Musical Milestones in Children
Posted on Sat, Feb 19, 2011
There are all sorts of developmental milestones for children, but should we expect in terms of musical abilities? Hearing is actually the first sense to be fully functional in utero, so children sometimes respond to the sounds of music even before being born.
Infants should simply be exposed to music--lots of different types of music. Did you know that by 12 months, infants' babbling sounds has the distinct characteristics of their native language? With this in mind, it's improtant to expose infants to different genres of music. If a child never hears Asian music until they're 5 or 6, for example, that music will always sound "weird" to them.
Infants also benefit from rhythmic activities that incorporate steady beats. These steady beats help the infant's central nervous system organize itself. And these types of activities can be used to either calm or energize, depending on the song and the tempo.
As toddlers, children will begin to be able to produce a steady beat. They may not be able to match an external beat (clapping along to a song in time), but they should be able to create their own sense of timing. It is unusal for a child this age to be able to sing in tune. This ability doesn't begin to emerge until age 3 or 4. That's why preschoolers have a habit of singing all the time--they're practicing this newly-found skill.
And as children enter elementary school, they can begin playing with different rhythmic patterns (think Zippity-doo-da, Zippity-ay). Melodic lines are still best kept simple at this age, but children this age can start engaging in ensemble experiences. A group of children can be divided in half, for example, with one half playing 1 rhythm and the other half playing a different rhythm. It will still be challenging for them to try to sing different melodic lines at the same time, but you can have 2 groups alternating melodies. In other words, they now have the ability to NOT sing while someone else is singing.
- posted by Amy Shinohara, Director of Hearts & Minds Music