the hypothesis that music and executive functioning skills develop together. More research is needed to better understand the extent to which the relationship between expert musicians and high executive functioning skills is due to a reciprocal developmental process or selection.
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