Infant Music Development and Music Experiences: A Literature Review

Abstract

Each infant is born with music potential, and early exposure to music and social music interactions may positively affect music development. Researchers have found that infants perceive music, attend to music, respond to music, and engage in social music interactions. Caregivers may enhance their music practices by deepening their infant music development understanding. This literature review includes information about infant development, music perception and preference, music responses, and music-making with caregivers. With the intention of providing insights and practical suggestions that may inform interactions between infants and caregivers (such as parents, guardians, and music educators), the purpose of this literature review was to synthesize research on the topic of infant music development and music experiences. Recommendations for caregivers and music educators are discussed.

Keywords

early childhood music education infant-caregiver music interaction infant music development infant music experiences music perception music preference music responses

Across cultures, researchers have documented the ways caregivers use music to soothe, play with, and bond with infants (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2008; Gerry, Unrau, & Trainor, 2012; Ilari, 2005; Koops, 2014; Valerio, Reynolds, Grego, Yap, & McNair, 2011). Parents sing lullabies to soothe colicky newborns. Grandparents playfully bounce infants on their laps while chanting rhymes from their childhood. Preschool teachers make gentle eye contact with their young charges and sing. Even before birth, expectant mothers may rhythmically rock back and forth and hum to their in utero fetuses.

Many caregivers engage in music experiences with infants in diverse ways and for various purposes. Caregivers have used music to soothe infants, to ritualize everyday tasks, to play with infants, and to bond with infants (Corbeil, Trehub, & Peretz, 2016; Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2008; Ilari, 2005, 2016; Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995; Valerio & Reynolds, 2009). Researchers have found that the more infants gain exposure to frequent and varied music, the more infants may benefit in their music development (Gordon, 1999, 2013; Hicks, 1993). By understanding infant music development and music responses, particularly from birth to 18 months old, caregivers may augment their ability to recognize infants’ music; to reciprocate with music; and to foster music responses, social music interactions, and music aptitude. With the intention of providing insights and practical suggestions that may inform infant-caregiver music interactions, the purpose of this literature review was to synthesize research on the topic of infant music development and experiences.

To select sources for this literature review, I examined peer-reviewed articles, dissertations, theses, and book chapters using combinations of the terms “development,” “infant,” “music,” “parents,” “perception,” and “responses.” I used EBSCOhost, JSTOR, and ProQuest in my preliminary search and selected additional resources from reference lists. I began with no specific dates or journals in mind and culled sources pertaining to music development and infancy. The age of infancy has varied among researchers, health officials, and reference source editors; persons have considered infancy to span a specific age range, such as 0- to 12-month-old children (“Child development,” 2018), or specific developmental markers, such as from birth until the child acquires language (Infancy, 2014). I defined infancy as the ages between 0 and 18 months and selected sources that focused primarily on infancy rather than toddlerhood or early childhood. Limited research exists pertaining to infants 0 to 18 months old; therefore, many sources included in this literature review were published before 2010.

I selected research that represented neural, physical, and social music development. A great deal of research about infant music development has been published by music educators and psychologists, and consequently music education research and music psychology research are highly represented in this literature review. I also included research about caregivers’ roles as it pertained to infant music development, and I referred to persons who care for a child (such as parents, guardians, music educators, early childhood teachers, etc.) as caregivers except when a research study explicitly referenced a specific subset of this group. Furthermore, the sources I included were overwhelmingly written by Western researchers who conducted research with Western participants. The systemic issue of WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) research (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010) is reflected in this literature review due to a dearth of representative research.

This literature review comprises several areas of infant music development and music experiences. The review includes information regarding prenatal and perinatal development, music enculturation, music responses, and music-making with caregivers. Each section is further divided and categorized by subheadings. I end the review with a summary and recommendations for future research and resources.

Prenatal and Perinatal Development

Music Exposure and Language Exposure

Newborn infants “begin life as musical beings” (Trehub, 2003, p. 12) and soon demonstrate the ability to attend to and respond to music stimuli. Infants’ early music experiences may create a foundation of knowledge, skill mastery, and cultural perception and preference. According to Gordon (1999, 2013), all infants are born with music aptitude, that is, the potential to learn music; however, their music aptitude may decrease during the critical period if they are infrequently immersed in music experiences. Just as young children have been documented to need frequent and varied exposure to language to develop language fluency (Kuhl, 2004), researchers have found young children need frequent and varied music exposure to develop music fluency (Gordon, 1999; Reynolds & Burton, 2017). According to music education and early childhood music development researchers (Gordon, 1999, 2013; Reese, 2017; Reynolds & Burton, 2017; Reynolds, Long, & Valerio, 2007), language vocabularies (listening, speaking, thinking, and reading) and music vocabularies (listening, performing, audiating/improvising, reading, and writing) share similar characteristics. Those vocabularies set the foundation for future development, and their cultivation may affect children’s future linguistic and music abilities. Engaging infants in music in early life may be integral to infant music development and may influence their future music development.

