reflecting on the concept: "musical behaviors of young children"

1 MERYC2011 GLUSCHANKOF

Reflecting on the concept: "musical behaviors of young

children"

Claudia Gluschankof Paper presented at the European Network Music Educators and Researchers of Young

Children MERYC Conference, Helsinki Metropolia University, Helsinki, Finland, 8-11 June 2011 .

Introduction

Music and young children have been studied extensively, from a variety of

research paradigms. Qualitative studies, using observation tools, offer us a

clear idea of how children behave musically, mainly in Western educational

settings. Considering that the oldest study of this kind―Moorhead & Pond

(1942/1978) ―was published almost 70 years ago, it could be supposed that

practice is based on research evidence. Such evidence lies at the core of the

early childhood music education courses I teach, both for undergraduate and

graduate students, all of them early childhood practitioners. Since

observation and analysis of video recordings is a central tool in the course, in

recent years, in the very first class session I have been asking my

students―studying for the B.Ed. and M.Ed. in early childhood education

(ECE) ―to write a description of a musical behavior demonstrated by a child

that they had observed during the preceding month. The aim of those

descriptions is to give me an insight on my students' awareness of young

children and music. As I read the descriptions, all written anonymously, I

realized that they were often quite different from those described in the

research literature on educational settings. Consequently, I decided to study

these descriptions in a systematic way to understand my students'

perceptions and constructions of young children's musical behaviors, prior to

their formal encounter with research based courses.

Literature review

Young children's musical behaviors have been studied through the actual

observation of children by researchers, but can also be studied as social

constructions as inferred from adults’ verbal accounts in carefully designed

questionnaires.

Musical behavior as an observable complex phenomenon

"Children's engagement in music frequently is paid minimal attention by

teachers and parents, even when it may be the rich repository of children's


intimate thoughts and sentiments" (Campbell, 1998, p.5). However, some

researchers have chosen to study their observable behaviors.

The observable music behavior of young children has been studied within

qualitative research paradigms or positivistic studies, using qualitative

research tools, in four different environments: formal educational (inside the

classroom), informal educational (schoolyard and other out-of-classroom

spaces), the home, and public places.

Musical behaviors in formal educational environments, i.e. in the classroom,

during free play time were the first to be studied, being Moorhead & Pond's

(1942/1978); the first published focused only on this. This work is not only the

first in this type of tradition, but a seminal one coining new basic concepts,

such as chant, i.e. a rhythmic, small-range song, repetitive, sung in group,

usually loudly (Moorhead & Pond, 1941/1978), and pioneering research on

children's spontaneous music making with instruments, as first reported in

Moorhead, Sandvik, & Wight (1951/1978). Their studies emphasize that

movement is inherent to children's musical expression.

Within this line of research, it is possible to differentiate those in which the

researcher or teacher has carefully designed the educational environment to

encourage musical behaviors (e.g. Cohen, 1980; Delalande, 2009;

Gluschankof, 2005a; Mialaret, 1997; Young, 1995), from those in which

observations were done in "natural" environments, i.e. environment not

purposively designed or provided with the research in mind (e.g. Littleton,

1991). In both cases, children explore systematically, and play in a variety of

ways not only music instruments, but also all sort of artifacts, involving most of

their senses, and exhibiting a variety of play behaviors.

Vocal expressions are present everywhere in preschool, since they are not

attached to any artifact. Children not only sing songs learned from their

teachers, from the media (i.e. model song), but they also create their own.

Two main types of invented vocal expressions have already been suggested

by Moorhead & Pond (1941/1978) in the USA: chant and the solo, free-

flowing, introvert type of singing. Fifty years later these same types were

identified by Bjǿrkvold (1989/1992) in Norway and Sundin (1998) in Sweden.

From the 1990's on, exterior spaces in educational settings, what can be

called "informal" spaces, have been revealed as a rich field in which to study

young children's musical behaviors. Their musical expressions are mainly

vocalizations (own invented tunes, chants, and rhymes), and "rhythmicking" in

their play with artifacts (Campbell, 1998). Older children’s musical play takes

the form of singing games, characterized by some type of social interaction,

and challenging kinesthetically, cognitively and linguistically. Ideas are taken

from the environment; they emulate them and improvise variants, developing

an idiosyncratic style (Marsh, 2008).


