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Colwyn Trevarthen is Professor (Emeritus) of Child Psychology
and Psychobiology in the Department of Psychology at the University
of Edinburgh, where he has taught since 1971. His professional
generosity, enthusiasm and scholarship have been recognised
internationally. In Bosnia Herzegovina, Trevarthen collaborated
in founding a centre for music therapy. His findings are widely
quoted around the world.
For the past 30 years, Professor Trevarthen's research with
infants and toddlers has focused on communication. He studied
the rhythms and expressions of children's play and fantasy,
and how musical games, songs, stories and acts of discourse
with real or imaginary companions support the development
of skills during infancy and the pre-school years.
As a consequence, he became interested in the interpersonal
foundations of language and meaning, and on developmental
problems such as autism that affect communication and thinking.
With musician and acoustic expert Stephen Malloch, and others,
he developed a theory of 'communicative musicality'.
Professor Trevarthen insists that observation is the main
key to our understanding and, through this type of research
technique, he has gathered information about infants' expressive
skills and the adoption of nonverbal therapies, especially
music therapy.
Building on work concerning parent-baby interactions and
'motherese' (the sing-song speech pattern used by mothers)
and analysing adults' speech to young children, he has revealed
similar rhythms and tone in teachers' expression, which he
calls 'teacherese'. He has demonstrated its importance to
'collaborative learning' and to children's confidence in expressing
their understanding.
(By Professor Tricia David, Nursery World,
16.06.05)
We all know that babies and toddlers
make a lot of noise. They may cry and scream to draw attention
to themselves, and they also gurgle, babble and laugh and
give us a great deal of pleasure when they try to imitate
the words and language we use. They also enjoy banging objects
together and throwing toys around as they play. May early
years practitioners try to discourage young children from
being noisy. However, this may limit their curiosity and inhibit
their learning. Knowledge of the Birth To Three Matters framework
will help practitioners encourage babies and toddlers to develop
positive attitudes and skills through investigating the nature
of materials and testing the power of their own voices.
To become competent learners, children
should be exploring the environment and be supported sensitively
by adults to name objects and materials. They also need to
be able to make connections, by understanding the sequence
of events that their actions have caused. To develop self-assurance
and confidence, children need to engage in creative experiences
that challenge them to make choices and use imaginative skills.
Practitioners can help children learn to listen for the sounds
that different materials make and present them with music
and musical instruments that stimulate physical movement.
A happy baby is a busy baby. Finding
enjoyment in making noise is one of the most exciting early
experiences that babies and toddlers have. And one of the
most important aspects of this enjoyment comes from sharing
the excitment with other children and adults.
Bells and chimes
In the first few months, babies show interest in all sorts
of noises. However, their hearing is geared in particular
to listen for more high-frequency sounds, such as the modulated
and high-pitched voice of their mothers' speech. To stimulate
their experience of similarly high-pitched noises, make available
bells and wind chimes.
- Attach small bells to a mobile to encourage babies to
stretch, reach and hit with their hands or feet. They will
begin to learn that they are responsible for making the
bells ring.
- Hang wind chimes from a low tree branch so that they can
watch them knock and tinkle as they lie in a cot or on a
blanket on the grass below.
- Attach bells to your ankle or wrist so that babies can
hear you approaching. They will learn to listen out for
you as you move around the room and greet you with pleasure
as you reach them.
- Give babies toys and rattles that have bells inside or
attached to them.
Sign and clap
Children learn about language and communication long before
they begin to speak, so it is essential that practitioners
provide an enviroment that is rich in language and sound.
Signing and clapping, methods of communication that all babies
and toddlers instinctively enjoy, are two ways of supporting
early language development. Clapping is an excellent physical
activity for babies and one that is always accompanied by
big smiles of contentment and excitement. Adults, too, feel
an immediate sense of achievement when babies respond with
enthusiasm and close attention.
- Sing a welcome to babies and toddlers when they arrive
and leave the nursery.
- Sing along to daily routines such as setting the table
or walking to the park.
- Make up songs introducing characters and names that babies
and toddlers recognise and which are likely to make them
giggle.
- Sing traditional nursery rhymes that support the acquisition
of a rich vocabulary.
- Encourage young children to clap along to songs, copying
you so that they learn to clap to the beat of the rhythm.
- Clap to praise children's achievements and encourage them
to clap each other's success.
- Try clapping with different parts of your body, such as
clapping your feet together, clapping hands on your head,
your forearms, your legs, your cheeks and your bottom. These
physical movements will enchant children as well as challenge
them to stretch and balance.
- Clap on other surfaces such as the floor and objects around
you.
