Early childhood music, movement, singing, dance, musical brain development, play, musical exploration

This is an example of a workshop that I delivered at Beijing Normal University in June 2011 that I hope will give people an idea of the breadth of ideas, repertoire (curriculum), creative pedagogy, and research that I bring to the enterprise of early childhood music education.

I am not a 'One Trick Pony' (to quote singer-songwriter Paul Simon) and consider my perspectives to be informed by practice and research in music learning that goes back to the works of Jersild & Bienstock in the 1920s, includes Moorhead & Pond, Andress, Boswell, Cass-Beggs, Birkenshaw, Gordon and many others. 

There are lecture notes and movie clips of my working with young children that are interspersed in this 3 hour presentation-workshop as well as another 3 hour session that refers heavily to research over the past 40 years.

I am available for workshops and lectures on this topic and can insure you that I provide informative, fun, music filled sessions for  pre-service and in-service teachers and researchers.

This volume rests upon two premises: 1) That collective creation is pivotal to the evolution of the modern theatre; and 2) That women have been central to the emergence and development of collective creation.
    Though written to be read as a self-contained work, Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance is in fact the third volume in an ongoing body of research into collective creation and devising practices from 1900 to the present. Our two previous studies, A History of Collective Creation and Collective 
Creation in Contemporary Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), argued that modern collective theatre-making praxis may be best understood as an ongoing, resistant tradition emerging, in its European and North American contexts, circa 1900 and running throughout the twentieth century and on into present-day devising practices. Our goal at the inception of this body of work had been to contest the broadly accepted view of collective creation as a minor phenomenon peculiar to the New Left political theatre of the 1960s and ’70s, associated in the main with developments in the United States, Canada, Quebec, and England (and to a lesser extent, France).  Working in collaboration with an international team of scholars, we sought to elucidate the aesthetic, processual, and political links between theatrical devising in the contemporary period, collective creation practices of the ’60s and ’70s, and pre-war experiments in collaborative theatre-making—and to do so from an internationalist perspective.  In so doing, we worked to draw out both resemblances and divergences in collective practice, and in the aesthetic, social, and/or political impulses underpinning those practices, in their particular cultural and historical contexts.
    This new volume seeks to deepen that historicization, by investigating the centrality of women to the development of collective and devised theatre-making in the modern and contemporary period. Our project is two-fold: to historicize the enormous, ongoing contribution of women to collective creation; and to investigate questions about the relationship between gender and collaborative process, authority, authorship, and attribution.
    Women must be credited with a central, foundational, and continued role in the development and transmission of practices of collective and devised theatre-making since the start of the twentieth century.  A cursory scan of a few prominent names in North America and Europe hints at the consideration women demand in the history of collective performance praxis: directors such as Joan Littlewood, Judith Malina, Ariane Mnouchkine, Elizabeth LeComte, Tina Landau, Anne Bogart, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, Lin Hixson, and Julia Varley; pioneering teachers such as Viola Spolin, Suzanne Bing, Rena Mirecka, and Roberta Carreri; companies and networks such as Lilith, WOW Cafe, At the Foot of the Mountain, Spiderwoman Theater, Guerilla Girls, Omaha Magic Theatre, Split Britches, SITI Company, Nightwood Theatre, Théâtre Expérimental des Femmes, The Magdalena Project, FEMEN, and Pussy Riot; choreographers such as Anna Halprin, Yvonne Rainer, Aileen Passloff, Trisha Brown, and Mary Overlie; playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Helene Cixous, Deb Margolin, Muriel Miguel, and Megan Terry.  And yet, the deep engagement of women in collectively generated performance has been grossly under-historicized.
    This volume traces a sprawling lineage, revealing a hitherto unacknowledged web of transmission—connecting, by way of example, the educational play movement spearheaded by such reformers as Dr. Maria Montessori in Italy, Margaret Naumberg in New York, and Neva Boyd of Chicago’s Hull-House, to the theatrical devising pedagogies of Suzanne Bing in 1920s’ France and Viola Spolin in 1930s’ Chicago, to the collective practices of (among others) Théâtre du Soleil and the Living Theatre in the 1960s, to the nomadic performances of the women of the Odin Teatret in 1980s’ Europe, to Pussy Riot’s recent protests in Russia.  In doing so, the book further elucidates a history of modern theatre begun in our previous volumes, in which the seemingly marginal and disparate practices of collective creation are revealed as central, and women practitioners further revealed as primary progenitors, renovators, stewards, and disseminators of these practices.  The history of the modern theatre is a history of collaborative methods and the history of collaborative methods is a women’s history.

