Music One-to-One

Final Report

March 2006

1

AcknowledgementsProject Team

Helen Brayley: Music Practitioner: ExeterEleanor Davies: Research Assistant, University of ExeterTracey Milne: Music Practitioner: OxfordDr Alison Street: Project Officer, University of ExeterDr Susan Young: Project Director, University of ExeterRachael Cox Interviewer, BirminghamSarah Shakespeare Interviewer, Birmingham With thanks to the Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation and Youth Music who funded the project.

We are grateful to the setting managers and staff who supported the project by enabling us to organise groups and run sessions in their settings. We also thank the mothers and children who took part in the project and the practitioners who allowed us to interview them and to observe them.

2

Contents Page

No.Executive SummaryKey FindingsImplication for Policy and PracticeImplications for Research

4 4 6 6

Section 1Background and Rationale1.1 Introduction1.2 Project Aim

Section 2

8 8 811

13Stage 1: Information Gathering2.1 Introduction2.2 Everyday Music with Under Two-year-olds2.3 Findings2.3.1 Resources for music2.3.2 Recorded Music from Audio and Mixed Media Sources2..3.3 Singing and Song Repertoire2.3.4 Music at Bedtime2.4 Conclusion

131313151516171819

Section 3Stage 1: Information Gathering3.1 Interviews with early childhood music practitioners3.2 Background qualifications and training3.3 Employment status3.4 Expanding practice3.5 Structured Sessions3.6 The purpose of music with under-twos3.7 Conclusion

202020202122242526

Section 4Stage 2: Fieldwork: Trials4.1 Introduction4.2 Trial One4.2.1 Analysis of pre-and post-intervention interviews 4.2.2 Trial 1: Discussion4.3 Trial Three4.4 Conclusion

2929293232343537

3

Section 5Stage 3: Dissemination5.1 Introduction5.2 Dissemination activity5.2.1 Family Centre Staff: The Roundabout Centre, Barton, Oxford5.2.2 Britannia Road Family Centre, Banbury, Oxon5.2.3 Workshops with Trio Childminders’ Association5.2.4 Liaison with Pre-School Music Association (PRESMA)5.2.5 Leicester Toddler Time Library Assistants5.2.6 Rutland Children’s Services Workshop5.2.7 Bookshare: Leicester5.2.8 South Asian Mothers Group

383838383839394040404041

Section 6Final Summary6.1 Introduction6.2 Recommendations6.3 Postscript

4242424244

References 46

Appendices 50

4

Executive Summary

This report presents a research project which ran from November 2004 until March 2006. The aim of the project was to arrive at suggestions and recommendations for practice in music with under-two-year-olds which are intended to be useful to a wide range of early years and music practitioners. These suggestions emerged from a process of information gathering integrated with exploratory practice. The study investigated the everyday musical experiences of under-two-year olds in the home through a set of 88 questionnaire/interviews with mothers who visited early childhood settings in central and South West England. In addition, 15 music practitioners with experience of working with under two-year-olds were interviewed to explore their background training, versions of practice and the values and priorities which underpin their work. We also observed sessions given by five of these practitioners.

The project included 3 trials run by the two project practitioners in 3 different settings linked to Sure Start units. The aim of these trials was to explore approaches to practice and in a cyclical action research process of review and forward planning, decide upon some principles upon which work with under two-year-olds in music might proceed. Key Findings

1. Under two-year-olds are experiencing a wealth of music in the home and this musical experience is integrated into screen-based multi-media, play with musical toys and sociable play within the family. We challenge those studies that have tended to report negatively on the demise of parental singing to very young children by drawing attention to this quantity and variety of musical experience.

2. Mothers report the value and purpose of musical activity for the

regulation of mood and physical state, benefiting both babies and themselves. Many mothers use soothing music at bedtime but this is in many instances provided by toys, mobiles or recorded music in place of singing.

3. Music heard in the home is more likely to be the mothers’ or family members’ choice of music and not music specifically selected for the under two-year-old. The TV, however, is reported as often tuned to children’s TV programmes and we propose that the musical experiences provided by these programmes are central.

4. Mothers do not know a wide repertoire of songs for singing to and with their children, they rely on learning songs from early childhood groups they attend. They also sing songs with their children taken from TV and radio (both children’s and adults’).

5. Mothers described their under two-year-olds as responding actively to music, particularly well known recorded music, either on their own or among other family members. They described their

5

children enjoying being the centre of attention and of drawing others in to sociable music activity.

6. Mothers value music for a range of purposes, but the more ‘educative’ purposes tended to be emphasised by those with a higher qualifications background. There may be a mismatch between the aims and purposes for music expressed by professionals (for language, social skills and musical development) and those of the mothers they are working with.

7. The majority of music practitioners working with under-twos whom we interviewed have a formal ‘classical’ music training and/or some kind of education background. Two practitioners had folk music backgrounds but none in our sample had popular music or world music backgrounds. We consider this range of musical background to be typical of early childhood music practitioners.

8. Early years music practitioners start working in an entrepreneurial way by setting up private music classes. They seek out short training courses in early years music, after they have started work in this field, which they fund themselves. The majority take courses rooted in or strongly influenced by the Kodaly approach.

9. Where music practitioners have longer-term employment, from an arts or education organisation, they have developed more integrated ways of working with settings and practitioners than is possible in short-term funded projects.

10.There is a ‘consensual’ model of early years music practice which is based on group singing of a repertoire of children’s songs, movement and instrument activities, and an ‘elements of music’ approach.

11.The majority of music practitioners describe the aims of their work as being to develop aspects of the adult-child relationship, to promote musical and language development and social skills. However, the ideology of adult-child relating and communication is not carried through into the descriptions of typical activities which are education derived in style. This was further supported by our observations of music sessions.

12.There is a notion of ‘everyday’ music expressed by some music practitioners but this tends to be conceived as a one-way process, with expectations that parents/carers will take activities away from the session, not that practitioners will seek to find out and build on what families are already doing. The consequence is a mismatch between what parents/carers may benefit from the most and what the practitioners consider they need.

13. At the end of the trial sessions, the mothers taking part in the project sessions increased their repertoire of songs and reported that they sung more with their babies at home. They also gained a repertoire of activities for playing with and managing the mood and physical state of their children.

6

14.They valued the flexible, easy pace of the sessions and the opportunity for social contact with other mothers. Expectations of regular week-by-week attendance are unrealistic and programmes should be planned accordingly.

Implications for Policy and Practice

The aim of the project was to arrive at a set of recommendations and suggestions for practice which would be widely applicable to professionals in a range of situations. These are given in detail in the final summary. However, a number of broader implications arise from the project which are as follows:

1. Early childhood music practice needs to be identified as a distinct form of practice with a set of skills, knowledge base, prior and substantial training requirements and professional networks.

2. There needs to be forms of training for early years music professionals which equip them for changing roles as the work expands into community early childhood settings. The training should recognise the priorities and aims of working in music with families from a diversity of backgrounds and in a range of situations.

3. This work needs a strong theoretical base, built on an understanding of communicative musicality in early childhood, drawing on a variety of approaches in method and incorporating diverse musical styles.

4. Early Childhood Music Practice should emphasise consultation with others; other professionals, families, community leaders and musicians, so that perspectives and values are understood and incorporated into ways of working.

5. Funding for music work should recognise that continuity and consistency are required to ensure sustainability and ownership.

Implications for Research

This was a medium scale study with a specific aim and at the same time it sought wide ranging information which was used to inform the exploratory approaches to practice. These explorations drew attention to areas of importance which deserve further research. The following areas for further research are identified:

1. This information has opened up a little explored area, that of the everyday musical experiences of under two-year-olds, which has revealed important and significant findings for the field of early childhood music education. Further studies of young children’s everyday musical practices are required, particularly among Black and Minority Ethnic families, and also exploring the impact of digitisation on music and musical practices in families.

7

2. Further studies are required which will explore ‘infant directed singing’ (or a necessary revision of IDS) among working class, Black and Minority Ethnic families and incorporate this information into notions of ‘communicative musicality’ which are currently influential on early years practice.

3. In addition, the interviews with music practitioners, suggest that an extensive survey of a larger sample early childhood music practitioners would provide information that would assist in understanding what factors contribute to effective practice and contribute to the development of professional models of practice.

4. Further developmental work is required in the form of action research projects in which practitioners can explore innovative approaches to early years music practice and assess their impact.

8

Section 1

Background and Rationale

1.1 Introduction

Current government policy in the UK is prioritising initiatives aimed at improving the education and care of the very young. The Sure Start programme (DfEE, 1999) aims at early intervention in providing support for parents with babies to promote intellectual and social development, (Sure Start UK, 2001, p.1). The UK government has recently pledged further generous financing to assist voluntary and community organisations in the delivery of parenting support. These broad policy and practice directions are influencing funding allocations within arts organisations resulting in considerable increased of arts-based activity focused on the very young (Artservice, 2002).

However, these sources of funding, while promoting activity are not primarily designed to support work which is concerned with the development of models of practice to ensure they are appropriate, are developmentally beneficial and reaching the most in need. Funding tends to emphasise value for money, numbers taking part, providing opportunity and access for wide participation. For their part, arts organisations are used to applying evaluation procedures, but these tend to be derived from traditions of audience/participant monitoring and measurements of satisfaction, tied in to promotional and marketing priorities. They tend to assemble straightforward information about attendance, the demographic details of participants and practical details such as access and timing. Information about responses to content is often collected selectively from comments sheets and reported as ‘good news’ anecdotes. Rarely is the nature of practice itself examined and certainly not in consultation and review with early childhood practitioners. Practice design is left in the hands of providers. A recent report commissioned by the Arts Council to explore arts initiatives for very young children from birth to school-age (Clark, Hepstenstall, Simon & Moss, 2002) recommended a number of areas for development, not one of which was concerned with research into or the strategies to evolve exemplary models of practice. With broad, national structures representing considerable investment in place, it was our view that this needs to be followed by detailed attention to raising, and evening out, the understanding of what might constitute exemplary versions of practice if resources are to be used effectively. Motivated by this rationale, the project, Music One-to-one, was initiated.

There is increasing evidence arising from research in a range of fields; music therapy (Standley, 2002), neuroscience, music psychology and developmental social psychology, to suggest that musical activity can play a significantly important part in the early development of children (Young, 2003). Some of this evidence has been wildly exaggerated in media reporting and so much of this media ‘hype’ needs taking with a ‘pinch of salt’. However, from reliable sources, there is some accumulating evidence that from birth and into the first years of

9

childhood, singing, rhymes, musical games and listening to music are potentially beneficial to infant and child physiological and emotional well-being and early learning (see Trehub, 2003a, 2003b for useful overviews; also Calne, 1991.) That traditions of singing, rhyming and rhythmically moving young babies exist through history and across cultures (Trehub, Unyk & Trainor, 1993) provides substantiation that singing, quasi-musical vocal and movement activities contribute to parenting practice with very young children. Trehub and colleagues identified distinct musical characteristics when adults and older siblings sing to babies and very young children which she termed ‘infant directed singing’ (see Trehub, 2003a). The broader notion of an envelope of interaction characterised by music-like characteristics of rhythmic phrasing has been termed ‘communicative musicality’ by Malloch (2000) and Trevarthen (2000)

Specifically, introducing singing and musical play with babies can provide a frame for carer-infant interaction. Sensitive, responsive interaction is believed to have a major impact on social, emotional and cognitive development (Shonkoff & Meisels, 2000). A study of mothers singing to their infants in domestic settings suggested that mothers are able to engage and develop interaction with their babies more successfully through vocalising and rhythmic movement than through talking to them (Street, Young, Tafuri & Ilari, 2003). While singing to babies has traditionally been part of care-giving routines, recent evidence (Clift, 2002) suggests that this can no longer be assumed, nor, based on my observations in daycare (Young, 2003), can it be assumed of professional staff working with babies and toddlers in a range of settings. Given that musical activity has been shown to assist with the regulation of affect (Robb, 1999; Trehub, 2003b p.11), current interest in the early development of ‘state’ control, including arousal, attention and affective behaviours (e.g. Super, Harkness, van den Boom, Granger & Molenaar, 2005) and the influence of parenting/caring practices on this development supports the hypothesis that ‘communicative musicality’ might constitute an important early influence on the foundation of children’s later ability to monitor and self-regulate their emotions.

