Musical interventionsfor the sustainableintegration andcultural participationof refugee children and adolescents(MINUTE; funding period: 11/2016 to 01/2020)

Previous studies have shown cognitive transfer effects through music learning, particularly with regard to improved auditory processing, for example in children with little previous musical experience. In addition, artistic and communal experiences while making music favour the psychosocial and emotional development of young people, particularly with regard to stress processing mechanisms. The MINUTE project is designed to examine these diverse potentials in practice by means of randomised, controlled longitudinal studies in the target groups of refugee children and adolescents in cooperation with public and private providers of music education. The Oldenburg sub-project focuses on children of primary school age who are at the beginning of their schooling. The Frankfurt sub-project is dedicated to adolescent refugees travelling alone who are permanently housed in Frankfurt and who are at the beginning of their integration process. It is expected that musical interventions will have a positive influence on the development of cognitive skills, particularly language-related skills, as well as the psychosocial integration of the participants in the target groups. The joint project is therefore the first to investigate the effects of musical interventions on the activation of individual creative potential and resources in refugees in a model way.

This project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, funding reference 01JK163A)

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Music education, child cognition and affect (MEKKA; funding period: 02/2009 to 01/2012)

The already completed sub-project was dedicated to the topic: "Influences of music learning on aspects of cognitive performance in third and fourth grade primary school children" within a joint project with the Goethe University Frankfurt. The scientific utilisation led to a series of specialist publications and book contributions.