The idiom “It went in one ear and out the other” expresses that we did not pay full attention to, or did not understand what we were listening to. In British Sign Language a similar meaning is conveyed by signing “in one eye and out the other”. Recognising that conventional approaches to music education amongst very young deaf children and their families put music making at risk of “going in one eye and out the other”, this practice paper reflects on musical repertoire and techniques which were co-developed in a two-year action research project working alongside very young children in the local Deaf community. It further reflects on approaches that did not work, questions power relationships between use of conventional music pedagogies amongst groups with sensory impairments and challenges assumptions about music education.

Music interventions in the United Kingdom are, in general, positively regarded (Hallam 2015) but some of the local Deaf Community initially rejected the intervention of “well-meaning”, hearing music leaders. Certain key elements emerged in our practice: careful framing of the music leaders’ intentions before the project as well as before and during music sessions, carefully chosen musical instruments, the use of non-audio support materials to enrich the context of active music making, a commitment to signing, plus evidence of being well-informed rather than well-meaning. An emphasis on facilitating child-led musical play was welcomed by children and carers. Ultimately, deaf and hearing carers demonstrated enjoyment of music making by actively supporting their deaf child’s musical play and “by proxy” through their deaf child’s music-making.

Cjelokupni cilj ovoga članka je istražiti razvoj vizualno – motorne koordinacije potrebne za grafomotorne vještine u vezi sa senzomotorikom kod djece sa različitim neurološkim oštećenjima. Teza će biti izražena kod tri pedijatrijske populacije: djeca koja su prerano rođena, djeca sa cerebralnom paralizom i dječja govorna apraksija. Sva istraživanja i rezultati upućuju upravo na važnost što ranijeg uočavanja problema u vizualno-motoričkoj integraciji. Brojne aktivnosti i terapije su te koje mogu poboljšati rezultate od najranije dobi, koje mogu omogućiti da se poteškoće ne razviju do još većih poteškoća. Što je bolja integracija, rezultati na Beery VMI testu će biti bolji. Rezultati ovoga testa su ti koji će nam ukazati u kojem opsegu se kreću pojedinčeve vizualno-motoričke sposobnosti.

Creativity in adults is highly valued in our society. Personal creativity contributes to inventiveness, innovation, social and cultural change as well as political development and economic progression. The creator is an innovator, a problem solver, an entrepreneur, an artist. Creative people have rapid and effective responses that help them to achieve their life goals and allow them to enjoy the journey. Creativity is both a skill set and a unique and individual character structure that is developed throughout childhood and fine-tuned in adolescence and adulthood. Education has a key role to play in its development. Positive creativity inspiring experiences at every stage of the educational journey are needed. This is especially true in early childhood. Educators who rise to the creativity challenge will be well rewarded in rich teaching experiences and the joy of seeing children reach their creative potential in supportive and integrated learning communities.