There is, however, an important issue to raise. The research which has given rise to theoretical accounts of communicative musicality and infant directed speech has been carried out with volunteering white, middle class mothers in laboratory conditions. Recent work (Street, 2006) has begun to explore infant-directed-singing in the home context and to expand the sample to include non-white participants, but there is certainly more to be done in this respect. Gratier’s (1999) study with immigrant Asian mothers in Paris revealed very important findings as to possible disturbances to ‘communicative musicality’ among these women. At the same time, there are concerns beginning to be voiced that ‘white western, middle class’ versions of parenting are being implicitly adopted as a yardstick against which alternative variations in parenting practice are evaluated and seen in deficit terms (e.g. Gillies, 2005). These versions of parenting tend to prize dyadic interaction and animated exchanges in which the parent adopts a playful role. Contemporary research into parenting practice acknowledges that there are many routes to successful parenting (Levine, 2003; Tudge & Putnam, 1997))

10

Group music sessions, gathering to sing songs, are an important component of early childhood practice. This is the form that practitioners of early childhood music offer to early childhood settings. A search through the Sure Start website confirms this. However, we consider there to be a crucial distinction between group music as recreation and entertainment, the format also for privately run sessions frequented by middle class mothers and approaches designed to encourage music as a means to fostering sensitive interaction as part of parenting practice. Moreover, this is a distinction which we consider is not well recognised by those providing the music or those engaging music practitioners. In current early childhood practice, based on our experience, the primary justification for the inclusion of music in guidance materials and project proposals generally takes the form of singing songs and rhymes to support the development of language (Young, 2005). With the current drive to improve the language ‘scores’ of children in Sure Start designated areas, this objective is understandably driven by these imperatives. Songs and rhymes contain rich sources of language input and music is perceived to be the ‘added ingredient’ with makes learning fun and enjoyable. ‘Finding a voice’ in the curriculum guidance, Birth to Three Matters is narrowed to mean a speaking voice, rather than a ‘voice’ in a broader sense to engage interactively and imaginatively through expressive vocalisations with others, to express emotion, meaning and intention. Our aim was to arrive at suggestions and recommendations which would broaden understanding of what communicative music in parenting practice might be and how to foster it. Importantly it is the dynamic qualities of music, the capacity of rhythmic, pitch-contoured expressions which are well attuned to baby to engender interest, attention and sympathetic engagement. This is more complex and subtle process than singing songs as a means for developing language or the voice as a means for speaking.

We were also concerned that attendance at group music sessions is attractive and relevant only to certain parents and carers, probably those who are already confident and capable at accessing these kinds of groups. Our prior experience of setting up, leading and evaluating early childhood music work, led us to be convinced that it would be valuable for a wide range of early childhood professionals - childminders, daycare workers, midwives, health visitors, outreach play workers, speech and language therapists – to be equipped with a rationale for why musically playful activity is potentially beneficial and some suggestions for what to do. Given the emphasis that we place on a form of musical activity as a component of parenting practice, described as intuitive even (Papousek, 1996) such a version of music will be undemanding of formal, music performance skills. Its purpose is to generate emotionally warm and sympathetic interaction, well ‘attuned’ to use Stern’ s term (1985). However, practitioners do need some specific sets of skills and understandings if they are to achieve this (Godfrey, 2001; Young, 2003, 2004; Pascal et al, 2005). They require knowledge of communicative music in early childhood, of how to support empathetic musical play between mothers and babies and how to work with parents of young children from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. To give an example, most mothers sing to their babies, facing them, expressively, at a slow pace, with generous pauses, adding in gentle rhythmic movements – this characteristic way of singing is often termed infant-

11

direct singing, IDS (Trehub, 2003a). Yet group music is often at a lively ‘adult’ pace to generate a sense of fun, with no adaptation to individual rhythms and responses, babies face outwards and it can result in an over-stimulating or bewildering experience for them.

Equally, among music professionals there is a need for information to develop models of practice. Although there is much excellent work taking place, many do not recognise the repertoire of specific skills and understanding required to work successfully with parents/carers and babies and very young children. Usually they are working on a precarious, freelance basis, needing to work across a very wide range of community contexts, all with their distinct demands, and there is not time, nor money to access specific training. However, when ‘cost effectiveness’ is an important criterion, not developing practice through appropriate training represents poor investment in the long term.

1.2 Project Aim

The primary and wide-view aim of the project was to enhance parenting by the inclusion of appropriate forms of one-to-one playful musical activity which we considered would provide a frame for parent-infant interaction. This is a broad aspiration, well nigh impossible to evaluate accurately as ultimately parenting happens at home and is therefore difficult to access. Self-report techniques are open to bias. As practical outcomes, and an achievable aim, the project intended to arrive at recommendations and suggestions for music in the upbringing of very young children which are designed for use by a wide range of early childhood professionals and adaptable to existing early childhood and parenting support programmes.

The project was practice-oriented, but sought to inform practice with research and to continue that process through data collection and reflection built into the practical elements. It had, therefore, elements of action research design in its construction around a preliminary information gathering stage followed by two – and what became eventually three - trials with intermediary review. Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) recently carried out a meta-analysis of parental involvement in their children’s education which included parenting programmes. They arrived at a recommendation for this principle of design-research, in which lessons are learned from work in progress and then feed into continuous improvement of the approach (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003:90).

Importantly, however, we attempted to move beyond ‘what works’. We also hoped to radicalise early childhood music practice by re-thinking certain key aspects of it, not just ‘what works’ but ‘what matters’? Primarily we hoped to challenge ways of working by examining the assumptions this kind of work, (as with much parenting intervention), can imperceptibly and unwittingly carry.

The project was designed in three clear phases, Stage 1, information gathering, Stage 2, field work and Stage 3, dissemination. The following sections report on each of these phases in turn.

12

Section 2

Stage 1: Information Gathering2.1Introduction

Information was gathered from parents, carers, early childhood practitioners and music practitioners about their current practices in music, their knowledge of repertoire and their perceptions of the significance, value and purposes of music with young children. Taking into account the prior experiences, views and perceptions of these groups was considered a necessary preliminary to designing appropriate and feasible approaches (see Moran, Ghate & van der Merwe, 2004). We hypothesized that activity must be perceived as relevant and appropriate if parents are to accept and incorporate elements into their own parenting.

We were concerned initially to explore notions of ‘appropriateness’. Our own evaluation of an earlier series of mother and baby music sessions caused us to wonder if the type of ‘classic’ early childhood song repertoire and canon of activities presented may be inadvertently reproducing white middle class values and priorities within constructions of childhood and parenthood which are out of kilter with those of the parents we aimed to involve. Recent years have seen a growing interest in parents’ own ideas about parenting (e.g. Harkness & Super, 1995; 2002) An important objective underlying this interest is to understand more about parental beliefs and theories and how they manifest in their day-to-day approaches to upbringing. Smith and Pugh (1996; also Smith, 1997)) agree that there are significant risks inherent in parent programmes or interventions if certain key principles, such as respect for diversity and parents’ own needs are not followed.

In particular we were concerned at the tendency to describe some communities of mothers and babies, particularly those coping with poverty, in implicitly deficit terms. The difference in lifestyles and family patterns of people living in disadvantaged areas can quite easily – but erroneously – translate into one of deficit. We intended, therefore, to look for and identify their current capabilities and then seek to build on and expand them rather than introduce new ones. Although aspects of parenting may be universal, there are significant differences in parenting practices associated with race, ethnicity, religion and socio-economic status (Harkness & Super, 1995; Hoff-Ginsberg & Tardif, 1995). Since music strongly assists in the process of defining who we are, this may be a particularly important consideration in terms of designing approaches based on musical activity. 2.2 Everyday Music with Under Two-year-olds

The information presented here concerning the everyday musical experiences of under-two-year-olds was gathered from interviews carried out with 88 parents and carers. The assembled information was intended to inform the design of these models of practice. When practitioners are

13

knowledgeable about children’s family and community interests and expertise, they are able to incorporate them and thereby provide a meaningful programme that includes the lived experiences of the child and family. The notion of music as part of the ‘everyday’ experience for young children has entered the rhetoric of early years music project applications and evaluations. However, the implicit expectation is that the music work provides ‘take home’ elements rather than a notion that the music practitioner will find out and build on what the children and parents already know and are doing.

In the event all the interviewees were women, all mothers of the children, with the exception of one foster carer. We purposefully steered the sample to include Black and Asian Minority Ethnic and white working class women by visiting settings in urban, and rural small town locations where we knew these demographic groups would represent the majority. Information about the sample is presented in Appendix 3. The sample was mixed to emphasise variety and diversity of experience. Following Rogoff’s lead (2003), the women’s background ‘culture’ was not considered to be a stand-alone variable. Our aim was not to seek to map diversity systematically, we were looking for insight into breadth of experience through information from different groups.

We visited groups known generally as ‘stay and plays’, held in community nurseries or similar accommodation, where mothers can visit for a couple of hours with their babies and young children. The ‘stay and play’ offers parents a period of social contact with others in spaces providing play opportunities for their children. Since we sought children who were for the majority of their time cared for by their mothers at home, the ‘stay and plays’ offered a probable setting to find such mother-child pairs. Although the children were aged from birth up to 24 months, the majority, 70% of the children, were in the age bracket 9 months to 24 months.

We employed three local interviewers in some areas who matched the mothers in terms of ethnicity, accent, dialect and in one case language, and who had knowledge and sensitivity to the local community. Our aim was to reduce the cultural and social differences between interviewer and interviewee with the hope of increasing the mothers’ confidence that their responses would be received sympathetically and no judgementally. Attempts to increase empathy between interviewer and interviewee may be particularly important when enquiring about aspects of parenting practice about which mothers may feel heightened sensitivity concerning their competence. The self-report method coupled with the desire to present a competent self-image of parenting which accords with an ideal they hold for themselves, may encourage mothers to filter or distort to some degree the information they present. We were aware of this. A set of questions designed to elicit information about mothers’ own musical backgrounds, interests and activities was not only useful in gathering information valuable in its own right, but, we hoped, would serve to balance out and dissipate the focus of interest, lessening the tendency to offer biased responses.

The interviews were based on a prepared questionnaire/interview schedule which contained a mix of closed, one-answer or tick-box

14

questions and open questions inviting more detailed responses (see Appendix 1). Interviewers were given detailed instructions for how to conduct the interviews. Recognising that mothers with small children are likely to ‘have their hands full’ and to avoid any anxieties about literacy competence, the interviewers were asked to read out all the questions and write the responses. This necessarily imposed certain limitations on the numbers of questions and on the level of detail if we were to limit the interview to 20 minutes – the maximum time we thought practical. However, the spoken interview has advantages over the questionnaire in that it prompts more fluid, detailed responses, although this in turn relies on the interviewers to note these quickly. In spite of our efforts to ensure the interview procedure would be carried out uniformly, variations between interviewers were apparent from the returned questionnaires, most notably in the length of the written responses to the open-ended questions. The single-response questions were completed fully and accurately across all the interview/questionnaires.

The purpose of the study was explained fully to all participants and they signed a consent form. Initial questions gathered in general information concerning the constitution of families, the ages of children, living circumstances and the mothers’ educational background. The body of the interview covered questions ranging widely over different aspects of the child’s musical experiences, her views and opinions concerning aspects of music with her child and the mothers’ own musical interests. The gathered responses were analysed using a mix of numerical and cross-comparative, qualitative procedures.

There were some issues which we also probed with practitioners and had been included in the parents’ interviews, for example, their perceptions of the purpose and value of musical activity with young children. Responses pertaining to this issue and other common areas could then be collated and compared across the different groups of interviewees. We had also sought information about knowledge of repertoire and activities and again, this more straightforward information could be assembled across the groups.

2.3 Findings

This part of the project revealed very interesting information concerning the everyday musical experiences of under two-year-olds in the home which is also reported elsewhere (Young, Street & Davies, 2005; Young, forthcoming.)

2.3.1 Resources for music

An early question invited the mothers to tell us about resources for music in the home – the toys, equipment, CDs, tapes, videos, DVDs, instruments and any other items which incorporated digitised or mechanical sounds. The information was organised into categories (see table 1). Musical mobiles clipped on to cots were mentioned so frequently that they warranted a separate category. The other categories included sound makers such as rattles where the sound was produced by simple shaking or banging actions [including the more traditional baby toys such as rattles] and toy musical instruments which were toy versions of acoustic

15

instruments such as drums and xylophones. One category was created for audio (CDs, tapes) and mixed media items (video, DVD).

