Music early learning programs: Enduring outcomes for children and their families

Abstract

Music early learning programs (MELPs) that provide music services to parents and carers of children aged birth through 8 years are proliferating. Parents make significant financial and social investments in MELPs, yet little is known of their motivations and aspirations nor of the enduring outcomes of participation. This article reports the findings of an interview study with 10 parents, 1 grandparent, and 8 child former participants in a MELP program in regional Australia that investigated perceptions of MELP participation. Findings indicate that parents come from a range of musical backgrounds. Reasons and aspirations for MELP enrolment encompass developing both parents’ and children’s musical skills, providing social benefits for parent and child, exposure to musical experience, value-adding to their child’s education and expanding the family social circle. Enduring outcomes include developed music knowledge and skills, future investments, physical and emotional development, and new patterns of learning that are potentially transferable. Findings suggest that children arrive at formal schooling with a rich repertoire of music, a capacity to engage in embodied musical experience, and a set of expectations concerning their participation in music. Such knowledge holds implications for the ways in which music learning might be structured within the early childhood classroom.

The Influence of Parent–Child Relationships on Musical Activity in the Family: Findings from a Longitudinal Panel Study

“…In line with previous work we argue that families play crucial roles in fostering musical development by engaging in music and arts activities (Barrett & Welch, 2021). Such engagement can also pay off when music is used as an adjuvant strategy in family therapy to enhance psychological well-being, for example, when members are affected by chronic illness (e.g., Ray & Mittelman, 2020; Thompson, Mcferran, et al, 2014).…”

Singing and Social Identity in Young Children

“…This reported global commonality of singing is also evidenced in analyses of music in infant care settings from longitudinal cohort data of 10,000 children in Australia (“Growing Up in Australia”—Williams et al, 2015 ), and 19,000 children in the UK (the “Millenium Cohort Study”—Moulton, personal communication). These cohort analyses confirm reports from other studies that singing and other musical activities are often an integral feature of pre-school children's lives, both at home and in their local communities, such as reported in Australia (Barrett and Welch, 2021 ), Turkey (Türkoglu et al, 2020 ) and in the Chinese diaspora in London (Wu and Welch, 2022 ).…”

“…Vocal music is also brought into the home from the wider culture through various electronic media, such as television, tablets, smart phones and children's toys (Young and Wu, 2019 ). Additionally, infants will experience face-to-face singing outside the home, such as when visiting local “mums and toddlers” groups, or in community-based “music early learning programmes” [MELPS] (e.g., Shehan-Campbell, 2010 ; Barrett et al, 2019 ; Barrett and Welch, 2021 ; Pitt and Welch, 2022 ).…”

Reflections on the concept of musical development

“…Additionally, with regard to age, Davies noted that her data analyses suggested that young children at pre-school level, despite their age, were able to demonstrate 'an implicit understanding of music's structural relationships and a sense of form ' (1992: 382). This particular finding is echoed in recent example case study evidence from Australia which reports that young children 'are likely to arrive at formal schooling [already] with a rich repertoire of music, [and] a capacity to engage in embodied musical experience' (Barrett & Welch, 2021: 1239.…”