El origen de LA SARDANA es un extracto del libro Karuo el secreto ibero, Enrique Cabrejas o Enric Cabrejas nos relata de modo llano su experiencia personal con lo extraordinario de un descubrimiento. El 21 de Abril de 2012 consiguió lo que parecía imposible: Descifrar la escritura ibérica. El hallazgo más relevante de la cultura universal en nuestro país de los últimos tiempos, sin lugar a dudas. Un hito en la historia de la escritura sin precedentes. Desde este mismo instante la obra Karuo de Enrique Cabrejas lo convierte en un referente destacado a nivel mundial en historia y lingüística. Los innumerables datos, explicaciones, pruebas y significados que nos reporta nunca conocidos antes, son una referencia obligada para todos aquellos que quieran comprender la historia, la lengua antigua e incluso también la moderna de nuestro país o para quienes en el futuro deseen estudiarla e investigarla en profundidad, más si cabe desde el mundo académico.

Early musical experiences are very important for social, cognitive and physical development of children, as well as their future musical competences. Preschools present this environment with various musical materials. However, suitability of these materials in terms of developmental needs of children and educational goals is questionable. The purpose of this study is to transfer knowledge from relevant literature to design considerations of musical toys for preschool children.

Literature review was conducted to determine various aspects to be considered while designing musical toys by compiling knowledge from developmental psychology and pedagogy literature; governments‟ educational policies and programs for early childhood in Turkey and in the world in general were reviewed in order to determine the expected outcomes of preschool education, and the research and development studies done in the field of musical toy design were explored. Furthermore, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with preschool educators in order to gather their experiences and opinions on the usage of musical materials. As a result, suggestions are provided for designers to be used in designing musical toys for preschool children concerning children‟s needs, teachers and learning context, and product attributes.

Keywords: preschool children, preschool education, musical development, musical toy design

En este artículo se presentan resultados preliminares de un estu- dio evolutivo longitudinal de caso único centrado en dos tipos de organizaciones emergentes de los juegos sociales tempranos: las protoconversaciones -concepto introducido en los años  ́70 en el marco de los estudios de comunicación preverbal- y las performan- ces multimedia -concepto aparecido recientemente en el seno de las Ciencias Cognitivas de Segunda Generación-. La díada madre- bebé fue observada en su contexto ecológico entre los 3 y los 7 meses de vida del bebé. Las filmaciones de las interacciones fueron analizadas con una codificación creada especialmente para este estudio a través del método comparativo constante. En el presente artículo se aportan datos preliminares de dicho estudio longitudinal (análisis de las sesiones primera a cuarta, de un total de 9 sesiones) acerca de: (i) la cantidad y tipo de las organizaciones emergentes observadas; (ii) su duración; (iii) tipo de actividad de crianza en que fueron observadas.

Most  sub-Saharan  African  societies display linguistic diversity, rapid social change, rural-urban contrasts in lifestyle and widespread biculturation. Planning and delivery of early childhood care and education (ECCE) services in the region have
been constrained by the legacy of Western colonial occupation, low prevalence of literacy and limited institutionalization of
systematic research. Some international agencies tend to construe ECCE as a compensatory intervention for children
disadvantaged by poverty, primarily to prepare them for formal schooling. They also tend to exaggerate the degree of scientific consensus about the optimal conditions for children’s cognitive and social-emotional  development.  The validity of much research to date has been constrained by reliance on a narrow database, a narrow range of authorship and a narrow range of culturally Western audiences. Close attention is needed to the unique sociocultural conditions of African societies especially in rural areas, including the strengths and limitations of local child-rearing knowledge, attitudes and practices. Culture-sensitive methods are essential for unbiased assessment of young African children, especially those with limited access to Western cultural materials and practices, and for effective communication with their caregiving families. Distinctive features of indigenous African approaches to child socialization include emphasis
on social responsibility and widespread involvement of pre-adolescent youth in the care of younger children. The Child-to-Child approach has been effectively deployed as a way of respecting the rights and competencies of children and mobilizing them to promote health. The design of ECCE services in Africa should focus on local strengths including indigenous games and music, emphasize community-based provision, incorporate participation by pre-adolescent children; use indigenous African languages and local funds of knowledge;
and accord priority to inclusion of children with special needs. Strategies are identified to address the challenges confronting
application of these recommendations.