Researchers have acknowledged a sharp decline in foreign-language phoneme perception between 6 and 12 months old (Hannon & Trehub, 2005b; Kuhl, 2004). Kuhl, Tsao, and Liu (2003) found that 9-month-old infants in native English speaking with low perception of Mandarin phonetic units showed an increase in perception after in-person interactions with a native Mandarin-speaking adult. The researchers stated that in-person interaction, rather than exposure of Mandarin phonetic units through video or audio recordings, enhanced language development and played an integral role in increased perception. Although language and music share characteristics such as tone, rhythm, and inflection, parents may consider infants’ vocalizations as attempts at language rather than attempts at music. Furthermore, researchers have suggested infants may process linguistic syntax over music syntax (Gordon, 2013; Lebedeva & Kuhl, 2010). Lebedeva and Kuhl (2010) wrote that “infants appear unable to ‘ignore’ phonetic content in the context of perceptually salient pitch information” (p. 426). When infants heard a melody with phonetic content (word-like syllables), they did not show novelty preference when the melody changed and likely focused on the word-like sounds.

Physical and Neural Development

Graven and Browne (2008) documented that infants’ developing auditory systems were particularly responsive to aural stimuli between 25 weeks in utero and 6 months old. Infants’ neurobiological characteristics, such as physical auditory structures and brain development, begin to develop before birth and determine their future perceptual and learning capacities (Kuhl, 2004). Researchers have demonstrated that fetuses recognize sounds by measuring increases in fetal heart rates in response to both music and spoken stimuli (Al-Qahtani, 2005; Kisilevsky, Hains, Jacquet, Granier-Deferre, & Lecanuet, 2004). Kisilevsky et al. (2004) documented that fetuses demonstrated increasingly mature and increased responses to music stimuli as they developed. When exposed to several tempo- and volume-manipulated versions of a recorded music stimulus, 37- to 41-week in utero fetuses showed increased movement responses and registered heartbeats that indicated more arousal and more attention than did 28- to 32-week in utero fetuses. Because the ear of a typically developing fetus has been documented to be fully formed and functional by 20 weeks in utero (Eswaran, Draganova, & Preissl, 2007) and fully functional by 25 weeks in utero (Graven & Browne, 2008), auditory stimuli may influence fetal neural development.

Alongside rapid physical development, researchers have reported that synapses proliferate during fetal development and the first months of infancy (Chechik, Meilijson, & Ruppin, 1999; Tierney & Nelson, 2009). As those synapses develop, frequently used neural connections have been found to flourish, and seldom-used neural connections have been found to be pruned (Picton & Taylor, 2007; Tierney & Nelson, 2009). That process, which has commonly been referred to as synaptic pruning (Chechik et al., 1999; Kuhl, 2004; Tierney & Nelson, 2009), initially occurs based on infants’ genetic predispositions but soon becomes experience-driven. Lordier et al. (2019) documented neural network connectivity in preterm infants exposed to music that paralleled neural network connectivity in full-term infants; however, music’s associations with neural functions remains contentious among researchers. Chorna et al. (2019) recommended live music-making interactions as part of beneficial interventions to support parents and their preterm infants, but the researchers cautioned that the effects of music interventions were still unknown. Robertson and Detmer (2019) determined that mothers who used a contingent music intervention valued music interactions with their infants more than mothers in a nonintervention control group. Parent-infant interactions, such as eye contact, touch, and smiling, may increase as parents engage in music therapy training, music interventions, and music-based interactions.

Researchers have found that infants’ environment and early life experiences may affect their developmental milestone achievements, executive functions, and cognitive performances in later life (Hannon & Trainor, 2007; Ilari, 2016; Kuhl, 2004). Kuhl (2004) found that infants perceived native- and foreign-language sounds from birth, but without consistent interpersonal exposure they lost the ability to perceive foreign-language sounds between 6 and 12 months old. Without frequent exposure to music, associated neural connections have been found to deteriorate and infants’ music aptitude and future music achievement may decrease (Gordon, 2013; Graven & Browne, 2008; Hannon & Trehub, 2005b).