Rattle and bang
Once babies can sit without support, they will enjoy examining
objects and learning what they can do with them. Older babies
and toddlers also love investigating objects and playing with
them. Treasure baskets are excellent vehicles to extend knowledge
of objects. You can stock treasure baskets with contents to
suit the developing needs and interests of these children.
Use baskets in particular to encourage them to pick up objects,
rattle and bang them together and listen to the sounds they
can make.
- A basketful of household equipment such as pans, lids,
mixing bowls and wooden spoons make excellent play tools
to explore making nosie. Let children bang lids together
like cymbals and tap with the spoons on the sides of the
pans.
- Use recycled plastic drink bottles to create rattles and
shakers. Fill them with beads, gravel, rice, dry pulses
or pasta.
- Make a collection of objects that ring and jangle, such
as anklet bells, cowbells, tambourines, and balls with bells
inside.
- Hang low washing lines outdoors between or against fences
so that children can explore making noise in the open air.
Attach pan lids, triangles, tambourines or coconut shells
to the line, and give children drum beaters and wooden spoons
with which to create their own effects.
Listen and dance
Babies and toddlers gain knowledge of all sorts of music if
it is offered to them regularly, and practitioners should
ensure that the variety of music reflects the diversity of
cultures in our society.
- Play games that encourage toddlers to dance, such as musical
statues, musical bumps and musical chairs. Never mind if
they ignore the rules of the game - two-year-old children
just love to take part.
- Listen to peaceful classical music when you want to create
a relaxed atmosphere, and to vibrant classical music to
encourage children to march around the room or garden.
- Ask members of staff or parents who play instruments to
perform for the children. Listening to live music will have
a real impact on concentration and behaviour, and children
will be entranced by the experience.
- Use contemporary mood music to inspire dancing and encourage
children to move rhythmically while waving chiffon scarves
in each hand.
- Play lively music to inspire action and commitment at
tidy-up time.
- Play follow-my-leader games in which children each carry
a musical instrument and parade around the nursery and garden.
- Give children musical instruments to play accompaniments
to nursery rhymes and songs.
- Make collections of natural objects that can be used as
musical instruments, such as large African seed-pods, coconut
shells and gourds filled with dried seeds.
Adults can help children learn that music is not just background
entertainment. Music should be appreciated for the mood it
creates and the experiences, feelings and sensations that
it promotes. Early efforts to make noise will create the idea
that children are budding musicans and that it is good for
them to practise new skills of listening to and playing instruments.
(Written by Lena Engel for Nursery
World, 2 June 2005)
As well as classical CDs and DVDs for very young children,
this week sees the launch of a programme of concerts for babies
- including those in utero.
Does playing classical music to babies make a difference?
Opinion is divided; but many experts think that it may stimulate
the brain in a way that helps educational and emotional development.
It's known as the Mozart Effect, a theory which is credited
with boosting IQ, improving health, strengthening family ties
and even producing the occasional child prodigy.
Numerous studies conclude that playing music to babies in
the womb and in the early years helps build the neural bridges
along which thoughts and information travel. And research
suggests it can stimulate the brain's alpha waves, creating
a feeling of calm; a recent study of premature infants found
that they were soothed by the music.
In Florida, all state-funded pre-schools are required to
play classical music by law, and many US hospitals give classical
CDs to new mums. In the UK, many parents have also embraced
the theory, with Classic FM's Music for Babies CD enjoying
several weeks at the top of the classical charts earlier this
year.
Baby proms
And this week Sound Beginnings, a series of concerts aimed
at the very young, begins in Hampshire. It's the brainchild
of Peter and Juliet Kindersley, who founded the Dorling Kindersley
publishing empire. Both are strong believers in the power
of classical music.
"Just as it's vitally important to eat good-quality food
right from the start, so we are deeply affected by the music
we hear from a very early age, even in the womb," Peter Kindersley
says. Sound Beginnings - and a planned 'baby prom' next year
- came about as babies and toddlers are rarely welcome in
concert halls. Professor Paul Robertson, a leading expert
in the field, says it's important the best music is made available
to babies at the earliest possible stage of their growth.
There is compelling scientific evidence that the music we
hear at the earliest ages significantly affects the way neurological
pathways are laid down during development."
Chill out
Beanbags will be provided to make the setting more relaxed
and the pieces - including compositions by Mozart, Schumann
and Ravel - have been selected to benefit the wellbeing of
babies, toddlers and parents. It has also been geared towards
pregnant women, as a foetus responds to sound from about 24
weeks and learns familiar noises it will recognise after birth,
such as music its parents have listened to repeatedly.