A final category, ‘musical toys’, was created when we discovered the number of toys described which had digitised tunes or musical effects such as rhythmic sounds or short, melodic motifs incorporated into them, often in combination with other functions. This latter group has rapidly expanded as a result of the technological advancements for digitising music. A high proportion (nearly 80%) of mothers described musical toys and many, unprompted, embarked on complex descriptions of movements, sounds and other effects achieved by the electronic components incorporated into these toys.

Musical form

mobile sound makers

audio Mixed media

instruments

Musical toys

Percentage answered yes

32.1 66.7 94.9 89.7 62.8 78.2

0102030405060708090

100

mobile

soun

d mak

ersau

dio

mixed m

edia

instru

ments

musica

l toys

Percentage

2.3.2 Recorded Music from Audio and Mixed Media Sources

In our construction of the questionnaire we aimed to avoid suggesting any preconceived notion of what counted as music but to allow this to emerge as the questions unfolded. Thus a question asked, ‘day to day, what music do you think your child hears?’ accompanied by a simple demarcation of the day into morning, afternoon, evening and bedtime. This question was interpreted by the mothers as a request to describe the recorded music their children heard. All children bar one, except when they were asleep or out at toddler groups, were reported as hearing some music during the day, mainly from the radio (BBC Radio 1,2 and local radio stations) and/or from TV music channels, or children’s programmes on TV or video. Only one mother answered, exceptionally, that there was ‘not generally’ any music in the house.

16

When more information was requested about the style of music heard in the home, the mothers mostly described for us their own music and this ranged widely, reflecting the diverse musical interests of our interview sample. A set of questions invited the mothers to reflect upon their own musical interests and activities. Styles of popular music included hip hop, reggae, Asian film music and Bengali popular music. There were two mentions of jazz and single instances of gospel, Irish folk and country and western. Only one mother described listening to classical music, yet the interviews with music practitioners reported in the next chapter reveal most to have a classical music training background. There were notably few mentions of the music playing being ‘nursery rhyme CDs or tapes’. Only 19% of mothers reported their children listening to such tapes or CDs at some point in the day and the major source, 67% of children’s music being from TV programmes, usually during the morning when children were at home. So although the families possessed children’s music tapes and CDs, it would appear they were infrequently listened to.

2.3.3 Singing and Song Repertoire

Another group of questions were designed to elicit information about whether the mothers sing and play musical games with their children at home. Research to date has mostly focussed on the first year of life, so this study, by including a high proportion of children in the age bracket 9 months to 24 months complements and extends these studies.

Although fifty-one of the 88 mothers reported some form of music at bedtime for their children, only 17 (20%) of children were sung to, although a small number of mothers (11) from the 88 described singing for times when baby needed soothing, ‘relaxing’ or distracting, such as when being changed. The music at bedtime was provided by recorded music, often ‘chill out’ or ambient music, or by sleep aids such as lullaby light shows and sleep teddies, both of which play music intended to be soothing. A higher number of mothers, 18 from the total of 88, said they used singing for fun and to make their children ‘happy’.

17

2.3.4 Music at Bedtime

music at bedtime?

TotalYes NoAGE 0-3

months 4 3 7

4-8 months 12 4 16

9-15 months 19 9 28

16-24 months 16 21 37

Total 51 37 88

BEDTIME (%)

Noneaudio media

mixed media

live singing

mobile toy

Total

AGE(%)

0-3 months 3 1 0 2 1 8

4-8 months 5 1 3 6 3 18

9-15 months 10 10 5 5 2 32

16-24 months 24 7 3 7 1 42

Total 42 19 11 20 8 100

Although we did not ask mothers to provide an exhaustive list of the children’s songs and rhymes they knew, several questions prompted mention of song repertoire. They recounted the familiar repertoire heard in early childhood settings such as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Incey, Wincey, Spider. The fact that we were interviewing in these settings must have brought these songs and rhymes to mind – but a later question which was intended to elicit information about songs with their origins in family and/or community backgrounds produced very few replies. Grandparents and other family members in just 6 instances were described as teaching more songs than the mother, particularly baby songs traditional to the family culture. What we also noticed, however, having batched the questionnaires according to each ‘stay and play’ was the similarity of repertoire mentioned in relation to each setting. What this suggested is that parents are relying heavily on baby and toddler groups to learn the song and rhyme repertoire they use at home.

2.4 Conclusion

18

Babies and very young children are experiencing a rich variety of music at home from many sources, toys, TV, music playing equipment and live music. Although the reporting of live singing would suggest that this is only one minor part of the children’s experiences, we found a wealth of musical experiences around toys, recorded music and multi-media items and, particularly among toddlers, involving sociable activity with family members (see also Young & Gillen, 2006).

To date, most studies which have had something to say about the everyday musical experiences of under two-year-olds have only explored one dimension – either they are enquiring about singing to babies, they are enquiring about recorded music or they are studies interested in children’s experiences of media, which also includes music (e.g. Marsh et al, 2005). In addition, we suggest that studies with one focus, asking mothers what recorded music their children are listening to for example, are likely to retrieve information which is biased by mother’s desires to report positively on their parenting practice (Custodero, Britto & Xin, 2002). Our questionnaires were designed to elicit information from broad-based questions and showed no particular bias towards one type of activity. In addition we enquired about the mothers’ own musical interests and activities, thus endeavouring to support and show an interest in their identity through music rather than as parents. Finally, we would maintain that the process of using local interviewers have encouraged the mothers to answer with less bias.

19

Section 3Stage 1: Information Gathering3.1 Interviews with early childhood music practitioners

Early childhood music professionals who were considered to have substantial experience at working in music with under two-year-olds and their parents/carers were contacted for interviews, some conducted over the phone. Five practitioners were visited to observe them working in addition to interviewing them. The sample increased by ‘snowballing’ and reached a total of 15 interviews plus an informal discussion with three trainees at the Sage Gateshead which we included in the data. The interviews were based on a semi-structured format around a number of key questions which we had identified in advance (Appendix: 2). The semi-structured format allowed issues which we had previously not considered to emerge in the process of the interview. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed. With some later interviews, collection of some of the basic factual information was obtained via a simple email questionnaire. The transcripts were reviewed and cross-compared for common themes and patterns. Although the sample is relatively small, the interviews were detailed and we are confident that this sample of practitioners, and therefore the gathered information and the interpretations we have arrived at, are broadly representative.

3.2 Background qualifications and training

All those interviewed were women and ranged in age from the trainees at the Sage Gateshead in their twenties, to late fifties. That the majority of practitioners interviewed were middle aged may be significant in relation to working with a generation of new mothers. The qualifications and training background of the practitioners was collated. This revealed a range of backgrounds with the majority having graduate status (12 out of the 15), either in music or instrumental performance. In addition, just over half had taken training courses in one of the recognised methods for music education, the most common being training rooted in the Kodaly method. This is a widely available type of course orientated towards the early years age phase. However, no practitioners had any training which specifically prepared them for work in music with under two-year-olds although one had focused on music in infancy for a psychology of music degree at Masters level. Given that early years music work is concerned with music as a medium for relating, and this was often emphasised in the interviews, it is noteworthy that only one practitioner had expertise in music therapy.

Two practitioners were folk musicians and there were no practitioners with expertise in popular music, jazz or what is broadly termed ‘world musics’. The sampad project had employed a trainee who had a qualification in Asian music from the Birmingham Conservatoire to match the musical interests of the groups of mothers they were working with. Another practitioner had prior experience of music projects in parts of Africa and incorporated songs and instrumental activities into her work.

20

The musical backgrounds of the practitioners contrast with the mothers’ musical interests as reported earlier which centred on popular music and musical styles which resonate with their cultural identities.

The Sage Gateshead offers an apprenticeship scheme in community music, for which one focus can be early years. This is highly practice-based and involves the trainees in working alongside the main practitioner, provides structured review and development meetings but does not appear to include any theoretical input or training in variety of methods or approaches. While mentoring, a model favoured by community music approaches, has many advantages, it might result in the cloning of one particular approach.

‘But training specifically we haven’t had, no, and I think that is something that would be really useful to us. [The sure start workers] have told me about the kind of training that they’ve been on and where they’ve done that kind of thing and I think that would be really god to have a bit more of that. I think a lot of what we do we go on instinct – what their facial expressions are or if they’re talking over what you’re doing. Instinct’s OK . . . but it would be good to back it up with some academic knowledge . . . mostly I go by whether they’re enjoying themselves.’

3.3 Employment status

The employment status of the music practitioners varied but the majority were freelance and part-time; an exception being the early years specialist at an arts organisation who has employed status and the apprenticeship scheme for a group of trainees. Some practitioners enjoyed more stable part-time employment arrangements – longer-term contracts with music services, early childhood settings or with arts organisations. Some community musicians develop full-time careers by building up a mixed portfolio of activity which may include early years work and a couple of the musicians interviewed counted their early years work as one strand among many.

However, the majority of early years practitioners we interviewed have specialised in this age phase and many had built up a practice based on private classes for which parents pay a small fee. With the expansion of early years provision and the funding opportunities it has created, many practitioners have been able to extend their activity to include work paid from Sure Start and/or Youth Music initiatives. For the most part practitioners describe having slipped into the work, often when they started their own families, adding training which they seek out and pay for themselves after they have started to practise. There is, therefore, little employment stability and no recognised career structure to early childhood music practice preceded by a broad-base training leading to a recognised qualification.

3.4 Expanding practice

21

Of the practitioners we selected to interview almost all had experience of running private classes and had expanded their work to provide music for Sure Start/Children’s centres or similar settings. For some this expansion resulted in a complex patchwork of different groups in different settings.

‘In addition to these ‘regular’ session in libraries, I also run sessions for community groups, incorporating music for special needs groups, sessions at a temporary housing centre, children’s centres and baby clinics - post natal groups etc -, a twins group and on occasions at the Women’s Refuge I also visit Family Learning nursery and literacy courses to add musical content.’

From many of the responses a demarcation between the two types of provision – private and ‘community funded’ - could be identified and many talked of variations between the two in how they worked.

…’in my private classes, mostly carers from the town in which I live and work, which is on the whole a middle class, professional community. The carers attending the Sure Start classes are obviously different since Sure Start activities are restricted to those with underprivileged postcodes – often single parents, very young parents.’

‘There’s a difference between what we do in A. and what we do here for the parents who’ve paid to come’.

When parents were paying for sessions this set up expectations for the work on both sides of the parent-practitioner partnership, whereas subsidised sessions provided at community settings tended to operate on a different basis. These sessions are free for the parents and carers who attend. It is the practitioners who travel out and about to community settings and the music is often integrated into existing groups, often at the behest of organisers and managers rather than the mothers who attend. Who has initiated the music sessions may be a crucial factor in how they are received and engaged with.

‘because . . . they pay and expect a certain standard of music and want their child to have a fantastic musical experience – not all of them, but some people say they’ve paid their money and want to know how to make their child into a great violinist or something!’

‘Music is free for Sure Start parents. There’s no commitment and so people drop out.’

22

Three of the practitioners we interviewed had found ways to integrate their privately funded sessions with community settings such as children’s centres, stay and plays and health centres. One music practitioner who was employed by the local authority music service worked voluntarily at health centres and had set up work with health visitors as part of the overall programme she runs in the county. This kind of integration requires the stability of longer-term work and developed slowly. In another area, the local Sure Start subsidised places in a regular scheme of music service classes which resulted in a more ‘integrated’ approach. However, these mothers may still be marked out as ‘Sure Start supported Mums’.

One practitioner pointed out that the Sure Start funded music sessions had deprived the local freelance music practitioner of employment but once the short-term funding had dried up, she had developed other work and did not return. The recent evaluation of Sure Start found that new initiatives can sometimes sweep away existing satisfactory arrangements (NESS, 2005).

There was some evidence of tensions or difficulties arising from differing sets of expectations, mostly centring on how the parents participate.