Music Enculturation

According to Gerry et al. (2012), culture-specific music acquisition begins early in infants’ lives. In a study of phoneme and pattern recognition and social language interaction in infants, Kuhl (2004) noted that there may exist a critical period during which neural networks become coded to recognize specific sounds and patterns. Infants may not have the ability to recognize culturally unfamiliar sounds and patterns after the critical period passes. Kuhl (2004) noted that 6-month-old infant participants perceived slight changes in consonant and vowel sounds in both their native language and an unfamiliar language, but they lost the ability to perceive these changes in the unfamiliar language by 12 months old. By 12 months old, infants’ native language speech production and speech perception privileged the prototypical sounds of their mother tongue. Hannon and Trehub (2005b) found that, similar to language development, 6-month-old infants responded to music generally, whereas 12-month-old infants responded to music culturally. Six-month-old infants who attended 6 months of active music classes, that is, classes that involved live music-making and music interactions between caregivers and infants, displayed a preference for music conforming to Western music structure as early as 12 months old (Gerry et al., 2012). Infants who participated in active music experiences, such as singing and moving, showed more positive social development and communicative development and earlier culture-specific music acquisition than infants who received passive music experiences, such as listening to recorded music (Gerry et al., 2012; Gerry, Faux, & Trainor, 2010).

Metric Enculturation

According to Hannon and Trainor (2007), infants become musically enculturated by acquiring “culture-specific knowledge about the structure of the music they are exposed to through everyday experiences, such as listening to the radio, singing, and dancing” (p. 466). Hannon and Trehub (2005a) reported that North American (Western) adults detected metrical disruptions better in simple-meter music excerpts than in complex-meter music excerpts. North American infants and Bulgarian and Macedonian (non-Western) adults showed no bias in recognizing metrical disruptions in either simple- or complex-meter music excerpts. The researchers theorized that the North American adults demonstrated a bias toward recognizing metrical disruptions in simple-meter music excerpts due to rhythmic entrainment from regular exposure to predominantly simple-meter Western music structures. In a set of three experiments, Hannon and Trehub (2005b) investigated Western infants’ ability to perceive metrical disruptions that conformed to Western, even metrical traditions (isochronous) and non-Western, uneven metrical traditions (nonisochronous). The researchers altered the isochronous and nonisochronous metrical excerpts by adding or deleting the duration of one beat to create a dichotomy between the original structure-preserving excerpts and the altered structure-disrupting excerpts. In the first experiment, 12-month-old infants differentiated between the structure-preserving and structure-disrupting isochronous excerpts; however, 12-month-old infants lacked the ability to differentiate between the structure-preserving and structure-disrupting nonisochronous excerpts. Hannon and Johnson (2005) found that infant participants perceived differences between duple meter and triple meter in structure-preserving metrical experiments and structure-disrupting metrical experiments.

Infant-Directed Music Training

After receiving passive training, the infant participants in Hannon and Trehub’s (2005b) study showed an increased ability to perceive structure-disrupting changes in nonisochronous non-Western music. Hannon and Trehub repeated the passive training experiment with adult participants. They found that the adults’ ability to differentiate changes in nonisochronous non-Western music did not increase like that of the 12-month-old infants. Hannon and Trehub concluded that increased age limited the adults’ ability to perceive metrical disruptions in unfamiliar music traditions, thus supporting the concept of a critical period in music perception development.

Infants’ music enculturation in combination with music acculturation may influence their music perception and preference. Gerry et al. (2010) found that infants exposed to a participatory, family-oriented early childhood music education program preferred to be bounced in duple meter over triple meter. The researchers analyzed the duration infants attended to a visual stimulus that played a rhythm sequence only while the infants looked at it. The infants who participated in the program looked longer at the rhythm-producing stimulus than infants who did not participate in the program. The researchers hypothesized that infants who participated in the program exhibited familiarity with duple meter because duple-meter music was the program’s most commonly incorporated meter. Gerry et al. (2010) concluded that the infants who participated in the program may have become musically enculturated to Western, duple-meter rhythms and that the infant participants demonstrated familiarity with rhythm patterns more quickly than infants who did not participate in the program. The researchers suggested that the quickness with which the participants encoded duple-meter rhythm patterns provided evidence for the development of a duple-meter bias and “enculturation in rhythmic acquisition” (Gerry et al., 2010, p. 545) among Western infants who participated in the program. The preference for duple meter music may have been due to experience bias, rather than genetic predisposition. Researchers have suggested that infants may benefit from exposure to varied meters and tonalities (Gordon, 2013; Hicks, 1993); therefore, infants’ acculturation to varied meters and tonalities in Western and non-Western music may affect how their music perception and preference develop.