A review on the book written by Vijayakumar Menon titled " History of Indian Art" published by Kerala Sahithya Akademi.The entire book is rife with facts, figures and anecdotes, designed under 25 chapters. There are also some pictures (208 in numbers) included in the book. This is not a work giving importance to artists or their contributions. The author has completed the work giving access to the nature of the period. It is evident from the division of chapters, vocabulary used and bibliography etc. that this book is fashioned out in such a way to meet the needs of the researchers. This book is designed specifically for the use of students and scholars of art history and visual culture. It is intended as a reference source for those involved in teaching and learning and as an aid for those carrying out research activities.
It is no mean task to unearth facts about art and art history. This well-argued, methodically organized and eminently readable book is a pioneering work in the field of Indian art in Malayalam and it fulfills a long felt need. Moderately priced and sleekly produced, the book has hardly any printing errors.

This article focuses on the singing activities of girls aged five to seven as enacted on a school playground in London, UK. The article examines girls' play with pop songs, analysing the girls as actors and interpreters within a complex set of surrounding discursive practices (from the school, peers and media). Empirical data from an ethnographic study of a multilingual, multiethnic playground are analysed and include observations, videos and interviews. The analysis draws on a range of research from various disciplines to examine four themes: social performances, learning, recontextualisation and preteen girlhood. The article analyses the structures which are enacted during the girls' performances and the “interpretive reproduction” (Corsaro, 1997) which occurs during the process of this type of play.

2011. Journal of Children and Media. 5, 4: 341-357.

Mother Goose on the Loose is an award-winning early
childhood literacy program for babies and their caregivers
offered each week at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in
Baltimore, Maryland. This article describes the history of the
program including the theories behind it, practical
implementations for creating optimal learning environments
for very young children, descriptions and benefits of the
program, and parent reactions to it.

The BAPNE method presents specific cri-teria for evaluating movement that can be grouped into four large blocks, namely: psychomotor coordination, cognitive as-pects, the learning of values and the de-velopment of Multiple Intelligences. Each section aims to clarify the most representa-tive indicators with a view to offering edu-cators the basic tools for its application and evaluation in the classroom.

This small piece of qualitative, practice-based research examines the nature of peer to peer interactions between two year olds in a musical free play environment. Drawing on theories including Communicative Musicality (Malloch & Trevarthen, 2009) and Affect Attunement (Stern, 1985), I ask how young children adapt and transform the social-emotional skills learned with their carers and families to make meaning with peers.  The research took place in a Sure Start nursery setting, in a summer house dedicated to music and group work which the children were familiar with. During the research sessions a protocol of adults responding to, but not directing or initiating interaction with children, was adopted and talking was kept to a minimum. This context was designed to be conducive to enabling two year olds to freely interact through music making by which I mean, bodily gesture, voice play, and sound making.  The sessions were videoed and peer to peer interactions were micro-analysed. The nature of interaction between children during the sessions was short and intense. The children derived pleasure from successful interactions with each other and used a variety of musical expressions in their connections such as bodily movement, gesture and voice play. Results showed a surprising amount of affective group interaction, a term I use to describe phenomena where several children are taking part in something simultaneously and there is a sense of dynamic group mutuality. The study raises interesting thoughts around young children’s abilities to tune into group activities and I argue that music and the temporal arts give unique affordances to facilitating multi focus, group activity.