‘I once asked a mother to stop her child doing something and she just stormed out because she didn’t like being told what to do’

‘generally as a rule of thumb the children who don’t engage have the parents who don’t engage’

‘You get to settings where the chairs are all set round the outside of the room and the toys are all over the carpet on the floor in the middle. And they think we’re employed to look after their kids. And they either stay where they are and chatter on and expect us to draw them [the children] all in or else they let the children play around on the big toys/’ ‘Sometimes mums don’t come back because the group is not what they expected – they expect to sit on the edge and watch me entertaining their children. They might be mothers who are unsure about joining in themselves. This has happened, usually with mums who’ve heard about the group via the Health Visitor, that is, they’ve been referred, or are group D or E mothers’

For some groups of parents, (particularly if the music has been imposed) time to get to know them, to build trust, may be an important initial stage before any music can begin. But for practitioners employed and paid to ‘deliver’ music it can present a dilemma.

You ask them if they want to learn a new song … but they don’t want anyone to question their parental skills, particularly in front of their peers. That’s the case with younger parents. One example is that W. and I worked in a breast feeding support group. They were there for support and the workers thought it would be good to have a bit of music and they were so hostile to begin with. We were sat in the corner and they wouldn’t come and they wouldn’t sing. Over the

23

course of 6 months we were going every fortnight and sitting and chatting … it was a good 8 hours of work and we didn’t do much – just sitting with babies who were interested and we’d think, what are we going to do with the rest of the hour? We’d go and chat with the parents and gain their trust. Then they were begging us to come back when we got to the end.

3.5 Structured Sessions

Typically sessions last for thirty minutes with a ‘before and after’ period of five or ten minutes for arriving and readying and for leaving. All the practitioners described the framework to their sessions and emphasised the importance of it remaining the same so that it is ‘therefore predictable and safe where people know what is going to happen.’ Only one practitioner thought that it was important to do ‘different things every time’.

Although the practitioners we interviewed were widely dispersed geographically and working independently, there was a surprising similarity in how they structured their sessions and in the types of activities offered. This was corroborated by our observations of practice. The Hello and Goodbye songs for start and finish were universal. Between these two points, the session is typically planned around a sequence of songs, some with movement and some involving equipment, toys or instruments, usually small hand-held instruments given out to children ‘one each’. The repertoire itself is individual to each practitioner and carefully accumulated with experience over time. The repertoire conforms to a ‘canon’ of children’s songs on typical childhood topics, ‘lots of colours, lots of animals’. Building a repertoire of suitable songs and accompanying activities takes considerable effort:

‘It took me two years to establish that pattern. It took shape over time. Within the framework of the Hello and Goodbye songs, I have traditional songs, lullabies, a focussed activity, like the one on pitch – high and low, then other musical ideas or activities that are very tactile, - lots of scarves, CD’s on – a mixture of cultural influences from African drumming to Salsa, peekaboo games.’

There was recognition that parents and carers value learning new songs and rhymes from the sessions. “I think they come because they feel that they have lost some of their music making – they don’t have the repertoire and would like to know songs and would like the children to have music in their lives.” But we understood this to be conceived as a one-way process and our interviews picked up little expressed interest in the home musical practices or in drawing in songs or music which were valued and important to the families themselves. The practitioners’ sense of identity associated with having musical expertise and the underpinning priorities they hold may well underlie this perspective as the following quote suggests.

‘I think it’s important to broaden repertoire. I’m a musician, Kodaly trained, and I find a lot of repertoire is quite unsuitable, the pop songs and TV adverts or nursery rhymes they’ve dredged up – too

24

complicated. The wide range is not suitable for developing in-tune singing.’

3.6 The purpose of music with under-twos

Of the fifteen interviewees eleven stated that one purpose of their work was to develop the relational and communicative aspects of the mother and baby pairs who attended.

‘The main aim for me is the development of a relationship between the mother and child.’

“Relating is more important than the music, but I like putting across musical ideas. I suppose it’s because I have been in health – I’m aware of the importance of music as a means for building good relationships”

Further sifting of the responses uncovered some variation in how this is conceived. Four referred to ‘bonding’ between mother and baby, recalling the language of attachment; three referred to ‘communication’ and five more generally to relating and relationships.

A high proportion, eleven respondents, gave other purposes that were specifically music focussed – ‘to lay the foundations of musical learning in the later stages’. The development of language and social skills, including confidence, were emphasised in about half the interviews; probably encouraged by the current emphasis on these skills and attributes in early years provision. For the most part, aspirations were broad and mixed.

‘Bonding and social relationships, language development, musical awareness.’

‘Well, you’re giving people life skills. It’s communication – 2-way, in a meaningful way. It’s about attention and spending time together, and encouragement to listen, to hear sounds and words, shape and expression, movement and actions and a sense of pulse and language too.’

‘There’s a multitude of reasons for doing music with under-twos – emotional engagement, language development, listening skills – essentially communication’

A few recognised, realistically, that for many the music session may have yet broader aims, ‘providing a chance to break away from the monotony or child rearing and to have relaxation and fun together’.

Significantly for this study, the emphasis on communication and relational aspects as an expressed ideology tended not to be born out in the descriptions of session activities. On the other hand, the laying of

25

foundations for musical development was well exemplified in the described activities and in our observations. The realisation that the music sessions could serve broader purposes, for which the music was secondary, seemed to be helpful to some practitioners in analysing their role and purpose in some of the more challenging working situations, as was the recognition that building rapport which might be a prerequisite to successful working together can take considerable time.

3.7 Conclusion

The ‘classical’ and performance background of the majority of practitioners combined with the predominance of Kodaly or Kodaly influenced training has resulted in a model of early years music practice based on the highly structured sessions, the group performance of songs led by a strong leader with an emphasis on the ‘elements’ of music. This approach emphasises a style of delivery which centres the practitioner as the musician and ‘performer’, rather than improviser, listener, musical communicator or play partner.

This model represents a consensual version of practice. It fits comfortably with the practitioners’ own identity and conforms to the expectations of middle-class mothers attending privately funded music sessions who are represented as the ‘norm’. The practitioners’ success as private practitioners may rest on their ability to create a lively and enjoyable atmosphere in which parents are expected to take an active role as play-partners to their children.

The practitioners generously shared information about their work with us and conveyed the impression that they were enthusiastic about their work and found it worthwhile and rewarding. The outlook required to be successful in developing work independently on a freelance basis requires a kind of self-assurance. We also suggest that the prevalent style of training tends to encourage conformity to prescribed versions rather than a diversity of approach and does not set out to foster reflective or exploratory approaches to practice. In addition, the freelance nature of their work means that practitioners must ensure their ongoing employment by building a reputation founded on recent successes. Such pressures tend to encourage practice which has immediate, visible appeal, and to close down risk taking and innovative, exploratory work.

Difficulties arise, the dilemmas, tensions which might lead to projections of negativity towards participating parents, we suggest, when the prevalent model of practice does not fit so comfortably in the Sure Start/ Children’s Centre settings. Here it is generally imported rather than sought out by the mothers and the practitioner may expect the same kind of engaged participation given by the ‘paid-session’ parents. Approaches developed to establish a clientele for private classes may be inappropriate for parents whose reasons for attending may have different sources. Practitioners may be relying on activities ‘which work’ rather than possessing an underpinning set of principles and a reflective disposition which enables them to revise or adapt their approaches to new contexts. However, they are often in a difficult position; under

26

pressure to ‘deliver’ music and meet externally set expectations. Funding tends to limit project work to short-term series of sessions. Short-termism mitigates against the relationship-building, stability and integration which comes with longer-term working; mitigates against developmental work which seeks to explore approaches to practice; and tends to encourage practitioners to seek (and provide evidence of) short term indicators of success.

There may be a gap between the practitioners’ musical interests as primarily classical trained musicians and the mothers’ musical interests, predominantly popular music, particularly when the parents are from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. The practitioners may be encouraged to see the parents’ musical interests in deficit terms by notions of children requiring introduction to ‘good’ music and current media reports (a misreporting of research findings) about the value of ‘classical’ music to young children.

There is an emerging discourse of music for ‘relating’ or ‘bonding’ but we think that these often remain aspirational ideals which are not born out in practice. Instead, practice tends to be built strongly on models taken from education which import a didactic teacher/pupil relationship, activities with learning purposes inbuilt and focussed on the musical content. The interviews revealed a shortage of knowledge of key aspects of music with under-two-year-olds such as the characteristics of infant-directed singing or communicative musicality and of strategies which might actively support parents and carers in interacting with their infants. The model of practice was largely a down-sized version of music for older children rather than constructed on what we know of music in infancy and parenting.

Many of the music practitioners gave accounts of their work which show that they are moving rapidly into complex working patterns involving coordination with multi-professional teams. We suggest that this expansion of their work places new challenges and demands and requires new sets of knowledge and skills. It was noticeable that one practitioner who had formerly been a social worker and currently worked for a health arts organisation was very alert to the intricacies of multi-professional working and this strongly influenced how her music project was organised.

To avoid any doubt, the analysis of these interviews provides a basis to critique, not the music practitioners themselves who are hard-working, very capable and thoughtful people, but the contexts within which they are increasingly developing their work. The majority are working precariously, on a freelance basis, without opportunities to receive substantial training and without professional networks. They are increasingly being asked to map their work onto sets of expectations and demands already imbued with certain presumptions about the nature of the work they will do. Expectations of ‘engaging with parents’, of ‘increasing literacy or numeracy’ competence, or ‘training setting staff’ which are usually attached to short-term funding misunderstand the dynamics of real-life working, are laden with assumptions about the ‘lack of’ music among parents and setting staff, built upon

27

28

narrowly conceived notions of music and what it means to work in music with young children and families. The need for differentiation according to class, gender, ethnicity and location is absent. The practitioners themselves try to absorb these expectations and demands, negotiating and trying to rationalise the dilemmas and difficulties in day-to-day working which they create.

29

Section 4Stage 2: Fieldwork: Trials

4.1 Introduction

We then interrogated our accumulating evidence from the Stage 1 of the study against our literature review of theory and findings from prior studies. From this process of interrogation we arrived at some principles which would inform the design of hypothetical models of practice. These models we considered to be developmentally beneficial and, importantly, we hoped would be perceived both by parents and early childhood practitioners as relevant, appropriate and practical.

A first trial of a series of 6 sessions was set up under ‘optimum conditions’ with a small number of volunteer parents and carers, again all mothers and their babies, at a Family Centre in central England. We then reviewed, evaluated and refined the approaches and repeated the trail at another Sure Start setting in South West England. Two practitioners with experience of working with this age group were employed by the project and each taught one trial. The first two trials worked quite differently and varying findings and issues emerged from each. However, there were two significant outcomes, emphasised by both practitioners. The first was that 6 sessions were insufficient; the group had barely become established in that time. So, because funding permitted it, we ran another two series of longer duration. The second was that work with toddlers, up on their feet and away, had to be carried out in a completely different way from groups with babies. So the next two trials were focussed on parent and baby groups. However, two of the project members visited toddler groups to explore more appropriate ways of working with this age phase, not in structured sessions but as additional ‘music play workers’ in the stay and play settings. This additional work sits outside these fieldwork trials.

Setting up a trial series of sessions was, we recognised, to some extent contradictory to the primary aims of the project. But this represented a practical way to explore a number of different ideas and approaches, even if the situation did not entirely match that for which they are ultimately intended. However, group sessions are a common format both for parenting education and music. Although we are concerned that some of the most vulnerable parents do not attend groups we were confident we would arrive at recommendations and suggestions to inform a wide-scope of practice.

The fluid boundaries between research and practice sometimes created conflicts. When research procedures were considered to have impeded practice in the second trial there was an important decision to be made. We had included in the first meeting some interviewing of mothers to gather preliminary data, but the process of review suggested that this felt stilted and unnatural when creating a relaxed and welcoming environment was of utmost importance. In situations such as this, practice was not compromised and one of the reasons for setting up a

30

third series of sessions, was to adapt the data collection procedures. In addition, we had planned to use the CARE index, a measure of mother-infant sensitivity in interaction both as a pre- and post- test for the second trial in order to assess whether the music sessions had made any impact on interaction styles. While the CARE index was applied prior to the session, in practice the cohort remained very unstable, with mothers joining part-way through, dropping out and coming intermittently. Flexible attendance is a characteristic we have since realised to be a defining feature of this work and should be incorporated into the design of approaches. Therefore, there seemed little methodological purpose in applying the CARE index in the final session.