Music Responses

Movement

As infants acculturate to music, they look, move, and vocalize in various ways. Researchers have investigated those responses, categorized those responses, and theorized sequences of music development (Costa-Giomi & Ilari, 2014; Gordon, 2013; Hicks, 1993; Ilari & Sundara, 2009; Shimada, 2012; Zentner & Eerola, 2010). Infants moving through early stages of music development (termed preparatory audiation by Gordon [2013]) sequentially demonstrate specific music responses, first absorbing music through listening, then moving and babbling without relation to music, and finally attempting to move and babble in relation to music. Zentner and Eerola (2010) investigated infants’ rhythmic movement responses to music stimuli and speech stimuli. The researchers found that infants engaged in more rhythmic movements when exposed to music stimuli than to speech stimuli and that these movements changed in relation to the music stimuli’s tempos. In a replication and extension of Zentner and Eerola’s study, Ilari (2015) suggested that the infant participants engaged in more spontaneous movement to music than to infant-directed speech due to the “clear, repetitive, and regular pulse” (p. 337) underlying infant music.

In an investigation of movement and vocal responses in preparatory audiation, Hicks (1993) compared infant music responses with familiar and unfamiliar songs without words. The researcher categorized observations of the infants’ responses as looking responses, nonpulsating responses, pulsating responses, miscellaneous responses, vocal responses, and responses of anticipation. Hicks (1993) found that the infants performed more looking responses during the familiar song than other responses and more looking responses during the unfamiliar songs than the familiar song.

Vocalizations

In an investigation of the vocal responses of two 11-month-old infants to three songs in major tonality and duple meter, Robert (1992) engaged with infants during weekly group music classes and individual home visits. Four categories emerged in Robert’s study: (a) random babble responses, (b) speaking responses, (c) tonal responses, and (d) miscellaneous responses. Robert found that the infants performed more speaking responses than other responses and that the infants performed more vocal responses during the home sessions than the group music classes. Hicks (1993) found that infants performed looking responses before performing either nonpulsating or pulsating movement responses. Infants also performed few vocal responses (defined as any response produced through the vocal chords) to either the familiar or the unfamiliar song. Hicks hypothesized that infant vocal responses rarely occurred because of a possible music development sequence; over the course of one academic year, the infants first performed looking responses, followed by nonpulsating responses, pulsating responses, and miscellaneous responses.

Researchers (Deutsch, Henthorn, & Lapidis, 2011; Gordon, 2013; Kuhl, 2004; Kuhl, Tsao, & Liu, 2003; Trehub, 2003) have identified melodic aspects of vocalizations in nonmusic environments. Tonal languages, like Mandarin, and nontonal languages, like English, have been found to have varying degrees of prosody, that is, the tone, rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech (Kuhl, 2004; Kuhl et al., 2003). Prosody, cadences, and inflections can be identified and transcribed into music notation. Persons may perceive melodic qualities in speech when listening to repetitions of short segments of recorded speech. Deutsch et al. (2011) identified and labelled that phenomenon as The Speech-to-Song Illusion. Hsu, Fogel, and Cooper (2000) described and categorized 1- to 6-month-old infants’ simple and complex speech-like and nonspeech-like vocalizations. The infant participants’ vocalizations evolved as they aged, becoming more complex after 4 months old.

Infants may use those melodic vocalizations to explore sound, to express themselves, and to play. Shimada (2012) investigated infant vocalizations with a maternal response, with no response, and with their own amplified vocalization as auditory feedback. A composer transcribed infants’ vocalizations and labeled repeated melodic phrases. Infants waited for responses before continuing to vocalize in the maternal response condition, and they did not wait for responses in the no-response and amplified vocalization conditions. The infants less frequently repeated melodic phrases in the maternal response condition than in the no-response and amplified vocalization conditions. Infants’ behavior when vocalizing alone often constituted play, and infants regulated their emotions through exploratory vocalizations.

