Welcome to Unit 6

Making Music Together with Infants and Toddlers

Getting to know you…

What was your favorite song to sing to your children or was song to you as an infant?

My dad sang “Rain Drops” by BJ Thomas

Listen up…

Overview• Every known culture has songs for infants,

and singing to infants appears to be a part of everyday caretaking activities (Trehub & Trainor, 1998).

• Just as children learn about their world through play, they learn about music when presented a rich, musical environment for playing (Levinowitz, 1998).

• Parents, caregivers, and teachers are essential.

In this unit…

• Sharing music and playful, musical experiences with infants and toddlers not only nurtures music development but builds nurturing relationships, teaches children about their culture, and supports all other aspects of the child’s development.

• In this unit, we will explore the developmental benefits infants and toddlers gain from music play, how to appropriately implement these experiences in early childhood setting, and include parents in the process.

After completing this unit, you should be able to:

Examine the developmental skills related to music development in infants and toddlers

Discuss ways parents and caregivers can support infant/toddler music development

Plan and implement developmentally appropriate process-oriented music activities for infants and toddlers

Seminar DiscussionHow do infants and toddlers invite, seek, and initiate musical interactions

with parents, caregivers , and objects in their environment? How is infant-directed speech involved? What can early childhood educators do to become musical mentors?

Explain ways young children seek musical challenges? What rewards do children gain from these experiences?

 Research shows that infants are born musical. How is this demonstrated

and how does the development of musicality progress according to each stage of infant development?

 Discuss the relationship between music and language development in

the first year of life. How does music support emergent literacy skills? 

Music and Development

0-9 months:Babies are able to recognize familiar melodies long before they

understand the meanings of words.In a kind of musical “conversation,” babies imitate the sounds of their

parents through their own cooing and vocalizations. They wait for their turn cvand respond during pauses in the “dialogue.”

Babies often respond to singing and talking by waving their arms, kicking their feet, and smiling. These are babies’ early and very significant communications about their thoughts (“Daddy, I love this. Don’t stop”) and feelings (“I’m so happy, Mommy. I love being with you”).

Babies catch on quickly, picking up the patterns of movement that accompany songs and dances.

(zerotothree.org)

Music and Development

9-18 months: As soon as they’re able, children start to move to the beat.

Making music together—sing-a-longs, for instance—is a fun way for children of this age to connect to each other, and to learn about the patterns and sequences of music and language in general.

Children love to fill in the blanks of familiar songs:“Mary Had a Little _____!”

They love to explore all the ways they can make sounds with their own voices and with objects. This a great way for them to feel confident that they can make things happen.

(zerotothree.org)

Music and Development

18-36 months: Music builds memory skills, as when a child learns to repeat the words of

a song.Toddlers love to dance with each other, which reinforces both

movement and socialization.Toddlers also dance with dolls and stuffed animals, imitating the kind of

involvement they have with their own caregivers.Young children often make up songs to accompany their activities.Toddlers are quick to associate specific songs with specific activities and

images. (For example, singing, “Goodbye Miss Tanya, we will miss you so…” when picking a child up from her sitter). This ability to associate songs with activities means children are making a big learning leap. Now they better understand how things are connected and can use music themselves as a way to deal with transitions. (zerotothree.org)

Bonding Through Music0-9 months:• Very soon after birth, a baby can pick out his mother’s voice from other voices and then, just a little bit later, his father’s voice, too. Looking forward to hearing his parents’ voices is a sign of his connection to and trust in them.• Babies actively search out the sound of human voices, especially when they are quieter, high-pitched, and rhythmic.• Babies attract their parents’ attention by imitating their sounds.• Babies respond to music in many ways, such as by making eye contact when you sing, moving their arms and legs, or turning their heads away when they need a break.

(zerotothree.org)

What You Can Do

Sing or hum Move to musicDance along side or with the childAct out songs with your hands and fingers Use special lullabies at bedtimePlay some musical objectsUse musical videos only when at home

Music – Creativity Connection 0 – 9 Months:

Babies wiggle, kick and stretch to the sounds they hear.Babies enjoy using things to make sounds, such as banging objects together.Babies may babble in response to your singing and what they hear on the radio or TV.

9 – 18 Months: Music builds creative skills. When a child forgets the lyrics, he usually just makes up his

own. His lyrics may be an improvement, or, at the very least, a sign of creativity!Children are becoming much more mobile and can dance in new, inventive ways.Young children sing as they play, using their voices to accompany their activities. They will

create and imitate musical patterns, such as “doo da, doo da.”

18 – 36 monthsFor many toddlers, life is a musical. They will turn anything into song.Older toddlers often come together in free play with instruments to form a kind of band.

This signals the development of important social skills as children work together and build friendships.

Toddlers will experiment with making up their own songs, and connecting them to songs they have already learned. Such as, “I love playing with my dog, E—I—E—I—O.”

Music Supports Development

Social-emotional skills: learn and practice self-regulation; understand emotions; cooperate and build relationships; experience self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy; share and take turns; develop cultural awareness.

Physical (motor) skills: gross motor development; fine motor development, balance, body awareness, bilateral coordination and crossing the midline.

Thinking (cognitive) skills: counting; patterns and sequencing; steady beat; memory; discrimination or observation of differences; pretend play and symbolic thinking.

o Spoken languageo Practice logical thinking and reasoning skillso Dual language learningo Receptive languageo Phonemic awareness – most songs include

rhyming or substituting one phoneme for another

Music, Language, and Literacy

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. 

Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents." 

~ Ludwig van Beethoven ~