Body percussion using to the BAPNE method is a means of cognitive stimulation with multiple applications. The aim of this research is to assess their full potential as a source of therapy. The methodology used is theoretical in nature and makes use of a wide bibliography to find evidence for its therapeutic effect. In essence, body percussion can be seen to lead to improvements in three areas. the Physical, as it stimulates awareness of the body, control of movement and muscular strength, coordination and balance; the Mental, as it improves concentration, memory and perception; and finally Socio-affective, as it helps to build egalitarian relationships and leads to a decrease in anxiety in social interactions. This means of therapy has several different uses and it is targeted at different groups. In the present investigation we categorise them into five main groups: individuals with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease; individuals with learning disorders such as dyslexia or ADHD; patients affected by diseases of the spinal cord, cranial neuropathies and trauma (Neurorehabilitation); and for the treatment of addictive behavior (addiction); and depressive disorders or anxiety disorders.After thorough analysis, we have found scientific evidence that the therapeutic body percussion using the BAPNE method improves the quality of life of patients and it is an important factor in stabilizing the development of different diseases.In addition, evidence involving certain biological indicators (in control and experimental groups, and through a pre-test and post-test) show its effect on levels of stress and anxiety (reduction of cortisol), as well as improvement of social relations as a result of working as a group (increased levels of oxytocin), and improvements seen in self-esteem and in a variety of personal aspects through the Aspects of Identity questionnaire.

NAGC ARTS NETWORK MISSION (Proposed revisions pending.)

The Arts Network believes artistic expression is a basic and necessary function of healthy and productive individuals, and that the health and productivity of a society is reflective of the degree of artistic expression among its citizens.

The Arts Network is committed to initiating, developing, and implementing strategies and resources that will support interest and abilities in the Visual and Performing Arts. Specifically, the Network will:

> promote the recognition and acceptance of the arts as an essential area of giftedness;

> encourage research in the area of artistic giftedness and talent;

> illuminate the benefits of integrating meaningful arts experiences into the academic curriculum and provide support for practice;

> increase awareness of artistic expression, aesthetic perception, aesthetic valuing, and aesthetic appreciation; and the psychosocial dimensions associated with educating and caring for artistically gifted and talented individuals; and

> provide practical strategies and resources to foster artistic expression, aesthetic perception, aesthetic valuing, and aesthetic appreciation; and nurture the psychosocial development of artistically gifted and talented individuals.

Editing: Merzili Villanueva & Dr. Kristofer Wiley

Design: Merzili Villanueva

The doctoral thesis captures the intercultural competency in early childhood music curriculum teacher training workshops in various countries through both narrative and inquiry-based study.  This dissertation is unique, as the rich dialogues and interactions reveal the beliefs, practices, mannerisms, teaching approaches, and understanding of practitioners whose levels of musical training and abilities contribute to decisions to adjust the content of teacher training workshops.  The dialogues, interviews, informal and formal observations, field notes, and reflections collected and analysed here highlight connections between different countries and unravel the role of intercultural competency.  The thesis uses two theoretical frameworks - intercultural competence and Confucianism - to unearth the underlying reasons why teacher trainers alter teacher training programmes locally.  The purpose of this research is to examine how intercultural competency plays a role in the successful delivery of a cross-cultural curriculum.  The data extend of the curriculum is altered and the approaches to delivery adjusted based on the different languages and backgrounds of teacher trainers and the variety of needs and cultural understandings of teacher trainees.  In short, teacher trainers' intercultural competency dictates their decisions regarding how to alter the content of the curriculum.  Coupling elements leading to intercultural competency with the attributes of becoming a proficient early childhood music educator depends on how well the trainers understand, adapt, and embrace both the local culture and novice teachers, while being true to the spirit of the written curriculum.

This article presents findings from a self-study inquiry conducted in multi-cultural kindergartens during music group interventions (MGI). The inquiry is based on theories within musicking and communicative musicality. It addresses the claim: "It's you-not the music" in search for whether this statement might be true or not. My purpose is also to question what is 'me' and what is 'the music' in this statement. MGIs were conducted for 19 weeks in three different multicultural kindergartens with children aged 3-5 (n=30). All were videotaped. Findings are based on the video material, qualitative interviews, informal talks, and critical friends, and this research material points towards the necessity of musical confidence to be able to make use of musical skills.

