MUSPRO – music and sports

This project explores the potential benefits from music and physical education in children’s development of social and emotional skills.

Table of contents

Project duration
-
Core fields of research
Languages, culture and society
Learning, teaching and interaction
Physical activity, health and wellbeing
Research areas
Mind, body and emotions
Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies - Research areas
Childhood and family
Education, teaching and interventions
Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences - Research areas
Department
Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies
Co-operation
University of Helsinki
Faculty
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Funding
Research Council of Finland
This study is part of the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body & Brain (2022−2029).

Project description

This project explores the potential benefits from music and physical education in children’s development of social and emotional skills.

The study is carried out in the daycare centres of the city of Jyväskylä (Finland) between the fall 2023 and the summer 2025, and is part of the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body & Brain (2022−2029).

UPDATE JUNE 2025: The interventions and data collection of the project has now been finalized. We are extremely grateful for all the participating children, families and early childhood centers for making this project possible. 

We aim to make our findings publicly available and as accessible as possible. We will update this website as the analysis and results progress! Meanwhile you can also check below for a more detailed description of the interventions developed as part of this project. 

If you have any questions of feedback, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the research team! 

How does this study look in practice?

As part of the project, there are weekly music and physical activity sessions organised across selected ECEC centres in the city of Jyväskylä. Depending on the ECEC centre, children will either participate in these (music or physical activity) or continue with their typical early education programme.

  • Participating children were all born in 2019
  • Music and Physical Activity lessons are arranged once a week (45min) during the two school years in the selected daycare centres, delivered by a professional educator 
  • The daycare staff are also invited to participate in the music and physical activity sessions
  • No prior knowledge of musical or physical skills is needed
  • No special equipment or clothing is needed
  • All sessions including data collection, take place in children's daycare centres during their school schedule
  • Research measurements of children are collected three times during the two years in the daycare centres by the researchers. Caregivers and the daycare staff are also invited to fill in brief reports 

UPDATE JUNE 2025: You can find some more information about the lessons (and even a couple of examples of lesson plans) in the documents below! 

Contact information

If you have any questions about the study or would like to receive some more information, please get in touch at:

Link to privacy notice:

The MUSPRO research group

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List of members from University of Jyväskylä:

Meant for internal cross-referencing.

Project members

Petri Toiviainen

Professor

Suvi Saarikallio

Professor

Arja Sääkslahti

Professor

Emily Clements

Senior Lecturer
Margarida Macedo Baltazar

Margarida Macedo Baltazar

Postdoctoral Researcher
Alicia Lucendo Noriega

Alicia Lucendo Noriega

Doctoral Researcher
Joshua Silberstein-Bamford

Joshua Silberstein-Bamford

Senior Lecturer (absent)
Andrew Danso Adu

Andrew Danso Adu

Postdoctoral Researcher
Matias Hämäläinen

Matias Hämäläinen

Technical Assistant
Rita Mustonen

Rita Mustonen

Research Assistant

Research groups

Research group

Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain

The Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain studies music as a multimodal human experience and as a versatile engine of change, throughout the life span and in health and disease.