Music in the Lives of Young Children

An Annotated Anthology of Research Papers from Early Child Development and Care

Warren Brodsky, Wilfried Gruhn, Warren Brodsky, Wilfried Gruhn

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000327083
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Bildung
• Thema: Bildung Allgemein

This annotated anthology documents historical trends and basic findings regarding music in early childhood education, development, and care.

The papers in this volume discuss the main research trends of musical engagement with early children, such as music in the family, employing music in child care, and musical skill and development. This collection hopes to stimulate further reflections on the implementation of music in daily practice. The volume represents many facets of research from different cultural contexts and reflects trends and projects of music in early childhood. The findings incorporate a historical perspective with regards to different topics and approaches.

The book provides practitioners and researchers of music education, music development, and music psychology, an opportunity to read a selection of articles that were previously published in the journal Early Child Development and Care. Each paper concludes with an annotation note supplied by the principle author addressing how they see their article from the perspective of today.

Part I
Caregiving – Parenting

1
On musical parenting of young children: Musical beliefs and behaviors of mothers and infants

Beatriz S. Ilari

Introduction

In the literature there are several historical passages and anecdotes related to the uses of music in early childhood caretaking contexts; in several cultures and across time (for some examples refer to DeLoache & Gottlieb, 2000). Uses of music with infants and young children date far back in history and have been documented in the Holy Bible, in the writings of several Greek philosophers and in scholarly papers on the Puritan of New England, the Tamil of India, the Venda people of South Africa and Afghani families, among others (for a discussion and some examples see Ilari, 2002a; Ilari & Majlis, 2002).

Singing appears to be the primary musical activity of parents and very young children (Custodero et al., 2002, 2003). Lullabies and playsongs are normally cited as the primary styles that are employed with infants and toddlers (Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995). Lullabies, which are usually slow in tempo and expressive, generally serve the purpose of soothing infants and sending them to sleep (Chen-Hafteck, 1997). Contrastingly, playsongs, which are characterized as being faster in tempo and having a wider pitch range than lullabies, serve the purpose of arousing and entertaining the child (Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995). It is argued that both lullabies and playsongs are important in the communication of affect between caretakers and infants (Rock et al., 1999), and that the latter exhibit different behaviors when listening to these contrasting musical styles. As an example, when listening to lullabies infants tend to focus their attention to themselves and vocalize more than when listening to playsongs (Rock et al., 1999). In addition to communication purposes, lullabies and playsongs are also powerful in the regulation of infants’ states as well as in the modulation of their behaviors (Rock et al., 1999). This might explain why parents and caretakers across the world often choose song styles according to moodstates, behavior and activity of their infants.

Parental uses of music with children are also largely influenced by other factors such as the child’s presence or absence (Trainor, 1996; Trehub et al., 1993, 1997b; O’Neill et al., 2001). The presence of the infant seems to elicit a particular way of singing, often known as infant-directed speech. This singing mode is usually characterized by a high pitch-level, slow tempo and an expressive singing quality (Trehub et al., 1997b). The different contexts in which these songs are being used (Rock et al., 1999), infant gender (Trehub et al., 1997a), parental education (Custodero et al., 2003), and parental role (Trehub et al., 1997b) are also likely to influence parents and caretakers’ singing modes.

The act of singing to an infant, per se, is of an expressive nature and carries emotional messages (see Trehub et al., 1997b; DeNora, 2000; Street, 2003). Several theories (see Dissanayake, 2000; Trevarthen & Malloch, 2002) have been formulated attempting to explain the emotional communication conveyed by means of musical interactions; that is, music making and sharing in infant–parent dyads. Based on the idea that parents use both musical speech and song as a means to elicit children’s affect, Trevarthen and Malloch (2002) developed a theory called communicative musicality, which defines the primary forms of artistic creation and expression to all temporary art forms, and also explains the fascination that musical patterns exert in young babies. According to Trevarthen and Malloch, communicative musicality is an innate organization principle to all those movements involved in healthy interactions between parents and infants. Dissanayake (2000) adds that interactions of a musical nature in infant–mother dyads are very powerful in what concerns the regulation of emotions of both children and adults, and may promote conjoinment and bonding. Her suggestion is somewhat in synchrony with recent experimental findings suggesting that maternal singing reduces stress in infants by lowering cortisol levels on their saliva (Shenfield et al., 2003), and that musical interactions with infants and young children are related to parental mental states (Gratier, 1999; Custodero et al., 2003). Thus, uses of music in everyday life of infants and their parents seem to be far more complex and powerful than previously thought.

