Toddler Rock serves more than 300 children each week to improve their socialization, literacy and language skills through the use of popular music.
Since 1999, the Rock Hall has partnered with the Beck Center for the Arts and Head Start to serve Cleveland's underserved three to five year olds. Toddler Rock has grown from serving 10 kids each week to now more than 300. Dr. Deforia Lane, a nationally known music therapist, leads an additional eight music therapists who spend an hour with the toddlers every Tuesday and Thursday before the Rock Hall opens (except for a summer break period).
Using Standardized Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) as a pretesting assessment tool, recent research indicates:
- 63% improvement in picture recognition
- 50% improvement in alliteration
- 43% improvement in rhyme
In addition, the Toddler Rock program has also been recognized by the following:
- Semifinalist for Coming Up Taller, nominated by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
- Distinguished as one of the top 50 arts-humanities-based programs in the country serving youth beyond the school hours.
- Ohio Museums Association’s Institutional Excellence Award
- NBC’s the Today Show