Different types of musical behaviors are present in the home, depending on

the age of the children, the parents' background and beliefs, among other

factors. Among babies and toddlers, much of the musical behaviors, as

reported and video-recorded by parents in studies focusing on the musical

experiences of young children at home (Addessi, 2008; Barrett, 2009), are

interwoven in family routines, such as bath time, meals, diaper changing and

tucking into bed. These are accompanied by some sort of vocal music,

especially parents singing to children and vocal dialogues between parent and

child. Older children play with their voices, spontaneously singing and

chanting in a variety of situations (Burton, 2002; Forrester, 2010). Dancing

and moving to recorded music, sometimes while playing small percussion

instruments, sometimes alone, sometimes responding to adults' initiatives, are

identifiable musical behaviors (Barrett, 2009; Young, 2005). Recorded music

whose source is TVs, DVDs, CDs and computers are only some of the

digitized surroundings of children everywhere. For very young children this

also includes sounding electronic toys, and older ones, especially girls, use

karaoke devices (Lum, 2009; Young, 2007).

Musical behaviors of young children in public spaces have been studied only

by Custodero, Chen, Lin, & Lee (2006). They gathered their data during nine

hours’ observation of spontaneous music making in family-friendly public

spaces (malls, parks, museums) in Taipei. Their findings show that the most

observable behaviors was movement, mostly combined with singing and

chanting, sometimes in response to external sound sources.

Researchers identify as musical a very wide range of behaviors including the

use of voice, tools (musical or others), movement; engaging with others,

responding to external sources, self-motivated; already composed music and

self-created; happening in almost any place: educational, home, and public.

Musical behavior as a social construction

Musical behavior as a social construction can be inferred from a variety of

studies, some based on verbal accounts provided by musicians, non-

musicians, teachers, students, and parents in especially designed

questionnaires; others deducted from written documents such as early

childhood education curricula and media.

Within this type of studies, we find Hallam's (2010), conducted among adults

and children, ranging from those actively involved in music to others with no

involvement whatsoever. Results suggest that primarily a sense of rhythm

―but also expressing and communicating thoughts and feelings through

sounds―is conceived as the basis for musical ability. These results have their

parallels in the constructions of music among education students: music

means mainly communication, emotion and structure (Addessi, Cardoso de

Araujo, Valls, & Gluschankof, 2010). In a related study, Addessi & Carugati

(2010) hypothesised, based on their findings, that two main prototypes of the


musical child are implicitly expressed by university students. Those prototypes

are based on a correlation between the construction of the musical child and

the construction of music. The able child, who posseses greater musical

ability―i.e. understands and can produce rhythm, remembers and reproduces

a melody―correlates with music as structure; while music as communication

correlates with the idea that all children are naturally musical.

In educational settings, singing in a variety of ways (e.g., along with a CD

player, adult-directed, with or without movement) is the most reported musical

behavior within the USA, followed by moving mainly to the lyrics of songs

written especially for children, then playing instruments in teacher-directed

activities such as accompanying singing or a recording. Creating their own

music or responding freely to instrumental music were the least often reported

(Custodero, Nardo, Fox, & Persellin, 2006). In Israel, listening in a variety of

ways (e.g. adult-designed movement to recorded instrumental music or

recorded songs, freely moving to recorded music – instrumental or vocal,

joining with singing or small percussion instrument playing) is the most

popular musical activity, followed by singing, and rarely the free use of

instruments (Gluschankof & Shahar, 2004; Levin, 2009). The implicit views of

musical behaviors in both cases are that children are not considered

creatorsand that their own musical expressions are less legitimate than the

ones created by adults. Children are being introduced to the adult world of

music.

Method

At the beginning of early childhood music education courses, 97 written

descriptions of actual musical behaviors of young children were collected.

Nineteen were from ECE M.Ed. students, 31 from third-year undergraduates

in an ECE B.Ed. program, and 47 from first-year ECE undergraduates. All the

descriptions were analyzed, and openly coded. Fifty-three descriptions

including at least three information details (age, setting, behavior) were further

analyzed and categorized in an iterative, progressive, recursive and

holographic process (Seidel, 1998), looking for emerging and implicit

constructions.

