Adult Identification of Meaningful and Intentional Music Behaviors Demonstrated by Young Children

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate how adults identify music behaviors of young children in play-based early childhood settings. The research questions were (1) Are there statistically significant effects of training, parental status, or direction condition on the number of individual musical acts identified by adults? (2) How does response latency vary based on training, parental status, and direction condition? (3) Of the music acts identified by the subjects, what types of music acts are identified as consensus acts (those identified by 75% of subjects or more within any three-second window)? and, (4) How do consensus acts differ with regard to type, frequency, and difficulty? Seventy-two adults (24 child development teachers, 24 early childhood music teachers, and 24 musicians) participated in the study. Of the 24 subjects in each group, half were parents, and half were nonparents. Subjects were randomly assigned equally to two direction conditions: Meaningful Direction Condition and Intentional Direction Condition. Subjects watched video of young children (five to fifteen months old) and adults interacting musically in a play-based early childhood setting. Subjects in the Meaningful Direction Condition pressed the space bar on a computer when they thought any child in the video demonstrated a meaningfully musical behavior; subjects in the Intentional Direction Condition pressed the space bar when they thought any child in the video demonstrated an intentionally musical behavior. When each subject pressed the space bar, a computer program recorded time stamp data. Subjects in the Early Childhood Music Teacher (ECMT) group identified significantly more music behaviors than subjects in the Child Development Teacher (CDT) group and the Musician group. There were no significant differences in the total number of music behaviors identified according to parental status or direction condition. Subjects in the ECMT group agreed statistically significantly more often than adults in the CDT group and the Musician group that behaviors demonstrated by children in the video were music behaviors. Adults in the Parent group agreed statistically significantly more often than adults in the Nonparent group that behaviors demonstrated by children in the video were music behaviors. When adults identify consensus acts, young children's music behaviors contain common features: beat-related movements and vocalizations. Adults in the ECMT group agreed significantly more often than adults in the CDT group and the Musician group that vocalizations demonstrated by young children were music behaviors. Adult ability to identify music behaviors as measured in this study is dependent upon musical training and experience, but not solely. Specialized early childhood music pedagogy may help adults identify behaviors (especially vocalizations) demonstrated by young children as music.