Endeavouring, in our review and analysis, to identify the ‘active ingredients’ of the provision proved challenging – all the trials, for example, contained similar elements in terms of content and structure, yet creating a comfortable, positive ethos in a group has many subtle elements. The timing, the day of the week, the season of the year, the size of the room and its furnishings, relationships with staff in the setting, ease of access and location, create sets of subtle, interacting factors which impinge on how the group feels and progresses yet most are outside the control of the music practitioner, except to be alert to them and make adaptations and changes where possible. Every setting, every group is different. A key factor, as is often the case in any work of this kind, was establishing positive, interested relationships between practitioner and parents, practitioner and setting staff. In one setting the practitioner felt there was less active interest in her work from the setting staff. In contrast, in another two children’s centres where we worked, the setting practitioners have taken up elements of the work and incorporated them into their ongoing work.

As emerged from the interviews with music practitioners, many early childhood music specialists have education backgrounds and the main training programmes available in early childhood music tend to occupy a 45 minute slot, highly structured and based on song-singing and music-learning elements such as rhythm, pitch and simple dynamics. Music one-to-one focussed on music as a dynamic medium for play and interaction between mother and baby, between practitioner, mothers and babies. Although the sessions were planned, the structure was loose and flexible. In contrast to the usual 45 minutes, the practitioner was installed for two hours, allowing for flexible arrival and departure times and extended time for socialising between parents and practitioners. At the beginning, midway and at the end of sessions were opportunities for babies to play with instruments, sound-makers, treasure baskets or other sensory items set out on the floor by the practitioner. A more structured series of short activities around songs would take place near the beginning and towards the end of the session, but this moved at a slow pace, with the practitioner very much taking cues from the mothers. Movement to music activities, swinging babies in hammocks, floating voile fabrics, washing lines of suspended sound makers would often take place mid-session. Here, again, the emphasis was on the parents taking part as and how they wanted to. Partly depending on numbers and facilities, drinks were available and mothers fed, changed, or laid babies to sleep as they required. We placed particular importance on the group dynamic and on providing an opportunity to create a focussed time away

31

from other pressures. There was much talking – between the mothers themselves and between the practitioner and mothers – sociable conversation, eliciting information about musical practices at home, giving information about musical communication and talking with the mothers about the babies’ responses.

Observations of a range of music practitioners in Stage 1 had revealed an important aspect of how the parents of the babies were taking part. These findings confirmed and extended to a music context a characteristic which I had formerly identified from research carried out for a children’s theatre working with parents and under three-year-olds (Young, 2004). That is, that certain parents are comfortable being a playmate in the session with and for their child. These parents are participating actively and scaffolding, translating and converting the activities on behalf of their children. The practitioner can gain the sense that the session is ‘working’ but close observation often reveals that it is the parents who are the active participants, not the children. However, many cultures do not have a model for interacting with children on a personal, one-to-one level and may adopt more formal or instructional styles. Parents for whom the ‘playmate’ role is not one they are used to adopting - it feels childish or inappropriate - will take a more passive role. When this happens the practitioner can suddenly feel at a loss and can begin to project the ‘not working’ back on to the mothers.

In the One-to-One sessions there was no expectation of participation on the part of the mothers, nor were the activities excessively animated or ‘playful’. We avoided playsongs which had overly stylised actions. The focus was on the babies and on quite simple activities to interact with them. Several activities required the mothers to cooperate – with swinging a hammock for example - so that taking part was clearly defined and they were not doing it alone. The practitioners while guiding the sessions, remained ‘low key’ and tried to pick up the tone and feel from the group. The Music One-to-One practitioners also made a clear demarcation between speaking to the mothers in an ‘adult directed’ style and speaking ‘as if’ to the babies. We had noticed from observations that some practitioners can tend to communicate in ‘infant directed speech’ throughout, even when communicating with parents. Although many parents would accommodate to this without feeling patronised or finding it inappropriate, we were concerned to change register. Equally the practitioners needed to avoid any sense of being ‘teacher-like’. The priority was to bring out the parents’ ideas for what to do even if it was ‘wheels on the bus’ yet again. Making this a comfortable place to be was important. We also recognised and acknowledged that the sessions were meeting other needs as well - for social contact with others, to get out of the house, to share anxieties about baby care - that for many the music session was simply the activity which brought them there and was, in many respects, secondary. The practitioners, for their part, found it demanding and delicate work with all the characteristics of any finely tuned group work.

Importantly the sessions were carefully pre-planned, with folders for the mothers to keep information, the handouts which accompanied each

32

session and to put the digital photos we sometimes took. It should have been clear that there was an underlying structure to the sessions, not just individual sessions but across the whole series of sessions. Upcoming sessions and a brief description of activities were introduced to the mothers as they left, so that they knew what to expect the following week. A lending library of books and song books was also provided. The sessions were equipped with carefully chosen, attractive, for the most part new and clean equipment of instruments, treasure baskets and other items. We had early on realised that for many mothers there are anxieties around cleanliness for their babies; hence we set this as a priority.

4.2 Trial One

4.2.1 Analysis of pre-and post-intervention interviews

For Trial 1 and Trial 3 we carried out observations and informal interviews at the start and conclusion of the project. The two sets of interviews were then compared, analysed and corroborated, as far as possible, by observational information. These interviews assist the process of identifying some of the ‘active ingredients’ of the provision.

1. The families in the trial

Trial 1 was run in a family centre in a central location in B., which serves an area of mostly Victorian terraced housing and new blocks of flats. The family centre offers drop in sessions and postnatal baby groups led by local health visitors. The families in the Music One2One trial were recruited from one such group. Eight parent-infant pairs attended in total, including one father (one session) and a grandmother (2 sessions), when one mother had to return to work. Average attendance across the 6-week period was six adults with six children. Five mothers were aged 31-40 and lived with their partners. One mother was aged 20-25 and was a single parent. Three lived in their own homes and three were in rented accommodation. One mother had another child who attended speech therapy while his brother was at Music. Four described themselves as white British, one was half German and one was Czech.

2. Pre-interviews

Pre-interviews were carried out by telephone shortly after the first session. We had gained permission to contact the parents and obtained their telephone numbers. These presented a sequence of open questions as follows:

1. Why have you come to the sessions?2. Do you think music is useful for your child? If so, why?3. What sort of musical activities do you do at home?

And one closed question:4. How many songs do you do on a day-to-day basis: Up to 4/ 5-10/

more?

3. Post-interviews

33

These were carried out after the sixth session in the mothers’ homes or at a location convenient for them. Leaving a short lapse of time between the last session and interview and meeting the mothers in a setting they chose were both strategies designed to encourage the mothers to answer more directly in response to the questions. The interviewer asked the mothers what they had noticed about their babies’ responses in the sessions, how many songs they felt they knew, which new and useful ideas they could use at home for interacting musically and finally, whether and how they felt music was useful for children under two.

4. The findings

a) Knowledge of song repertoireFour out of six mothers said they knew more songs after 6 weeks of sessions than they had known before the intervention and that they sung these at home. The other two mothers reported knowing more than 10 songs both before and after the sessions.

b) Mothers’ noted responses of their childrenFour mothers said they had specifically noticed how their babies had been soothed or calmed by the music.Four expressed the importance of their babies recognising their voice and that of their partner, and that singing was a good way to communicate and get to know each other.Four reported their babies attending to and listening more to live singing compared to recorded music.Four talked about increased confidence in their own abilities to sing with their babies, as illustrated by comments such as:‘I do sing to her privately’‘I mess around with my voice now’‘I’m quite experienced now’‘Singing’s sometimes easier than talking’

Three spoke of singing being associated with specific times of handling the baby, e.g. changing and dressing.Two spoke of the singing helping them as mothers to feel better, e.g. ‘it’s quiet with a baby all day long’.Two had noticed their babies were playing vocally and making more variety of sounds as a result of the sessions. (One of these mothers had an older child with speech and language delay and was very attentive to new sounds made by her younger son).One spoke of having established a routine that included singing now.

c) New and useful ideasAll the mothers spoke about both the musical treasure baskets and home-made soundmakers, (e.g. plastic bottles, pots and pans, household items on a washing line) as being good ideas and easy to continue at home.Four mothers had already started making things and collecting things at home as a result.

34

Two mothers referred to the restful activity of using light floaty fabric to waft above the babies during singing or recorded music. Two mothers referred to swinging the babies in hammocks as a calming while singing and useful activity.

In general, when parents responded to the question about how music might be useful for young children, the pre-interviews had elicited responses such as, ‘it’s good for language development’ or ‘for playing with sounds’. The post-interview responses suggested a shift in thinking more in terms of affect and the mothers’ own feelings, as in the following:‘it puts a calmness on things’‘it helps me too’‘it’s assuring (to her)that someone’s there; it’s not an empty world. I use it (singing) like a bridge’

4.2.2 Trial 1: Discussion

As a result of this first trial the parents had learned more songs and they felt more confident generally about using their voices expressively. They had found in the activities around soundmakers and treasure baskets some new and useful ideas for play. The post interviews revealed more detail about how music might be useful for children under two, but this is not surprising as the questions asked what specifically they had noticed about their babies’ responses. On balance, there were more examples given to illustrate their views about using music and these were to do mostly with its calming effect and about communicating. The view of music being relaxing was in contrast to the pre-interviews where responses had suggested the babies liked to bounce and do actions. Given that each session finished with a quiet lullaby, accompanied by rocking and holding, this might explain this emerging view.

As a result of discussion and review with colleagues the subsequent trial spanned 8 weeks to allow time to settle in to the routine of a session and to gather mothers’ views more efficiently at either end of the intervention.

4.3 Trial Three

1. The families in Trial Three

Trial Three was held in the same family centre as Trial One. The group of mothers were recruited from the centre through contacts made by centre staff by means of a flyer advertising the sessions in their usual drop in facilities and through the Health Visitor’s Monday afternoon baby group which was well attended by mothers who had given birth in the previous 5 months. Thirteen mother-baby pairs attended at least one session. The average attendance across all eight sessions was eight adults and eight children. Three mothers brought older siblings from time to time. Pre- and post interviews were obtained from nine mothers. The questions for

35

this trial were all based on the mothers’ observations about what had worked for them in the sessions and their noted responses.

2. Pre- and post-interviews

These were the same in content as those for Trial One, but with more specific noted responses sought both before and after the intervention. There were no set answers for parents to tick, but as before, the questions were open-ended in order to gain as rich as possible a variety of responses.

3. The findings

a) Knowledge of song repertoireAll nine mothers said they knew more songs and rhymes than at the outset. The results are shown in the table below. These report what the mothers said. The songs post-intervention referred to those they felt they knew from the sessions.

No. of parents

Pre-intervention

Post-intervention

6 knew 3-5 songs

1 knew 15-20

4 knew more than 5

1 knew ‘a lot more’

2 knew 6-10 songs

both knew ‘a lot more’

1 knew 20 or more

knew 10 songs

All nine said they had favourite songs from the sessions. The two most popular were an action song in which the baby could be lifted up and down, ‘Ready and …up and down’, with much repetition and anticipation in it, and a song in which the tempo changed half way through; ‘Rig a jig, jig’.

36

b) Mothers’ noted responses of their childrenThis table shows the number of reported incidents mothers noted in their children’s responses to music:

Response reported Pre-intervention Post-interventionBaby is soothed/calmed 3 8Baby concentrates/ listens

0 3

Baby looks at mother 0 3Baby laughs 0 2Baby vocalises 0 1Baby settles if bored 1 0

The most reported response was to calm the babies. One mother stated, ‘it’s weird, it calms him more now than when we started’.

c) Mothers’ reports of their own behaviours being different as a result of the intervention.The two main aspects reported were that mothers said that they now did more animated actions with their babies compared with before the trial (8 occurrences) and that they now did new things, especially because of the treasure baskets (5 occurrences).

d) What worked for them in the group?The main aspect emerging was that the group was informal and ‘low key’ and friendly (8). One mother said, ‘we were all encouraged to give our input’, while another was relieved that ’you didn’t have to sing in front of everybody’. The second main aspect that emerged from the responses was that parents had welcomed the chance to meet up with others and for their babies to see other babies (4).

e) What will they continue to do after the sessions have stopped?The most frequent response to this question was ‘singing’ (7), followed by the activities, e.g. hammocks and making soundmakers at home (4). Three mothers said they would definitely look for more groups and three said they would continue the movement and dance/actions.

f) How is music useful?The responses to Trial 3 post-interviews followed a similar pattern to those of Trial 1 in that general responses pre-intervention gave way to more specific examples in the post-intervention interviews. They also reflected the enjoyment and fun of doing playful activities with others, and arising from the feelings generated by being with others with babies of a similar age. These are illustrated by one mother. In her pre-intervention interview she said that she thought music was good for developing communication, a sense of rhythm, interaction and associating words with actions. In the post interview she added that it ‘gave me confidence as a Mum – and all the instruments, the sounds, the rhythm, the movement and the fun’. Another mother said pre-trial that she thought music was good for language skills and taking turns. In her post-interview she said that she’d realised ‘it’s OK to sing anything or make any noises as they (the babies) really enjoy it – and it helps their development’. These two mothers were speaking from the point of view of

37

experiencing music as pleasurable activities that seemed to influence how they thought of themselves as parents and in terms of their own performance as singers – or sound-playmates.

