The Acquisition of the Pitch Element of Music Literacy Skills by 3-4-year-old Pre-school Children: A Comparison of Two Methods

Abstract

This study compared the acquisition of the pitch component of music literacy skills between three groups of pre-school children aged 3-4 years. The Control Group received no tuition at all, while the two teaching groups received 20 tenminute teaching sessions. The children in the StimEquiv Group were taught using a method based on stimulus equivalence whilst those in the Context Group were taught using a method based on spatial and contextual information processing. The children in both teaching groups learned up to five notes and were able to play simple, unlearned melodies made up of these notes 3-5 days after the end of the teaching period (post-test). Preto post-test gains in the accuracy of the playing of these melodies were significant (p < 0.001) for both groups. There was no significant difference found between the preand post-test scores of the Control Group. The children in the teaching groups were given a further test seven weeks after completion of the sessions. There was no significant difference for either group between post-test and re-test indicating that learning had occurred. As they had not been exposed to the intervention, the re-test (a measure of learming) was not given to the Control Group.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Andress, B. (1986). Toward an integrated developmental theory for early childhood. Bulletin of the Councilfor Research in Music Education, 86, 10-17.

Blades, M. and Spencer, C. (1990). The development of 3-6-year-olds' map-using ability: the relative importance of landmarks and map alignment. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 151, 181-194.

Blades, M. and Spencer, C. (1986). Map use by young children. Geography, 71, 47-52.

Bluestein, N. and Acredolo, L. (1979). Developmental changes in map-reading skills. Child Development, 50, 691-697.

Capodilupo, A. (1991). A neo-structural analysis of children's response to structure in the sight-reading of music notation. In: R. Case (Ed.), The mind's staircase: Exploring the conceptual under-pinnings of children's thought, pp. 99-115. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Collins, A. (1985a). Some whys, hows, and whats of pre-school piano. American Music Teacher, 34, 13-14.

Collins, A. (1985b). Of course 4-year-olds can read music. Clavier, 24, 20-22.

Hicks, C. E. (1980). Sound before sight: strategies for teaching music reading. Music Educators Journal, 66, 53-55, 65-65 and 67-67.

Hughes, M. (1986). Children and Number, pp. 64-66 and 141-151. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

10.

Joyce, B. G. (1989). Stimulus equivalence: An approach for teaching beginning reading skills to young children. Education and Treatment of Children, 12, 109-122.

11.

Joyce, B. G. and Joyce, J. H. (1993). Using stimulus equivalence procedures to teach relationships between English and Spanish words. Education and Treatment of Children, 16, 48-65.

12.

Lavine, L. O. , (1977). Differentiation of letter-like forms in pre-reading children. Developmental Psychology, 13, 89-94.

13.

Lipkens, R. , Hayes, S. C. and Hayes, L. J. (1993). Longitudinal study of the development of derived relations in an infant. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 56, 201-239.

14.

Michel, P. (1973). The optimum development of musical abilities in the first years of life. Psychology of Music, 1, 14-20.

15.

Ottosson, T. (1987). Map-reading and wayfinding. Goteborg Studies in Educational Sciences, 65.

16.

Presson, C. (1982). The development of map-reading skills. Child Development, 53, 196-199.

17.

Sloboda, J. A. (1976). The effect of item position on the likelihood of identification by inference in prose reading and music reading. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 30, 228-238.

18.

Sloboda, J. A. (1978). The psychology of music reading. Psychology of Music, 6, 3-20.

19.

Saunders, R. R. , Saunders, K. J. and Spradlin, J. E. (1990). Long-term stability of equivalence relations in the absence of training or practice. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 95, 297-303.