AIRS Annual Report Year 1 Sub-Theme 3.3: Singing and Health

Submitted by Dr. Jennifer Nicol (April 1, 2009 – March 31, 2010)

Team Members

Stephen M. Clift, Rena Sharon, Gottfried Schlaug, Mary L. Gick,
Janice Richman-Eisenstat, Ian R. M. Cross, Bradley Vines, Chris M.
Blanchard, Laurel Young, Kay Kleinerman, Jennifer A. Nicol.

  1. Nicol & Clift with assistance from Cross and other
    colleagues of Clift, worked on systematic review of the
    literature on group singing, wellbeing and health benefits;
    manuscript submitted April 2010 for a special issue of the
    online journal of UNESCO, with guest editor, Larry O’Farrell,
    UNESCO Chair in Arts and Learning.

  2. Nicol & Clift collaborating in area of singing and COPD
    research

  3. Anticipated future visits – Nicol to England, Clift to Canada
    (University of Saskatchewan)

  4. Sharon arranged for AIRS presentation as part of VISI,
    speakers Frank Russo & Darryl Edwards

  5. Gick involved in AIRS administration – policy and planning
    committee; steering committee (Theme 3.3 representative);
    wrote a review paper on singing and health entitled, “Singing,
    health and well-being: A health psychologist’s review” and
    submitted it to Psychomusicology for special issue on singing.
    Revision of paper is under review.

  6. Young promoting AIRS at Annual conference of the Canadian
    Association for Music Therapy, May 2010 in Halifax, NS; doing
    occasional singing and health workshop at Wellspring, a cancer
    support centre (see http://www.wellspring.ca/) and her
    workshop model is being used to start another program
    facilitated by another music therapist at a different
    Wellspring centre in Ontario.

  7. Kleinerman & Cohen completed data gathering for Later
    Life Singing study; anticipated involvement of student(s) in
    data analysis stage.

  8. Nigel Brown progresses on establishing first Canadian pilot
    of UK Sing for your Life in the Okanagan, BC. A silver Song
    Club is forming in Kelowna with anticipated Fall 2010 start
    date.

Student Involvement

  1. Jean Emmerson, PhD Candidate, University of Saskatchewan;
    action research study on implementation of singing program
    with teen mothers and their infants.

  2. Marieke Blom, MEd Canadidate, University of Saskatchewan;
    Thesis is evaluating impact of a group singing intervention on
    attachment between infants and their mothers who are involved
    with the Saskatoon Maternal Mental Health Program.

  3. Marya Stonehouse, MEd Candidate, University of Saskatchewan,
    research assistant for grounded theory study of group singing
    as a health practice for choir members.

  4. Katie McCaw, BA student in psychology, University of
    Saskatchewan, anticipated RA involvement from Sept 2010 on
    grounded theory project described above.

  5. Carina Daugherty, MA in psychology at Carleton University
    will complete her honours thesis 2010/11.

  6. Sally Busch joined AIRS student network and will begin
    preliminary work on her MA thesis; expected date of completion
    is Summer 2012.

  7. 3 PhD students at the Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts
    and Health working on singing research (psycho-physiology of
    singing, developing Silver Song Clubs in Rome and singing,
    facial mobility and Parkinson's disease) who are keen to be
    involved in the AIRS network.

Presentations

  1. Nicol, J.J. & Lalonde, G. (2010, June). Singing,
    Resiliency and Identity: Three Adolescent Francophone Girls’
    Stories of Singing. Pathways to Resilience II: The Social
    Ecology of Resilience, Halifax, Canada.

  2. Nicol, J.J. (2010, May). Music Therapy and the AIRS Project.
    Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Music
    Therapy, Halifax, Canada.

  3. Cohen, A.J., Gick, M.L., & Sullivan, J. (2010, May).
    Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS):
    Developmental perspectives. Poster presented at Development
    2010: A Canadian Conference on Developmental Psychology,
    Ottawa, ON.

Suggestions

  1. Laurel Young asked for AIRS presence at CAMT 2011 Winnipeg
    conference – Jennifer planning to attend and will take
    responsibility for organizing panel, symposium, poster(s) or
    whatever is possible and most suitable.

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