4.4 Conclusion

In conclusion, the comparison of pre and post interviews offered some evidence that mothers were using more music and music-based activities in their parenting at home, and in particular singing more to their babies as a consequence of attending the sessions. There was also evidence that they were more alert to how their babies responded to music and how music can be used, particularly as a means for emotional regulation. We report this evidence cautiously, however, mindful that self-reporting is susceptible to bias. However, in terms of the project aim to identify ways of working in music which were considered relevant and appropriate by the mothers and thereby adoptable beyond the session, the interviews provided information to support the principles on which we were designing the activities.

38

Section 5

Stage 3: Dissemination4.2Introduction

One important dimension of this project has been its focus on dissemination as an integral, final phase of the project. It was our perception that all too often projects terminate abruptly. Reports and other written information for journals or presentations are provided but there is no proactive attempt to connect with those who might potentially benefit from the findings. The final stage of this project was designed to enable the project officer, Alison Street, to make contact with possible users of the materials and ideas, to offer consultation and, if appropriate, bespoke training. The setting up of the website with video clips and downloadable materials was an important element in this process. Music One-to-One has collaborated with ‘Talk to Your Baby’ in the preparation of a set of ‘downloadables’ on musical communication which will be widely available.

An account of the dissemination process, as provided for within the project funding is given here. It is described in detail in the section which follows because this captures the organic, incremental, localised growth which is a characteristic of real and lasting development of practice. Some organisations are now inviting the project officer to develop training which is funded independently of the project. In addition, Alison has resumed an active role within the PEEP organisation for which she had formerly designed the music components and is incorporating the findings of the Music One-2-One project into the nation-wide training courses.

5.2 Dissemination activity

5.2.1 Family Centre Staff: The Roundabout Centre, Barton, Oxford

As a consequence of running music sessions in the Roundabout Centre, Barton, Oxford between January and July 2005, the trainee, Suzy Webb began to run sessions on her own with families with children under two both as circle times for a group and informally as part of the ongoing day-to-day life at the centre. To this end she was helped by other members of the team and part of this ongoing support was reinforced by Music One2One training for three family centre workers. The training was thus designed to meet the needs of the centre staff and in preparation for them to take over running all music sessions in the centre in the Autumn Term. There is now a dedicated area for music and movement in the centre, including a library of CDs and earphones for listening, interesting instruments and karaoke.

39

5.2.2 Britannia Road Family Centre, Banbury, Oxon

1 Two training workshops for family centre staff

Trial 1 was held in April 2005 in the Britannia Family Centre. Following this, the centre staff were enthused about the potential of music play for bringing new parents into the centre and for fostering enjoyable creative activities. They expressed a need for more information on the underlying rationale and practical ways for developing music play. (They had had no contact with the first trial as they had been busy running their usual drop in sessions during the mornings when music took place, but they had heard and seen the effect on people arriving and leaving the group). So Tracey Milne (project practitioner) and AS ran two training workshops for the Centre staff which 2 family centre workers from the Sunshine Centre in Banbury also attended.

2 Further staff initiatives

In October to November 2005, Trial 3 took place with a new group of mothers recruited through the health visitor postnatal meetings and via word of mouth from centre workers. This trial was run by Tracey Milne with J, one of the workers who had attended the workshops in July, helping and taking part as a trainee. She had negotiated with colleagues to have the time off the drop-in to do the music. This represented a significant step forward, as it indicated a real wish to get involved and for the staff to take a dynamic role. Following this, funding was found to purchase some instruments (£330), e.g. gathering drums and xylophones – as opposed to the collection of plastic maracas and sleigh bells.

Tracey Milne is liaising with J the centre worker to support the running of a brand new baby group from March 2006. Planning for repertoire and how to use and offer instrument play has been led by Tracey Milne from Music 121 who keeps in touch regularly. Some funding has been set aside for providing music treasure baskets for sitting up babies.

The music work in this centre has developed from being a music session welcomed and run by outsiders to being a presence in day-to-day play with children in their ‘drop ins’. It has taken 9 months, during which workers have watched, recorded, then asked for training, budgeted for, then used instruments and props, e.g. puppets and lycra, in their own schemes of activities. In January, one worker has used her observations of 2 and 3 year olds playing and negotiating round the gathering drum as the subject for her essay for NVQ accreditation.

5.2.3 Workshops with Trio Childminders’ Association

Trio is a network offering childminders quality assurance activities, counselling and advice in childcare across four counties, Wiltshire, Swindon, Oxfordshire and Somerset. Initial consultation with area co-ordinators in Bicester and Banbury resulted in requests for music activities to be offered in drop-in sessions for childminders and their children. The perceived needs were (i.e. what the co-ordinators thought):

Activities to help bonding and relating; Sound play with everyday objects, especially treasure baskets;

40

Movement and fun; Music with recycled things – i.e. that do not cost a lot.

Workshops were offered in:The Ace Centre Chipping Norton, Oxon, Sept 2005Glory Farm Centre, Bicester, Oxon, Nov 2005Sunshine Family Centre, Banbury, Oxon, Nov 2005

Music One2One was asked to provide an article for Trio Newsletter which was circulated to childminders across 4 counties (see Appendix 4).

5.2.4 Liaison with Pre-School Music Association (PRESMA)

Music One2One has consulted with practitioners from PRESMA, based in Norwich, about their strategies for working with families with children under two. As a result of the Trials and refining of activities, Music One2One was able to offer a report for their winter newsletter (see Appendix 4).

5.2.5 Leicester Toddler Time Library AssistantsFollowing consultation with Bookshare officer in Leicester in Nov 2005, three training afternoons are underway with 15 library assistants who run story telling and toddler activities to help communication and literacy and encourage book sharing. Links are made between language and music activities, especially using songs and rhymes in English, Punjabi, Bengali and Gujurati. Workshops are on 24 Jan, 7 Feb and 21st Feb.

5.2.6 Rutland Children’s Services Workshops

Two days are to be offered by Music One2One as a result of consultation with Officers in Rutland. These will be with staff and children in six day nurseries in Rutland in March 2006.

5.2.7 Bookshare: Leicester

Bookshare in Leicester is supported by Neighbourhood Renewal funding and aims to promote communication, language and literacy in 0-3s through:

1. A community book loan scheme in the 10 most deprived areas of Leicester concentrating on early years.2. Books for babies via Bookstart - little red canvas bags and treasure boxeswith local info in them - just started rolling out this project.3. Training and toddler time for the children's team of assistants.

Their stated needs of Music One2One:1. To provide a rationale: why this song? why do it?2. What's going on when babies are sung to?3. Links between non-verbal communication and movement?4. links between books and sounds-play5. Ways of providing ideas for doing at home?

What Music One2One is offering1. links with language development  - discussions with assistants in

41

relation to children they know.2. recognition of parental strategies and what children under 2 are like and might need - variations and diversity in mixed ethnic groups.3. broadening of repertoire - both English and shared repertoire with Gujurati, Hindi and Punjabi rhymes. Memories of music from the past and links with play.4. links between books and sounds/voice-play.

5.2.8 South Asian Mothers Group

The South Asian mothers' group in B. consists of 6 weeks of offered music sessions and conversations with mothers about what provision might be most appropriate and welcome. I have already reported on some of the issues e.g. the balance between informal play and more structured circle time. Information and discipline is more apparent here than in the predominantly white community served by the BR family centre.

42

Section 6

Final Summary and Postscript6.1 Introduction

In this project we have sought to develop practice through rigorous processes which integrated theoretical knowledge with practice and used research tools to inform, evaluate and develop ways of working. We have sought to do this in ways which are congruent both with current policy and practice directions, and with practitioner/parent expectations and beliefs in music.

Our findings will pose new challenges to music practitioners in terms of understanding and knowledge required and implicate changes to the prevailing ‘consensual’ model of practice. Finally, we propose that the considerable expansion of work for early childhood music practitioners and the increasing demands for what this work may be able to achieve in terms of contributing to children’s overall development calls for a professionalisation of the role. This professionalisation would be accompanied by a recognised training background, qualification structure, professional organisations and career pathways.

6.2 Recommendations

Finally we set out a list of suggestions and recommendations:

For practitioners:

Knowledge, skills and attributes

Knowledge of general development of under two-year-olds Knowledge of musical development of under-two-year olds and

music in parenting Knowledge of the value and purposes of music in earliest childhood

and ability to articulate these for different purposes in different contexts

Knowledge of a range of appropriate music and songs in different musical styles

Knowledge of a range of methods for working with very young children and parents/carers in music, including therapy and group work skills

Awareness of current organisational structures in early childhood and how to work within these

Skills for multi-professional working Awareness of local demographics and sensitivity to the

circumstances of families, alertness to variations in parenting style Sense of professional identity as an ‘under twos’ music practitioner

which gives confidence in a way of working and can, if necessary, resist certain expectations

Ability to be reflective, self-evaluative and to analyse own practice

43

Principles for group work

Loose, flexible structure, but a consistent pattern through the session that parents/carers can become familiar with

Time for free play Creating a friendly, casual atmosphere Tuning in to and following the pace and dynamic of the group Allowing for different forms of participation and response from

mothers (sitting out, conversing) and babies (crying, sleeping) Inviting and using contributions from parents/carers Inviting parents/carers to participate in their own ‘musical’ style Drawing attention to babies’/toddlers’ responses Suggesting practical parenting strategies based on music

For active toddlers, a looser structure of music play provision integrated into a general stay and play setting may be more appropriate.

The content:

Variety of aural experience – recorded music, live singing, good quality instrumental sounds

A repertoire of ‘soothing’ songs, as well as playsongs, sung in ‘infant directed’ style

Songs invited from parents’/carers’ own musical preferences and backgrounds

Vocal play – ditties, babbles, croons, ‘Down-winder’ activities (in balance with play songs and depending

on age of babies and needs of group) Babies positioned to look at their parents’/carers’ faces, or to look

at one another Modelling ways of interacting through singing, gesture and talking

to babies Shifts in spoken register to address parents/carers in ‘adult’ style

or infant-directed speech

For project designers:

Project plans

Initial time for consultation with parents, practitioners, managers Continuity across at least 10-12 sessions, ideally more Building on an existing group or within an established setting Overall core programme is carefully structured, but flexible in

content Appropriately trained and skilled staff Small groups and ideally a ‘helper’ Fairly early start (after school drop-off) or fairly late state Longish session (as long as 2hrs) to include relaxed start, formal

input, mid-way play session, formal conclusion and sociable time

For setting managers:

Accommodation and resources

44

Spaces to work which are clean, warm, attractive Best quality equipment Easy access for buggies and space to store Facilities for changing, chairs for feeding Access to facilities for making drinks, coffee

6.3 Postscript

In terms of radicalising practice, we arrive at the end of the project with the realisation that some of our aims to develop ‘culturally sensitive’ models of practice were over-ambitious, naïve even. If the project has forced us to reconsider this aspect and return to our original intentions in the light of what we discovered, then it has been worthwhile. Certainly in our current writing and presenting, we are flagging up our anxieties that music in early childhood may be founded on an ideology which prizes middle class models of parenting and presents them as a norm against which other versions are viewed as deficient (Burman, 1994: 119/120). The idea that language learning is a dyadic process, and by implication therefore, also infant directed singing, is a particular cultural construction that reflects, as Burman points out, the Eurocentric and class biases of child language research (Burman, 1994: 115). Approaches, interventions and parenting programmes based on white middle class values about what is “right” for children, deny that there are many different pathways to healthy development and many ways for children to achieve the same competencies. Middle class parents’ beliefs about the importance of ‘stimulation’ for optimal child development may lead to an unnecessary concern about the earliest possible interventions and for styles of intervention which are not widely applicable beyond this cultural group. We also heed writers such as Furedi (2001) and Gillies (2005) who warn of ‘the creeping ‘professionalisation’ of childrearing, the authoritative advice on parenting ‘good practice’ (Furedi, 2001) and become uneasy at the proselytizing undertone to much recent writing and presenting on early years music work. But there is an alternative perspective, often voiced by policy makers and managers, that some parents/children will be at a disadvantage if they don’t move further along the path of cultural change towards adaptation to modern life with its higher demands for literacy and changed norms for social interaction. Levine (2003) describes circumstances where the context for parenting has changed dramatically yet parents hold on to parenting beliefs and practices which are poorly adapted to the new circumstances. His notion of parenting ‘lags’ may apply to some groups of parents who are considered to have most to gain from support and intervention. This is an issue which we will continue to ponder.