Music-Making With Caregivers

As the first music teachers in infants’ lives, researchers have emphasized the crucial roles caregivers play in infants’ music development (Fancourt & Perkins, 2018; Valerio et al., 2011; Valerio, Reynolds, Morgan, & McNair, 2012). According to Trehub (2003), singing to infants may affect infant arousal (e.g., sleeping, wakefulness, movements, and crying), may affect infant-caregiver bonding, and may increase infant survival rates. Caregivers have observed, recognized, and identified music behaviors in infants and young children (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2008; Fancourt & Perkins, 2018; Ilari, 2005; Valerio et al., 2011; Valerio et al., 2012). Valerio et al. (2011) surveyed parents’/guardians’ documentation of their children’s music behaviors, which included attention to music, music vocalizations, moving to music, requesting and creating music, and engaging in music turn-taking. The researchers found that parents/guardians who frequently engaged their children in music interactions reported more of their children’s music behaviors than those who infrequently engaged their children in music those interactions. Music interactions have existed in caregiver-infant relationships across cultures (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003; Ilari, 2005; Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995). Koops (2014) documented that many caregivers interacted musically with their infants throughout the day, in a variety of settings, and during everyday activities. Music interaction with infants may be an integral aspect of caretaking and of socialization.

Caregiver-Infant Music Interactions

Reporting on 2,250 responses to the Parents’ Use of Music with Infants Survey, Custodero and Johnson-Green (2003) found that parents who had a history of music engagement during their own childhoods were more likely to engage in music interaction with their infants than nonmusically experienced parents. Parents who participated in a music activity, such as singing in a choir or playing an instrument, or who reported being sung to as children were more likely to sing lullabies to children than others. Similarly, Fancourt and Perkins (2018) noted that mothers who had recently engaged in music experiences were more likely to engage their infants in music activities as compared with mothers who had not recently engaged in music experiences. The researchers found that socioeconomic status, years of education, and marital status had little impact on mothers’ music engagement with their infants. In a study of 100 immigrant and second-generation Canadian mothers of 4- to 9-month-old infants, Ilari (2005) found a significant positive relationship between maternal music experiences and time spent listening to music with infants but no relationship to time spent singing to infants. Although approximately half of the participants reported some music training, nearly all participants reported that they regularly sang with their infants. Most immigrant mothers reported listening to and performing music of their native cultures, rather than English or French songs and rhymes. Performing their native music may add evidence to the culturally sustaining practices of music-making between infants and caregivers.

Cultural music perception and preference, music creation and improvisation, and music learning may be enhanced by social music interaction. As they shared songs, rhythm chants, and dances with infants, caregivers have communicated important cultural and linguistic traditions (Gerry et al., 2010; Hannon & Trainor, 2007; Ilari, 2016; Reynolds & Burton, 2017; Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995). Custodero and Johnson-Green (2008) coded parents’ responses to two surveys about how and why they use music with their infants. The researchers contacted first contacted parents of 4- to 6-month-old infants and then contacted parents for a follow-up survey when the infants were 10 to 16 months old. The researchers found that nearly half of the parents indicated that they used music socially and emotionally to bond with, interact with, and soothe their 4- to 6-month-old infants. Parents infrequently reported using music to enhance their infants’ nonmusic development, such as intelligence and character.

Parental Music Behaviors

After conducting a follow-up survey about parents’ music behaviors with the now 10- to 16-month-old infants, Custodero and Johnson-Green (2008) found that parents still reported high frequencies of social and emotional music-making but at a slightly lower percentage than the previous survey. Parents reported using music for social and emotional purposes at nearly the same rate as using music to enhance infant development, as a resource, and in specific settings. Custodero and Johnson-Green (2008) concluded that music interactions between parents and infants change over time in response to infants’ perceived developmental needs. As they aged, infants more frequently initiated music interactions. Custodero and Johnson-Green (2003) purported that parents engaged infants in music interactions more frequently than they engaged toddlers. Like Valerio et al.’s (2011) and Valerio et al.’s (2012) findings, Custodero and Johnson-Green (2003, 2008) noted the clarity and depth with which parents identified infant music behaviors. Parents may be well-situated to identify infant music behaviors, regardless of prior training or music knowledge.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Because infants undergo a period of rapid development during the first 18 months of life, researchers have emphasized the importance of high-quality interactions and experiences during these formative months (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003; Gordon, 2013; Reynolds & Burton, 2017). Many existing research studies on infant music development have involved studying infant music responses, perception, and preference, such as time spent looking at or listening to stimuli (Corbeil et al., 2016; Costa-Giomi & Ilari, 2014; Hannon & Trehub, 2005a, 2005b), head-turning responses (Ilari & Sundara, 2009), or physiological (e.g., brain-wave activity and heartrate changes) responses (Al-Qahtani, 2005; Hannon & Trainor, 2007), in strictly controlled environments. Those studies add to our understanding of human development and provide insight into infants’ mental and physiological responses to music; however, real-world examples and descriptions of infants’ sounds and movements may directly benefit caregivers, music education practitioners, and others who do not engage in academic research. Most infants’ exposure to music does not occur in a lab setting, and infants may respond to music in ways not easily measureable in the external world. Caregivers and music educators may increase researchers’ understandings of infant music development by documenting their formal and informal observations and experiences of music-making with infants.

