Music as a Hand-Washing Educational Tool, Now and Then

Danial Kheirikhah, a cleanly actor, shows, in this video how to wash one’s hands with the aid of a recording of a symphony orchestra:

An Earlier Experiment with Kids

A related—but not identical—technique has previously been shown to have some degree of merit for children.

For details about that, see the study “The Effects of Music as a Cue in Maintaining Handwashing in Preschool Children,” Shirley A. Kramer, Journal of Music Therapy, vol. 15, no. 3, Fall 1978, pp. 136–144.

Kramer, at the University of Kansas, reports: “Twenty-one preschool children were first taught to wash their hands as a 10­-step procedure. They received 10 training sessions in which they washed their hands with the aid of the “Hand­washing Song.” … The music-alone condition did not prove to be effective as a maintenance procedure. A complete training song, however, can be as effective as verbal reminders in maintenance.”