45

References

Artservice (2002) Youth Music: First Steps Evaluation, unpublished document.

Burman, E. (1994) Deconstructing Developmental Psychology, London: Routledge.

Calne, J. (1991) The effects of music on the selected stress behaviours, weight, caloric and formula intake, and length of hospital stay of premature and low birth weight neonates in a newborn intensive care unit, Journal of Music Therapy, 28, (4), 180-192.

Clark, A., Hepstenstall, E., Simon, A., & Moss, P. (2002) The Arts in the Early Years, Arts Council England.

Clift, S. (2002) Evaluation of the Sound Start Project: Final Report, Canterbury Christ Church University College.

Custodero, L., Britto, P. & Xin, T. (2002) From Mozart to Motown, Lullabies to Love Songs: A Preliminary Report on Parents’ Use of Music with Infants Survey (PUMIS), Zero to Three, Aug/Sep. 1, pp 41-46.

Desforges, C. & Abouchaar, A. (2003) The Impact of Parental Involvement, parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievement and Adjustment: A Literature Review, Research Report no 433, DfES.

DfEE, (1999) Sure Start: A Guide for Trailblazers, London: DfEE. Furedi, (2002, US edition) Paranoid Parenting, why ignoring the experts may be best for your child, Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

Godfrey, F. (2001) Artists in Early Learning. Report for West Midlands Arts.

Gillies, V. (2005) Raising the Meritocracy: Parenting and the Individualization of Social Class, Sociology, Vol 39(5) 835-853.

Gratier, M. (1999) Expressions of Belonging: the effect of acculturation on the rhythm and harmony of mother-infant vocal interaction, Musicae Scientiae, Special Issue (1999-2000), 93-122. Harkness, S. & Super, C.M. (1995) Culture and Parenting. In M.H. Bornstein, (Ed.) Handbook of Parenting.Vol. 2, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. pp211-234.

Harkness, S. & Super, C.M. (2002) Themes and Variations: Parental Ethnotheories in Western Cultures. In K. Rubin, (Ed.) Parental beliefs,

46

parenting, and child development in cross-cultural perspective, New York: Psychology Press.

Hoff-Ginsberg, E. & Tardif, T. (1995) Socioeconomic Status and Parenting. In M.H. Bornstein, (Ed.) Handbook of Parenting.Vol. 2, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. pp161-188.

Levine, R.A. (2003) Childhood Socialization: Comparative Studies of Parenting, Learning and Educational Change, Hong Kong, China: Comparative Educational Research Centre.

Malloch, S. (2000) Mothers and Infants and Communicative Musicality, Musicae Scientiae: Journal of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music: Special Issue 1999-2000, 29-57.

Marsh, K., Brooks, G., Hughes, A., Ritchie, L., Roberst, S. & Wright, K. (2005) Digital Beginnings: Young children’s use of popular culture, media and new technologies, Report: Literacy Research Centre, University of Sheffield.

McKenzie, K. (2002) The effect of Infant-directed Singing upon Attachment between adults and Babies: The Role of Intervention. Unpublished MA, Department of Music, University of Sheffield.

Moran, P., Ghate, D. & van der Merwe, A. (2004) What Works in Parenting Support? A review of international evidence, Research Report RR574 Department for Education and Skills.

National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS) (June 2005) Implementing Sure Start Local Programmes: An In-depth Study. Report available from the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, Birkbeck, University of London. Papousek, M. (1996) Intuitive Parenting: a Hidden Source of Musical Stimulation in Infancy. In I. Deliège & J. Sloboda, (Eds.) Musical Beginnings: Origins and Development of Musical Competence, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 88-112. Pascal, C., Bertram, T., Bokhari, S., Burns, P. , O’Neill, B. & Young, S. (2005) How to Catch a Moon Beam and Pin it Down Project, Research Report, Centre for Research in Early Childhood, Worcester University College.

Robb, L. (1999) Emotional musicality in mother-infant vocal affect, and an acoustic study of postnatal depression, Musicae Scientiae Special /ssue (1999-2000), pp.123-151.

Rogoff, B. (2003) The Cultural Nature of Human Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shonkoff, J.P. & Meisels, S.J. (2000) Handbook of Early Childhood Intervention: Second Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

47

Smith, C. (1996) Parenting Programmes: An Overview of Practice in the UK, The Parenting Forum Newsletter, No 2, Spring.

Smith, R.S. (1997) Parent Education: Empowerment or Control? Children and Society, 11, 108-116.

Smith, C. & Pugh, G. (1996) Learning to be a Parent, Family Policy Studies Centre, London.

Standley, J.M. (2002) Music Therapy in the NICU: Promoting the Growth and Development of Premature Infants, Zero to Three: The Musical Lives of Babies and Families, 25(1) 23-30.

Stern, D. (1985) The Interpersonal World of the Infant, New York: Basic Books. Street, A., Young, S., Tafuri, J. & Ilari, B. (2003). Mothers’ attitudes to singing to their infants. Proceedings of the 5th ESCOM conference, Hanover University of Music and Drama, Germany, p.363.

Street, A. (2004) Singing to infants: How maternal attitudes to singing influence infants’ musical worlds. Paper submission to conference on El Mons Musical Dels Infants, Early Childhood Commission of International Society for Music Education (ISME), July 2004

Street, A. (2006) The role of singing within mother-infant interactions. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Roehampton.

Super, C.M., Harkness, S., van den Boom, D.C., Granger, D.A. & Molenaar, P. (2005) The Socialization of Infants' State, Attention, and Affect National Institutes of Health Grant 1 R01 HD38357 Accessed, July 22, 2005.

Sure Start UK (2001) The Aim of Sure Start. http://www.surestart.gov.uk Trehub, S. (2003a) Toward a Developmental Psychology of Music. In G. Avanzini, C. Faienza, D. Minciacchi, L.opez & M. Majno (Eds) The Neurosciences and Music, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 999, 402-413. Trehub, S. (2003b) Musical Predispositions in Infancy: An Update. In I. Peretz & R. Zatorre (Eds) The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-20.

Trehub, S.E., Unyk, A.M. & Trainor, L.J. (1993) Maternal Singing in Cross-cultural Perspective. Infant Behavior and Development, 16, 285-295. Trevarthen, C. (2000) Musicality and the Intrinsic Motive Pulse: Evidence from Human Psychobiology and Infant Communication, Musicae Scientiae: Journal of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music: Special Issue, pp. 155-215.

48

Tudge, J. & Putnam, S. (1997) The Everyday Experiences of Preschoolers. In J. Tudge, M.J.Shahanan, & J. Valsiner, (Eds) Comparisons in Human Development: Understanding Time and Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 86-104

Young, S. (2003) Music with the Under Fours, London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Young, S. (2004) It’s a bit like flying: Participatory Theatre with the Under Twos: A case Study of Oily Cart, Research in Drama Education.

Young, S. (2005) Changing Tune: Reconceptualising music with the under-threes, International Journal of Early Years Education, 13, (3) 289-303.

Young, S. (forthcoming) Lullaby Light Shows: Everyday Musical Experiences of Under Two-year-olds, International Journal of Music Education.

Young, S. & Gillen, J. (2006) Communicative Musicality as Parenting Practice, La Musicalita communicativa come pratica educative, Rassegna di Psicologia, 3.

Young, S., Street, A. & Davies, E. (2005) The Music One2One Project: A Preliminary Report. Presentation at the 5th International Research in Music Education Conference, University of Exeter, UK. April 6th – 9th, 2005.

49

APPENDIX 1

Please make sure the parent has signed a consent form before beginning.

A. About you and your family

How old is your child?

Girl or boy?

How many other children live at home with you?

How old are they?

How old are you? under 20……… (tick one line) 20-25…………..

26-30…………...31-40…………..41-50…………...over 50………….

What relation are you to the child? ………………………………………………………….

How would you describe yourself ? eg Asian, White, Black British?

a) Do you have a religion? Yes…… No…… b) If ‘yes’, what? …………………………

How old were you when you left full-time education?………………………..

What is your highest qualification? (eg GCSE, Btech, Degree, etc)

Do you go out to work? Yes………… No…………

Do you do paid work at home? Yes………… No…………

How many hours do you work a week? ………….………………...

a) Are you the person who mostly looks after your child at home? Yes…….No……..

What other childcare arrangements do you usually have? ………………………………....

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

50

What sort of place do you live in? rented flat……….. (tick one line)rented house……..own flat………….own house……….Council house……Council flat………Other (please specify)……..

17. At home do you live with your partner?……………….on your own?……………………with other family members?…….

other arrangement – please describe?………………………………………………

BB. About your child and music

18. Day to day, what music do you think your child hears? Morning …………………………………………………………………………………….

Afternoon …………………………………………………………………………………..

Evening …………………………………………………………………………………….

Mealtimes ………………………………………………………………………………….

Bedtime …………………………………………………………………………………….

19. a) What sort of music do you think seems best for your child? (like song style, or instrumental)

……………………………………………………………………b) Why do you think so?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

20. What sort of musical toys or entertainment do you have at home for your child? (eg mobiles, CDs, tapes, DVD’s etc) What? Where? (eg bedroom)

51

21. a) Does s/he play with sounds (eg at home or in nursery)? Yes…….No………

b) If yes, what sort of things does s/he do? (eg banging on a tray with spoon?)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

22. What about the different ways s/he uses her/his voice – what have you noticed? .……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

21. a) Does your child react to music? Yes……………No………………b) If ‘yes’, how? What can you tell me about it?……………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

22. a) Do you do any songs and games with your child? Yes……..No……b) if ‘yes’, how do you do them? ……………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

24 a) Do you think your child gets to know any songs from other people? (eg childminder or Granny?) Yes……..No………b) If yes, give details …………………………………………………………………….

27. In your opinion how could music be helpful in bringing up young children? ……………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

About you and music

28. How important is music to you in your own experience (1 = least, 5 = most)

1 2 3 4 5

At home29. a) Do you enjoy listening to music? Yes……….No…………

b) If yes, what sort? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

c) Do you play any instrument? Yes……….No…………d) Do you sing? Yes……….No…………

e) If so, what sort of style? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

52

30. What is the difference between music you like and music for young children?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

31. Do you sing to your child? Yes………No…………. If yes, about how often? (tick one)

once or twice a day …………… 3-5 times a day …………… More than 5 times a day ……………

32. Are there any family songs, rhymes or musical customs you would like to hand on to your child? (If so please say where they come from or how you learned them)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

33. Is there anything you would like to tell me about your own experiences of music?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you very much for your time.

53

APPENDIX 2

Semi-structured interviews with music practitioners

Linda Bance, Music Education Consultant, Young in HertsStephanie Brandon, Sage Gateshead and some of the traineesMargareta Burrell, Music Practitioner and music therapist, Thomas Coram Centre, LondonGill D’Hooghe, Freelance Music Practitioner WellingboroughNancy Evans, Freelance early childhood music specialist, Birmingham and Education Officer, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Lucinda Geoghegan, National Youth Choir, Scotland; Kodaly trainer and early childhood music specialistFiona Hardman, PRESMA (Preschool Music Alliance) Kathy Johnston, Freelance Music PractitionerKaren Key, Freelance Music PractitionerKaren MacKenzie, early childhood music specialist, KentMargaret O’Connor, Musicstart project, Isle of WightSarah Robbins, Berks Young Musicians TrustSarah Jayne Watkinson, sampad, BirminghamChristine Smith, Head of EarlyYears Team, Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Service

And with early years music expert:Helen Taylor, Head of Initial Teacher Training and Music Education, University of Northumbria, and researcher for Youth Music Early Years music Themes and Prompts for Interviewing Music Practitioners

1 Please tell me about the kinds of groups you run for children under two and their parents (probe for more detail of how many groups, what kinds of settings, timings, numbers in groups)

2 What is your own personal background and training for this work? (do you have any specific training for music with under-twos)

3 What are your main aims in doing music with UTYOs? (perhaps ask for priorities if many aims are given)

4 Why do the parents come? – and do these match your priorities?

5 So, what’s your formula? – take me through a typical group session? ( How do you plan? What do you see as your role in a session?)