Most infants have received constant exposure to language stimuli and less-frequent exposure to music stimuli (Gordon, 1999, 2013; Reynolds & Burton, 2017). Due to the pervasive nature of language in society, Western caregivers may have developed a tendency to categorize infant vocalizations as attempts to speak their native language rather than to create music (Reese, 2017; Reynolds & Burton, 2017; Reynolds, Long, & Valerio, 2007). Existing research on infant music development has primarily consisted of physical and vocal music response categorization or of social music-making between caregivers and infants.

Researchers have emphasized that infants’ music development may play a critical role in their music aptitude, their future music development, and the ways they use music with their own children (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003; Gerry, Unrau, & Trainor, 2012; Gordon, 1999, 2013; Hannon & Trainor, 2007; Ilari, 2005, 2016; Reynolds & Burton, 2017; Tierney & Nelson, 2009). Caregivers have acculturated and enculturate infants to music and have set the foundation for their infants’ earliest music experiences (Gordon, 1999, 2013; Hannon & Trainor, 2007). Caregivers may enhance their own music practices by deepening their knowledge of infant music development. Attending infant-caregiver music classes has been found to benefit caregivers’ own music understanding and confidence, as well as their infants’ music development (Gerry et al., 2010; Reynolds & Burton, 2017), but not all caregivers have access to these classes. Caregivers with limited confidence in their own music-making abilities may benefit from free, accessible music resources that include audio or video recorded examples of infant music movements and vocalizations; examples of caregivers and infants interacting musically; and recordings and notation of many styles, cultural traditions, and genres.

Listening to music with infants may benefit infant music development by increasing their exposure to music of many styles and from a variety of cultures and traditions; however, researchers have noted that the importance of live music-making and social music interactions between caregivers and infants may be invaluable (Reynolds & Burton, 2017; Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995; Valerio & Reynolds, 2009). Although the role of music in the home and between infants and their primary caregivers should not be understated, music educators may help develop a socially interactive music culture within their communities by providing high-quality music programs in various settings, such as schools, community centers, hospitals, and prenatal classes. Elements of high-quality music programs have included, but are not limited to, music performed in a variety of tonalities, meters, and styles; unstructured and structured informal music guidance; opportunities for class participants to engage in creative and improvisatory music-making; and social music interactions with caregivers, trained early childhood music specialists, and peers (Gerry et al., 2010; Gerry et al., 2012; Gordon, 1999, 2013; Ilari, 2016; Koops, 2012; Reynolds & Burton, 2017).

Music educators who run accessible, high-quality early childhood music programs may provide social music-making opportunities within communities and among community members. Infants and caregivers may benefit from facilitated music engagements with each other, infants may benefit from social music engagement opportunities with other infants and caregivers, and caregivers may benefit from observing and interacting with infants who demonstrate a variety of music development stages. To take advantage of the resources music educators bring to infant music development understanding, caregivers should advocate for the inclusion of accessible, high-quality music programs at their local education centers.

Gordon (1999, 2003) noted that each infant is born with music potential, and music potential may never be greater than the moment of birth; therefore, each infant has a right to high-quality music experiences from at least birth onward. Across cultures, researchers have documented that music is engrained into caregivers’ interactions with infants (Ilari, 2016; Koops, 2014; Trehub, 2003; Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995; Valerio et al., 2011). Kodály believed that “the musical education of the child must be started nine months before the mother’s [emphasis in original] birth” (Kokas, 1982, p. 61), and research has found that parents who reported frequent music exposure during their own childhoods engaged in music-making with their children more than those who reported infrequent music exposure during childhood (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003). To develop an intrinsically music society, caregivers and music educators should receive the resources and support they need to engage infants in social music interactions and active music-making experiences from birth.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Kathleen Arrasmith

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