PRESCHOOL MUSIC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH ON THE MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: 1900 TO 1980

The purpose of this study was to trace the historical developments leading to preschool music education and to review and synthesize research investigating the musical development of preschool children. The trends in preschool music education and research paralleled trends in early childhood education and the child study movement. Trends relating preschool music education during the progressive education era to the science of education movement, the child-centered school, and social reconstructionism were surveyed. Beginning in the late 1960s and 70s, a resurgence of interest in early childhood education and preschool music grew out of two factors: the realization of the importance of early development and the growing number of working mothers. Preschool music curricula were surveyed with respect to methods and materials, curriculum guidelines, and specific philosophical and methodological approaches.;The modes of child response used in these studies were discussed and classified. The discussion included spontaneous, child-initiated musical behavior and prepared situation/child initiated situations as the first category and the adult catalyst/child initiated situation and specific adult initiated tasks as the second category. A synthesis of results was presented with respect to vocal range, rhythmic development, pitch development, song development, and tonal maturation.;The author found several gaps evident in research in preschool music. Research on rhythmic development suggests a hierarchy of rhythmic growth but the sequences have not yet been fully researched. The place of chant in song development has not been focused on since the longitudinal Pillsbury study. Such a study in a current context would add greatly to our knowledge of song development. A large research gap is evident in the category of preschool tonal maturation, a factor of preschool development often overlooked because researchers place adult standards of Western tonality on children's performance.;A compendium of fifty-one studies of preschool musical development which appeared between 1900 and 1980, dealt with the musical development of three- and four-year-old children, and reported data on music-related variables observed in children was presented. The bulk of the studies were conducted in the 1930s and in the 1970s.