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(Unit 2) Topic 7: Music and Movement

2 Clock Hours of Early Childhood Education

Music Experiences for Young Children

​Topic 7 Page 3

Music can be defined as “an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner” (Merriam-Webster, 1993). ​

​To further explain the concept of music, let’s take a look at some specific examples.

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​Example: Let’s pretend that you are currently working with several children in an infant/toddler classroom. As you watch the children, you make the following observations:

• Cassie, a three month old, watches the face of your assistant as she sings while changing Cassie’s diaper.
• Rob, an eight month old, shakes a rattle.
• Starla, an eleven month old, watches Preston, a fifteen month old, as he sways side to side and bobs up and down to recorded music. 

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In each case the child mentioned is learning through the exploration of music.
Let’s take a look at each case individually.

Cassie:  watching and listening to singing 
​As Cassie watches and listens to the assistant singing, she is beginning to sort out musical sounds from other sounds (Feierabend, 1996).

Rob:  shaking a rattle
​As Rob shakes the rattle, he is becoming aware of different sounds the rattle can make. He is also becoming aware that he is causing the rattle to make that sound as he shakes it (Jalongo & Isenberg, 1997).

Starla:  watching another child dance 
​As Starla listens to the recorded music and watches another child dance, she is beginning to understand that music can make a person want to move. Eventually, she may want to move herself (Feierabend, 1996).

Preston:  dancing to music 
As Preston moves and dances to recorded music, he is learning simple musical concepts, such as rhythm, pitch, and melody. He is understanding that music creates an atmosphere of fun (Feierabend, 1996).

As you can see from the examples above, a wide variety of common activities help children develop musical awareness. In addition, children of different ages will display varying degrees of development in relation to music (Feierabend, 1996).

(Unit 2) Topic 7: Music and Movement * Navigation Menu