Violinist Paul Robertson, the presenter of Channel 4's Music
and the Mind, and the acclaimed Russian concert pianist Mikhail
Kazakevich will present the concerts, the first of which will
be held at the Newbury Spring Festival in Hampshire on Thursday.
Sound Beginnings will then travel to the London Symphony Orchestra's
St Luke's venue next month and tour the country later in the
year. A symposia, bringing together the latest scientific
research into the effects of music on development and wellbeing,
is also planned for June.
(Denise Winterman, BBC News Magazine,
19.05.05)
Babies are very, and innately, musical. Research has found
that they are highly perceptive listeners and quickly absorb
an understanding of how music from their culture sounds. And
research has shown that babies absorb music even before they
are born.
Adults instinctively 'converse' with babies using a kind
of baby 'dialect', a sing-song style known as 'parentese'
with short, repetitive phrases and long pauses for the baby
to respond. And the baby responds with eye contact, movements
and facial expressions.
To describe this 'dialect' as musical is a good way to explain
its characteristics of rhythm, timing and rising and falling
pitch. Indeed, if you strip music down to bare basics, these
are its main elements. That the qualities for relating well
to babies and toddlers should also be the basis of music surely
makes sense - fundamentally music is a means for bringing
people together.
Relating well to babies by interacting in well-tuned and
well-timed ways is important to their all-round development
and well-being. We know, for example, that mothers who are
depressed or having difficulty relating to their babies can
be helped if encouraged to sing and play musical games with
their children. The singing somehow provides a framework to
support how they interact with their baby.
Starting points
See and value what parents and carers are already doing musically
with their babies and move on from there. Take the example
of Jo, a key-worker who takes eight-month-old Sam from his
mother and holds him on her hip while his mother gets ready
to leave. Sam stiffens and fusses a little and so Jo rocks
gently side to side and quietly hums a phrase over and over
to him. Sam calms, looks up at her face and Jo talks reassuringly
to him.
Such a little incident is over in a moment, yet here is singing
and movement to calm, reassure and distract woven into the
ordinary, everyday fabric of looking after babies sensitively.
Most carers do these small things intuitively. Developing
music with babies and toddlers isn't about providing elaborate
equipment, or leading singing circle times in complex ways
or bringing in outside musicians to give special sessions,
but about developing and building on these small-scale, ordinary
moments. So what might everyday music look like?
Everyday music
The following singing and rhythmic movements are the easiest
and most appropriate musical activities to develop with babies
who are up to 18 months old.
- Lullabies - lulling a baby to sleep or soothing
a fretful toddler with singing is an age-old part of childcare
in all cultures. What song is sung matters less than how
it is sung - gently, slowly, quietly, often with a line
or two repeated over and over and with rocking or stroking
movements. Carers have told us that they feel the singing
is good for them too - looking after babies is demanding,
and a relaxing 'time-out' to sit quietly and sing can have
benefits for both carer and baby.
- One-to-one songs - in contrast to lullabies, playsongs
entertain and delight and are more appropriate for older
babies and toddlers. They are sung and played on laps -
and often include actions such as tweaking, tickling, knee-joggling
and surprise dips and spills. They are rich mini-dramas,
full of excitement, anticipation, language, drama and rhythmic
movement. And they require no equipment except an adult
who is ready to play and a firm knee.
- Songs for outdoor play - songs go well with outdoor
play - either made-up songs or songs for circle-games and
more active movement games.
- Songs as part of care routines - songs can usefully
support regular task and routines - such as washing hands,
changing clothes and mealtime routines. Perhaps in a setting,
Maureen knows that 14-month-old Ben finds it stressful having
his nappy changed - and that he likes football - so she
sings a football song she knows he enjoys to entertain and
relax him.
- Songs to have fun, create pleasure and closeness
- singing to create a relaxed atmosphere, a strong sense
of the group and to bring everyone together is usually an
important reason for including singing in circle times,
but this can spill over into everyday activity. As an example,
it is free-play time. Sophie enjoys a song about going out
to play which Maureen often sings to her - and she likes
to sit and bounce on a soft cushion as Maureen sings for
her. Today Maureen links in Sophie's name, her own and Sophie's
family members into the song words.
Song-rich environment
Most of us pick up songs to use from one another, or incorporate
pop songs or old childhood songs we remember. But if your
song collection is getting a bit tired or is limited, refresh
it, perhaps by:
- collecting a repertoire of songs from staff members
- inviting parents to contribute songs
- researching and collecting songs from the local community
- making up new songs from things the children say or sing
- or converting known songs into versions for this setting
- inviting someone with expertise to suggest and teach some
new songs
- learning new children's songs from commercial CDs
(Taken from "Hit the right note"
by Dr Susan Young, Nursery World, 25.09.03)
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