Music Intervention Pilot Study: Assessing Teaching Methods of Group Marimba Classes Designed to Train Spatial Skills of Older Adults with Changes in Cognition.

Spatial skills decline in older adults, particularly those with cognitive challenges, leaving them less confident to navigate their environment. Spatial training has been shown to help with this decline and engaging in music has benefitted the spatial skills of musicians. A paucity of research explores ways that music could serve as spatial training for older adults. This study explored music classes as spatial training for older adults in three ways: 1) Success rates staying spatially oriented on the instrument. 2.) Ability to read written music. 3.) Outcomes on a spatial orientation test taken pre- and post-intervention. We developed and tested a six-week marimba class that targeted spatial training principles for older adults with predementia or early dementia. We assessed the spatial skills with the Orientation Test from the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills pre- and post-intervention. Their scores increased an average of 0.71, a clinically meaningful change (d = 0.3). Participants also demonstrated high frequencies of remaining oriented on the instrument, and more participants self-selected to read music without notes (p < 0.01) over the course of the intervention. With future research, music-based training may be one way to support spatial skills during cognitive decline.