Preoperational (school) Music
As kids get older, their innate musical abilities improve. During the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years), there is rapid growth in language and conceptual skills. Children start recognizing words as symbols that represent objects. In the sensorimotor stage, for example, a fast tempo versus a slow tempo could only be understood by direct observation and experience. In the preoperational stage, however, the words fast and slow become labels - understood, and independent of the experience itself. Similarly, the child can now understand big drum versus the small drum, and loud sounds versus soft sounds, outside of real-time visual or auditory comparison.
Developing verbal communication skills keep pace with increasing vocalization during music making. In the earlier years of this stage of development, children may improvise short, melodic patterns, or join in on a few words of a song, especially when those words are repeated at regular intervals. An adult may sing, “Round and round the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought ‘twas all in fun …” and the two to three-year-old child will join in for “Pop! Goes the weasel.” At four or five years old, pitch patterns and vocal involvement improve. At this age, story songs, make-believe, and action songs become favorite songs to sing. Such songs become practical and fun opportunities for the playful practice of communication skills and for learning vocabulary.
During this stage, there is also increasing social awareness. In the first few years of this stage, the children are self-absorbed. They are simply unaware that others have needs or opinions. They most often engage in parallel play, playing next to each other, not with each other. Cooperation is very rare. Between the ages of four and six, they begin to follow directions, take turns, corporate with others, and are more willing to share. Although they are still largely self-serving, this allows them to engage in the social courtesies required for group musical activities. Playing rhythm instruments together, or singing and playing London Bridge or Do As I’m Doing provides opportunities to practice and develop social skills.
Language and social skills aren’t the only things to improve during the preoperational stage. Increasing motor development and coordination enlarges the child’s movement repertoire. From two to four, toddlers show only brief moments of beat matching in music play. As they get older, their ability to match and maintain a steady beat (beat competency) improves. This requires some physical maturation, however, and can vary greatly from child to child. Still, by the age of three or four walking, galloping, marching, and jumping can all be added to musical games. Such practice will only help the child improve their coordination and strengthen their muscles.
As the child’s motor skills develop, so does their spatial awareness. Concepts such as over, under, up, down, in and out emerge. A musical game like the Hokey Pokey with its actions (including discrimination of left and right) can encourage this development. In the later years of this developmental stage, children will begin to master skipping, basic eye-hand coordination and clapping to a beat.
Children in the preoperational stage may no longer completely rely on sensory or motor experiences to understand their world, but sensory and motor involvement are still valuable in this stage to aid learning. Children at this stage still form important connections between direct experience and symbolic representation. In the classroom, many new language and vocabulary concepts should still be paired with visual and auditory aids, as well as motor experiences.
The song Do As I’m Doing provides an interesting example of how all this is tied together into a single musical activity. If you allow the children to take turns demonstrating the action or movement that everyone else should do, they get to practice turn-taking behaviors and can experience both leading and following. This could be an important emotional experience for a child whose situation may make him or her feel otherwise powerless.
As children progress through the preoperational stage, music continues to be a powerful and effective tool for learning. Music activities that require physical action, social cooperation, and language skills will promote mastery. Because music is such a natural part of childhood, its use as a therapeutic tool just feels normal and fun to the child.
