The Importance of Music in the Development of the Child

Introduction

Music is a way to recognize. According to Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner (1983) music intelligence is the same importance by the logic¹ (mathematical intelligence, linguistic intelligence) with intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence.

Even television helps children to learn about music, in fact, although they don't want to watch television, many children have found a series of cartoons Disney called "Little Einsteins" and in which four children between 4 and 6 years ( of different ethnicities) joined with a great love for music.

In each episode the four children decided for a mission aboard a spaceship named Rocket music, discovering a world of classical music, art and natural beauty, experiencing unforgettable experience every time.

By adding a simple text - which follows the adventure of the day - to the music of classic songs, the same parts become attractive and easy to learn from children who find themselves singing to the house, without realizing it.

We help then, dear mothers and fathers, our children turn to music, maybe just to teach those old songs or to repeat what they have learned in kindergarten, so that we spend with our children our leisure time, nice and different.

By Thomas Armstrong (1994. 5) "Intelligence is galvanized² by participation in certain types of occupations culturally important and what characterizes the growth of the individual through such activities follows a certain pattern of development, meet and experience a period of growth and very important development during early childhood. "

Making music is an important skill base as walking or folur. Peery and Peery (1987) suggest that it is desirable for children to be exposed to music, being associated with the experience and education. This is a fundamental right for all people to be able to sing in tune and go with the pace³ (and Levinowitz Guilmartin, 1989, 1992, 1996). To ensure a complete experience of learning music should be brought in early childhood.

In practice, the idea that learning music is just a frill, is objectively unsustainable.

The importance of music education for the development of musicality in early childhood years has been widely studied since World War II.

Studies Pillsbury (1937 - 1958) (Moorhead and Pond, 1977), have taken a first look at the pre-school children's musical life and informed us about the nature of their spontaneous musical behavior. Their typical musical performace provides a window through which the music psychologists and educators are able to understand the sequence of development of musical abilities of children.

In general, we learned that children from birth to the age of about six years did not express music as adults. Early childhood - a period of rapid change and development - is the most critical period in the development of musical child and has been identified in the literature as phase "stuttering music"⁴ (babble music) (Moog 1976, Gordon, 1988) or The main musical development (Levinowitz and Guilmartin, 1989, 1992, 1996).

Besides small child absorbs music and discriminate differences between frequencies, melody, and pulses⁵ (Bridger, 1961; Trehub et al, 1990; Standley and Madsen, 1990; ZENTNER and Kagan, 1996).

The years from birth to six years of learning are critical for decoding the images that come from listening to music and to develop mental representations to organize music in the culture of reference (Holahan, 1987, Davidson, 1985). This process is similar to what unfolds to speak during "babble language. "

The body of knowledge gained so far through research supports the idea that, as language development, children develop musicality them through a sequence of predictable, to obtaining a basic musical competent, which includes singing tone and then the pace ⁶ (Levinowitz and Guilmartin, 1989, 1992, 1996).

Let's consider this analogy; satellite television, visual images are available for each channel; However, to see them you need a decoder to decode the signal. During primary musical development, children create a "box" or mental representation to decipher the music sound images.

Thinking is important, because it is necessary for all kinds of musical thought. Without experience, can not be developed any musical growth.

Early childhood is the time when children learn things about their environment mainly through the magical process of the game. The essence of the game for very young children is generally formed by surrounding objects and experiences to which they were exposed

Edwin Gordon⁷ has identified early childhood as a period of evolution in music (1988). In recent years, position or musical potential, which is based on the complex structure of thought is in the process flow. For this reason, the child's musical attitude is susceptible to positive or negative impacts occurring through education or through the context.

Like all children are born with the ability to learn to speak and understand their native language, all children are born with the potential to learn how to make music and to understand their culture.

When a child has developed the ability to mentally represent typical music of his culture (audiation), this will allow him to be more accurate in expressing themselves musically.

Research conducted by Geringer (1983) and Apfelsradt (1984) suggests that there is no correlation necessarily between internal understanding of music culture and the ability to accurately execute them.

The ability of a correct execution of the musical phrase can be attributed to two factors.

The first is audiation (acquisition and image processing sound). Next is the technical knowledge "means" singing and movement (Weikart, 1987; Bertaux, 1989)⁸.

Therefore, in addition to developing a mental representation or music audiation, early childhood years are also essential for the development of physical skills of singing and rhythmic movement.

Babies can imitate and experiment with their vocal instruments: they are able to play notes mostly in early childhood. The singing of intent can begin when the child is about twelve months. At this time, adults can recognize fragments of songs to which young people are exposed.

By this and through constant exposure to live singing, playing loud, children can develop their use of vocal skills during the remaining years of early childhood. If the environment has supported the development of their speaking, most children enter kindergarten when they already had a good hand of their vocal abilities. Unfortunately, a recent study (Levinowitz et al. 1998) showed a decrease in the ability of students to use these skills during the last two decades.

Modern research shows that two traditions of many cultures have shown a deep bond between rhythm and movement. Study of rhythm can be thought of as the study of all aspects of the music flow through time. We experience the pace as the course of our movement through space.

From the perspective of development, children need to experience the rhythm in their bodies before they can think (audiation). Early childhood years are crucial for using the body as a musical instrument, to react differently to different types of music.

Parents, teachers and others can do much to ensure the necessary stimulation through music experiences to cultivate musical abilities⁹ of children. In fact, the importance of relational environmental factors in the development of musicality is supported by case studies undertaken by Kelley and Sutton-Smith (1987).

They studied three girls from their birth up to two years, the increase in households with three very different musical backgrounds. Some parents, professional musicians, a professional group but not another musical direction, and the third group without musical orientation - and therefore less oriented musical elements in their educational practices. Differences between family was not musical and directed by two other families were surprising because two little girls who have experienced the rich musical environments were significantly more advanced.

Similarly, it seems that this philosophy can actually be put into practice in music education for young children. Establishing partnerships between adults who care for young children and understand the specific processes of early childhood learning will contribute significantly to the overall growth and development of children.

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