Findings

A week ago my five-and- a-half year-old niece and I were riding in the

car, and she offered to sing me a song. She sang a song (with which I

was not acquainted) that she had learned in kindergarten. From time

to time she stopped to remember a specific word. It was clear that she

much enjoyed it, because when she finished singing that song she

offered to sing me another one. (M.Ed. student).

Descriptions, such as this one, contain much information such as age,

gender, the type of relationship between the student and the child (in this


case, a relative), the setting (in this case, a private space within a public

space), the situation (in this case, a car ride), the type of musical behavior

(singing composed songs), the music repertoire (kindergarten singing

repertoire), and the conveyed mood. It is clear from the description who

initiated the behavior.

Other descriptions are more general regarding the specific situation: "in

kindergarten, during free-play time, children turn on the CD player by

themselves and interact with instruments. (M.Ed. student), or just a vague

description of an action: "a five-year-old hums a known song" (M.Ed. student).

The coding and analysis of the descriptions including at least three

information details (age, setting, behavior) yielded two main categories,

regarding the setting in which the behavior was observed: family or

educational. In both settings, behaviors were either initiated by the adults or

by the child herself. Within educational settings, musical behaviors were

described in a variety of instances, as shown in Diagram No.1, while in family

settings, only seldom were specific instances described, those being watching

a TV program, or a DVD, before sleeping, or during a car ride.

Diagram No.1: Instances of musical behaviors in educational settings

The described musical behaviors included how the music was produced by

the child (voice, an object, or both), or what was the child’s response to an

external musical source (live or recorded). Some behaviors included

producing and responding at the same time: "At my place, my nephew dances

to the sound of Carmen, sings the aria and moves to the beat, as a result of

his exposure to the opera" (B.Ed., 3rd year student).

Educational setting

adult-initiated

music lesson

whole class gathering

celebrations

child-initiated

free play

indoors: designed areas

outdoors: schoolyard

whole class gathering

undefined situations


Vocal production

Singing known songs, alone, with others, along with a recorded version, self-

or adult-initiated (S.I.; A.I.), was the most popular musical behavior (26 out of

53), either in family or educational setting, as shown in Diagram No.2.

Diagram No.2: Types of singing episodes and their frequency

Some descriptions note the level of proficiency demonstrated: "At preschool, a

young boy in the toddlers’ group, sings accurately, sings all the words, the

rhythm and the tune are the right ones, he goes up and down ]in singing,

C.G.] with the sounds." (B.Ed. 1st year student). One describes the way

children improvise on a known song: "Children get songs' illustrations props

(e.g., [drawings] of citrus fruits for a song [on that topic] by D. Ben-Dor), they

sing and invent when they do not remember [the words of the song, C.G.])"

(M.Ed. student). Others relate to the affective aspect of singing: "I saw a girl

who sings in kindergarten. She sang and danced in front of the entire group.

She smiled a lot and it was easy to see that she loves it." (B.Ed. 3rd year

student). Humming is also described as singing.

Only three instances of improvising or singing invented songs were described,

all of them in educational setting: "During free time a girl sat beading,

humming to herself a repetitive rhythm; at the end of each phrase she strung

a bead." (B.Ed. 3rd year student).

Responding to an external music source

Responding through movements and gestures, sometimes joining in singing,

was a type of behavior mostly reported by first-year students who during the

first month of their first term spend one day per week observing in one

preschool class. Third-year undergraduates and M.Ed. students rarely

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

S.I.: solo S.I.: group

A.I.: solo A.I.: with others

S.I.: singing along a

recording

A.I.: singing along

Family

Free play indoors (educational setting)

Free play outdoors (educational setting)

Class gathering


described this type of behavior, other than those who described their own

young children’s behavior:

My son is 14 months old, and during the last month each time that he

heard the opening theme of the morning TV program for toddlers, even

if he is close to the TV set he crawls quickly because he knows the

sounds, he sits down and smiles.

The external sources include live singing by a relative: "My nephew is

approximately two years old, and my brother sang to him a specific song (very

energetic), my nephew swayed his shoulders and danced, and he made the

whole family laugh" (B.Ed. 1st year student); live playing by the music teacher

during the music lesson, and much recorded music, emanating from the TV

set, CD player and even the cell phone:

My niece is 3 years and 10 months old. Once I babysat for her in my

home, and we played together with dolls and she said to me: ‘Let's play

that the dolls dance.’ I turned on some music from my cell phone; we

took the dolls and made them dance. (B.Ed. 1st year student).