This was a paper I wrote for Professor David Goldstein, my developmental psychology doctoral seminar (PSYCH 837) at Temple University. At the time it was influenced by my coursework in phonology and my MA thesis (which can be found floating around the Internet somewhere; ideas from it were published in my early writings on early childhood music education). This ideas preceded those that were being developed by Edwin Gordon and other doctoral students (e.g., Levinowitz, Taggart) who were not yet working with very young children at that time at the Temple University Music Prep program in downtown Philadelphia (the old KYW owned buildings/studios on Walnut Street that were donated to Temple in the late 1970s). I gave my advisor, Dr. Gordon, a copy of this paper in December 1985 and after a few conversations around how I was implementing this work -- along with notions of singing songs without words to tap into CV and CV combinations -- it's obvious that this paper and my MA thesis (which was actually competed in early 1986 but stalled for over 1 year by a narcissistic Assistant Professor who wanted to play politics with my career) influenced Gordon's 'music learning theory' form 1985 onwards. The notion of singing songs without words and accompaniment that became a formal practice of MLT practitioners was also influenced by my MA thesis work which looked at levels of different types of accompaniment on the development of social skills of 5 year old children. This paper was also disseminated ad discussed in doctoral seminars at Temple University in 1985/1986. So, like many ideas that are attributed to Gordon as part of MLT (e.g., beat function syllables, which were actually developed by Froseth and Schleuter, and Gordon) the ideas were not Gordon's alone. This, and other ideas (find the ERIC document of an incomplete draft of a book on early childhood music education that Levinowitz was developing with Gordon) have interesting backgrounds in the development of "Gordon's Music Learning Theory."

Na altura da escolha do instrumento, as crianças tendem a escolher instrumentos que são estereotipados pela sociedade como sendo para rapazes ou para raparigas.
Com este trabalho pretende verificar-se qual o motivo da escolha do instrumento de um grupo aleatório de alunos que frequentam a Escola de Música da Sociedade Filarmónica Artística Pombalense, através da realização de um inquérito por questionário, e relacionar os seus motivos com a teoria ecológica de Brofenbrenner.

The aim of this study was to study the diagnostic parameters in
brain tuberculosis (meningeal and parenchymal)
Material and Methods: This study was conducted in the
department of Neurosurgery and Neurology SKIMS for a period
of two years. A total of 61 patients presenting with brain
tuberculosis admitted at skims during these two years were
included in the study.
Results: The most presenting symptom in our study was headache
found in 95.10% followed by vomiting found in 86.90% of
subjects, fever in 78.70%, altered sensorium in 49.20%, seizures in
19.70% and diplopia in18%. Out of 61 patients cranial nerve
involment was found in 34(55.73%) with 11 having more than two
cranial nerves involved. The most common cranial nerve involved
were 3rd and 6th. ADA was positive in 36 of 53 patients of TBM
with a sensitivity of 67.9% and a specificity of 75%. PCR proved
to be highly specific CT scan of head was abnormal in 56 out of
61 patients (91.8%). 12 (19.70%) were in stage I (meningeal
involvement only), 29 (47.50%) were in stage II (parenchymal
involvement only) and 15 (24.60%) were in stage III (both
parenchymal and meningeal invlolvement). The most common
finding in CT head was meningeal enhancement in 43 patients,
hydrocephalus in 37 patients and tuberculomas in 14 patients. The
most common sites of tuberculomas were frontal lobe (n=6;
42.8%), parietal lobe (n=4; 28.5%), followed by cerebellum in 2
patients and occipital in two. Nine patients had single and five
multiple tuberculomas. Of the 14 patients with tuberculomas,
hydrocephalus on CT was seen in 6 patients.
Conclusion: CT scan is a useful diagnostic tool even in very early
stages of TBM. Abnormalities reported on CT scan done are
hydrocephalus, infarcts, basal enhancement, and tuberculomas.
Normal study is reported in up to 20% of the cases.