Young children’s experiences of music and soundings in museum spaces: Lessons, trends and turns from the literature

Abstract

This article considers the value and role of early years music and sound activities in museum spaces – in relation to children themselves, as well as to their families and wider communities. The article reviews literature around early years music and sound activities; early childhood and the museum; and the use of music and sound in museum spaces – reflecting on reconceptualisation’s of the child within museum spaces and in relation to music and sound. In particular, the article highlights gaps in the literature that present an opportunity to explore the role of music and sound with young children (and particularly with so-called ‘hard-to-reach’ communities or families) within museums.

‘Like, I’m playing, but with this’. Materialization and affect in early childhood literacy

“…From this new materialist view, Hackett and Somerville (2017) explore the possibilities of reimagining literacy as sound and movement, described as ‘world-forming practices’ (Hackett and Somerville, 2017: 376). However, the integration of sound and movement within literacy research poses a challenge in the sense that, as pointed by Elwick et al (2020), they have been traditionally left aside. As Gallagher et al (2018) claim, ‘children’s literacy emerges from the unfolding vibrational relations between breath, mouth shapes, vocal cords, ears, cognition, memory, sign systems, objects, materials in the environment, embodied sonic affects, and so on’ (Gallagher et al, 2018: 480).…”