Notwithstanding, only a few studies have investigated parental uses of music with infants in naturalistic settings. Trehub et al. (1997b) used diaries to investigate singing behaviors of parents (i.e. mothers and fathers), and found significant differences in singing frequency and choice of songs. Mothers in their study reported a higher singing frequency than did fathers. In addition, mothers sang simpler, more stereotyped, child-directed songs while fathers sang more complex songs, often invented and not necessarily child-oriented. Nonetheless, both mothers and fathers showed a similar expressiveness to their singing when the infant was present. Custodero et al. (2000) surveyed the musical behaviors of 1067 parents of babies aged between four and six months. Through telephone interviews, they found parental previous musical experiences to be highly associated to later musical activities with infants. However, there was no consensus as to the repertoire used by parents and infants. In a subsequent study, Custodero et al. (2003) examined the musical behaviors of 2017 American parents and their infants. Their results indicated that circa 60% of surveyed parents engaged in musical activities with their young children, and that mothers were more likely than fathers to sing for their little ones. In addition, the study found musical activities to occur more frequently with infants than toddlers, and first-born rather than latter-born children. Likewise, Street (2003) used questionnaires to investigate maternal attitudes towards singing to babies and also found music to be an impressive means of communication in mother–infant dyads. Taken together, these findings confirm the important role that music plays in the interaction between infants and their parents or caretakers.

Despite the growing interest for early musical abilities (see; Jusczyk & Krumhansl, 1993; Trainor, 1996; Ilari, 2002b; Ilari & Polka, in press), the benefits of musical experiences for both normal and at-risk infants as demonstrated by current research (for example, Standley, 1999), and the considerable amount of musical resources currently available for very young children (Ilari & Johnson-Green, 2002), little is known about the current state of musical practices in the everyday life of many infants and their parents/caretakers. Examples from current research somehow illustrate dubious scenarios, in which many questions regarding the uses of music with infants emerge. As an example, in several studies, when parents and caretakers were asked to sing an infant-directed song that they commonly sang to their infants, they sang a play-song more often than a lullaby (for some examples see Trehub et al., 1994; Trehub et al., 1997b). Why did that occur? Perhaps, as Papoušek (1996) suggested, changes in lifestyles imposed by modern life including the over-use of background music may have influenced parental behaviors and reduced their musical activities with infants. Further studies are still needed to investigate the current musical practices of parents with infants and young children. Findings from such studies are of interest to music educators, therapists, parents/caretakers and psychologists alike as they have clear implications for both educational and clinical practices in early childhood.

The aim of this study was to examine the current status of musical activities in the everyday life of Canadian infants as described by their mothers and caretakers. It also investigated maternal beliefs on appropriate music for infants and young children.

Method

Sample

Mothers and caretakers of infants aged between 7 and 9 months, who were participating in a study on musical development (see Ilari & Polka, in press), were recruited at a child development research laboratory in Montreal, Canada. The option to have mothers and not fathers compose the final sample was due to the fact that mothers are still, even in our current times, the primary caretakers of their babies. This is especially true for the first few months of life when many working women undergo maternity leave Women who agreed to participate signed consent forms and were interviewed by one of three female researchers. The final sample (n = 100) included 65 primipari and 35 multipari women ranging from 19 to 44 years of age (mean age 32 years). The sample was composed of second-generation Canadian women (n = 50), and immigrant women from the five continents of the world (n = 50). Approximately one-half of the sample (n = 48) had some musical training ranging from 2 months to 11 years (mean = 2 years), although only 30% reported having previous ensemble experiences. Amateur or professional musicians were present in the family of 40 participants. No woman in the study defined herself as a professional musician; 60 women were professionals and workers of varied fields (e.g. secretaries, ...