Movements included small gestures, learned actions to specific songs, and

freely moving in the room:

It happened while I was observing in preschool. The children were

watching a TV program, 'Yaniv hamagniv'; in that program there are

songs and [actors] are dressed in costumes. The children sat, and

while watching one of them got up, held out a hand to another child,

and they start dancing in a circle; the movements they made amazed

me, and we started to pay attention to them, and started clapping to

them, which encouraged their dancing. (B.Ed. 1st year student).

Producing sounds with artifacts

Only five descriptions of children producing their own music with formal or

informal music instruments were rendered. Interestingly enough, those of the

first-year undergraduates described playing with "real" instruments, at home:

I visited my aunt and uncle who live up north, and my cousin, who is

six years old, started singing songs from the 'Festigal'show1, while she

dances. Afterwards she sat close to me and played 'Little Jonathan2' for

me on her recorder.

1 The annual Chanukah-season musical variety show featuring stars of children’s TV and pop

musicians.

2 The Hebrew version of "Hänschen klein".


Graduate students described musical play with a variety of artifacts during

free play periods in a preschool: "Children gathered pans in the yard and they

would stroke on them with spoons or pan against pan."


Conclusions

Singing is the most popular behavior that ECE students described, especially

reproducing songs. This finding reflects what preschool teachers report as the

most widespread music making in their own classrooms (Custodero, Nardo,

Fox, & Persellin, 2006; Gluschankof & Shahar, 2004; Levin, 2009). Although

solitary singing was described, only few instances of improvised singing were

reported, a type that researchers found as very typical among young children

(Bjǿrkvold, 1989/1992; Burton, 2002; Forrester, 2010; Moorhead & Pond,

1941/1978). Israeli classrooms are very noisy, should this be the reason that

children’s singing goes unheard? Gluschankof (2005b) records numerous

instances in which a single child "…sings to herself, her singing is so soft that

it is almost inaudible in the video recording; her singing is inferred, if not

guessed, from the movements of her lips." (idem, p.211). Young (2006)

suggests that children are seen but not heard in early childhood settings when

they are involved in improvised solitary singing, because adults are looking for

the 'performance model', i.e. composed songs, taught by adults to children,

consequently diverting the attention from anything that does not sound like

that. Following this, it is not only that teachers and student observers are so

busy at their tasks, they are unlikely or unable to notice this type of singing,

but also that they are not cognizant that this type of behavior is typical of

young children, or they do not consider improvised singing as a worthy

activity, because they are hold an adult-performance-model view.

Responding through movement and gestures to live and recorded music is

another type of described behavior, but only by those students who spend

time observing children, and are not yet required to lead activities or conduct

the preschool. All other undergraduate and graduate students seem to be

unaware of such behaviors or find them unremarkable. Movement was found

by researchers as inherent to any musical expression of young children

(Moorhead, Sandvik, & Wight , 1951/1978) but it seems that only parents

(Barrett, 2009; Young, 2005), or freshmen identify it. It seems that relatives of

young children, and freshmen―attached affectively to young children while

not yet in charge of their teaching―consider all children naturally musical and

expressing themselves through music, while student-teachers and graduates,

who by their role are responsible for teaching children, are aware of or

interested in those behaviors that are easily measured and assessed. These

views parallel the prototypes hypothesized by Addessi & Carugati (2010): the

"natural musical child" and "the able child".

The free use of instruments and other tools, as part of young children's self-

initiated play, seems still to be seen and heard only by researchers and a few


graduate students. This may again be related to the performance model, and

to the view of music held by students and teachers.

This study should be considered a pilot one. The descriptions of actual

recollections of young children’s musical behaviors proved to enclose sets of

values and views of the child and music. This kind of description can be used

in studies already conducted on the influence on college students of music

education courses on the social representation of music and the musical child

(Addessi, Cardoso de Araujo, Valls, & Gluschankof, 2010), but also in studies

of preschool and music teachers, as well as of parents. Taking advantage of

technology, it would be interesting also to study video-clips featuring what

those recording―whether students, teachers or parents―consider as

essentially constituting young children’s musical behaviors.

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reflecting on the concept: "musical behaviors of young children"

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