6 Do you have some ideas that ‘work well’ to suggest please? (and what makes a good session?)

APPENDIX 3: Statistical Data

AGE OF INFANTS

Frequen Percent Cumulativ

54

cy e PercentValid 0-3

months 7 9.0 9.0 4-8

months 15 19.2 28.2 9-15

months 27 34.6 62.8 16-24

months 29 37.2 100.0 Total 78 100.0

55

AGE DISTRIBUTION OF INFANTS

AGE PARENT

Frequenc

y Percen

tCumulative Percent

Valid <20 5 6.4 6.4 20-25 23 29.5 35.9 26-30 15 19.2 55.1 31-40 30 38.5 93.6 41-50 5 6.4 100.0 Total 78 100.0

56

AGE DISTRIBUTION OF PARENT

OTHERCHI

57

Frequenc

y Percen

tCumulative Percent

Valid 0 29 37.2 37.2 1 25 32.1 69.2 2 11 14.1 83.3 3 8 10.3 93.6 4 3 3.8 97.4 6 2 2.6 100.0 Total 78 100.0

NUMBER OF OTHER SIBLINGS

MAIN CARER

58

Freque

ncyValid

PercentCumulative Percent

Valid yes 69 88.5 88.5 no 4 5.1 93.6 jointly

with partner

5 6.4 100.0

Total 78 100.0

ACCOMMODATION

Freque

ncyValid

PercentCumulative Percent

Valid rent flat 5 6.4 6.4 rent

house 12 15.4 21.8 own

house 31 39.7 61.5 council

house 10 12.8 74.4 council

flat 16 20.5 94.9 other 4 5.1 100.0 Total 78 100.0

59

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS (who they live with)

Frequenc

yValid

PercentCumulative

PercentValid partner 57 73.1 73.1 on own 15 19.2 92.3 other family 4 5.1 97.4 other 1 1.3 98.7 partner &

extended family

1 1.3 100.0

Total 78 100.0

60

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS (who they live with)

61

HIGHEST QUALIFICATION

Frequenc

yValid

PercentCumulative

PercentValid none 11 14.1 14.1 gcse 30 38.5 52.6 A level 2 2.6 55.1 B-Tec/City &

Guilds/GNVQ 15 19.2 74.4 Diploma 1 1.3 75.6 HND 1 1.3 76.9 Degree 11 14.1 91.0 Masters 3 3.8 94.9 PhD 4 5.1 100.0 Total 78 100.0

62

63

ETHNICITY

Frequenc

yValid

PercentCumulative

PercentValid white 59 75.6 75.6 asian 3 3.8 79.5 black

british 8 10.3 89.7 black

african 3 3.8 93.6 mixed

race 5 6.4 100.0 Total 78 100.0

64

Musical form

mobile sound makers

audio Mixed media

instruments

Musical toys

Percentage answered yes

32.1 66.7 94.9 89.7 62.8 78.2

0102030405060708090

100

mobile

soun

d mak

ersau

dio

mixed m

edia

instru

ments

musica

l toys

Percentage

65

CORRELATION BETWEEN AGE AND SINGING

We performed a Chi-square test on this data and found that there was a strong association between age and frequency of singing, for both age of the infants and for parents.

(Sue and Alison I am enclosing the Chi-square table for you to refer to or in case you want to include it in the presentation)

Frequency of singing Age of ParentChi-Square (a) 41.744 31.231df (degrees of freedom)

4 4

Assumed significance 0.000 0.000

Frequency of singing Age of InfantChi-Square (a) 41.744 16.564df (degrees of freedom)

4 4

Assumed significance 0.000 0.001

As the assumed significance (p value) is well below 0.05 this shows a strong association between age and frequency of singing.

66

How could music be helpful in bringing up young children?

Those who asserted that music had educational benefits correlated with Mother/Father/carer’s highest qualification (%, N=87)

Educational benefits?

Totalyes nohighest qualification

none 2 15 17GCSE 15 23 38A level or equivalent 12 10 22

degree or higher degree 15 8 23

Total 44 56 100

0

5

10

15

20

25

none GCSE A level orequivalent

degree or higherdegree

highest qualification

yes

no

Most of those with no qualifications or those who have obtained GCSE’s only do not assert that music has educational benefits, whilst most of those with A Level or equivalent or a degree or higher degree believe that music does have educational benefits.

There is a statistically significant relationship between educational attainment and those who believe that music has educational benefits for their young child and the proportion increases significantly with increasing level of educational attainment (p = 0.002).

Breakdown of results

67

44% of the sample believed that music had educational benefits for their young child

Only 13% of carers who had no qualifications believed that music can have educational benefits, whilst 65% of those who had a degree or above believed that music had educational benefits

33% of those who stated that music could have educational benefits possessed GCSE’s or no qualifications at all, 61% had an A level or above and 34% had a degree or higher degree.

67% of carers who did not suggest that music can have educational benefits possessed GCSE’s or no qualifications at all, compared to only 14% who were educated to degree level or above.

Those who specifically mentioned that music has benefits for development of speech and language (%, N=87)

Beneficial for language/speech

development?Totalyes no

highest qualification

none 2 15 17GCSE 8 30 38A level or equivalent 6 16 22

degree or higher degree 12 12 23

Total 28 72 100

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

none GCSE A level orequivalent

degree or higherdegree

highest qualification

yes

no

68

There is also statistically significant relationship between educational attainment and those who believe that music helps speech and language development for their young child and the proportion increases significantly with increasing level of educational attainment (p = 0.012).

Breakdown of results

28% specifically asserted that music can contribute to a young child’s speech and language development.

Only 8% of these had no qualifications at all. 38% of these either had GCSE’s or no qualifications at all. 63% of these were educated to A level or above. 42% of these were educated to degree level or above.

Those who believe that music can change the mood of their young child(%, N=87)

Music can change mood of

child?Totalyes no

highest qualification

none 3 14 17GCSE 14 24 38A level or equivalent 10 12 22

degree or higher degree 8 15 23

Total 36 64 100

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

none GCSE A level orequivalent

degree or higherdegree

highest qualification

yes

no

69

There is not a statistically significant relationship between educational attainment and those who believed that music had mood changing benefits for their young child.

Breakdown of results

36% believe that music can change the mood of their young child Only 10% of these had no qualifications at all, compared to 52%

who were educated to A level or above. 23% of these were educated to degree level or above. 20% of those who had no qualifications believed that music had

mood changing benefits compared to 35% of those who had attained a degree or above.

N.B. It must be noted that the questions asked were open ended, interviewees were not asked outright whether they believed that music could have educational benefits for example.

70

Music at Bedtime

music at bedtime?

Totalyes noAGE 0-3

months 4 3 7

4-8 months 12 4 16

9-15 months 19 9 28

16-24 months 16 21 37

Total 51 37 88

Correlations between child’s age and form of music heard at bedtime (%)

BEDTIME (%)

noneaudio media

mixed media

live singing

mobile toy Total

AGE(%)

0-3 months 3 1 0 2 1 8

4-8 months 5 1 3 6 3 18

9-15 months 10 10 5 5 2 32

16-24 months 24 7 3 7 1 42

Total 42 19 11 19 8 100

Breakdown of Results

Due to the unequal proportions of young children in each age category (especially the small numbers in the younger age groups) strong conclusions comparing the different age groups cannot be drawn from this data.

58% of the whole sample listened to some form of music at bedtime, 57% of the 0-3 month babies were exposed to music at bedtime, whilst 75% of those in the 4-8 month age group did, 68% of the 9-15 month age group and 43% of the 16-24 month age group.

70% of the younger babies (0-8 months) heard some form of music at bedtime, for this age group singing was the most common form of music heard at bed time, out of those younger babies who did hear some form of music at bedtime 44% were sung to, with 25 % hearing music from a mobile toy, 19% hearing mixed media and 13% hearing audio media.

71

19% of the whole sample were sung to at bedtime, out of those who did hear some form of music at bedtime, 33% of the time it was live singing.

14% of those who heard some form of music at bedtime listened to specific songs and 10% specifically mentioned that the young child heard mellow music

72

APPENDIX 4: Newsletter Articles

Music One2One Article for Trio Childminders’ Newsletter November 2005

Alisha held the piece of newspaper up hiding her face. Tanya, her childminder watched and then covered her own head with her paper. ‘Ah…….Boo’ cried Alisha, pulling the paper down into her waist, and Tanya blew her page so that it flopped up and down. Alisha covered her head and copied.

‘Do as I’m doing, follow, follow me’ we sang as we crunched, stamped on, waved and tore into shreds the ‘Property Weekly’. We must have sung it ten times at least, as more and more ideas came from both adults and children. Tidying up was fast and easy when it was made into a song. To the tune of ‘The farmer’s in his den, we sang the words, ‘It’s time to tidy up’ and the task was done.

Then out came the sounds treasure baskets; collections of clattering small pebbles tied in socks, wooden egg cups and chrome jelly dishes bought at a charity shop, which rang when you knocked them together, and a wok lid which boomed if you hit it with a wooden spoon.

These three examples give a flavour of the kind of musical activities offered by Alison Street and Tracey Milne of Music One2One, a project based at Exeter University and funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust and Youth Music. We aim to find out helpful ways of using music with children under two years old to help their general development. This year we have worked in Oxford, Banbury and Bicester with small groups of families and on a one-to-one basis alongside parents, childminders and family centre workers. Between September and November we have run workshops at drop-in sessions for the Trio Childminding Network in Bicester, Banbury and Chipping Norton. Kate Rudd from Trio says, ‘It’s great to see how music helps the interaction between child and adult – and it shows that you don’t have to go out and spend lots of money to make music’.

Music One2One is funded by Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust and Youth Music. For information on training and workshops, contact Alison Street on 01865 371748, streetalison@aol.com and visit the One2One website on www.education.ex.ac.uk/music-one2one.

Article for PRESMA Newsletter

PRESMA December 05 Newsletter Article

73

Music One 2 One makes time for being together

It’s a crisp frosty Monday morning in North Oxfordshire. The heating is running full blast at the Family Centre and the front door goes ‘Bleep’ every time someone comes in. The buggies line up along the narrow corridor and mothers walk in wrapped in winter jackets, with their babies cocooned in quilted hoods, limbs puffed up in all-in-one suits.

Turn right into a large square room and you arrive at Music One2One. This is the last session before Christmas – ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’, croons the CD. The room is set up with two double duvets on the floor and cushions round the edge. On one is placed a metallophone with beaters and on the other a music treasure basket and numerous picture books. Every week it is a challenge working out how to use the space, as this is an intensively used room, affording respite care and social services contact visits for families in difficulties. A large plastic ball pit arrived last week and is now firmly in situ in one corner, every so often leaking out its bright rolling contents when someone leans too heavily on it.

The music session has been planned with children under two in mind. Several are beginning to crawl and explore. And so there’s a mixture of cushions and supportive chairs around too because many babies need feeding at some time during the session. So with all the changing bags and feeding bottles and baby bits and pieces, there needs to be room for managing these activities alongside the musical ones. Singing and sounds-play become part of the caring routines right then and there. This becomes a music morning, rather than a music session, as twelve mothers have usually arrived by 10.00 and leave after tea and coffee between 11.30 and 12.00.

Within this time Tracey the practitioner has led an opening ‘Hello’ song, which confirms the relationship between mother and child through using their names in close proximity. She has extended their repertoire of songs, using gentle bouncing ones, and energetic action songs which encourage first time mothers to feel confident at handling and playing with more robust movements in a controlled way. Mothers have been thrilled to watch their babies choosing household items that rattle, squeak, ring and clatter from the treasure basket. These are mouthed and played. For children who are pulling themselves up and holding the furniture, we have erected a musical washing line festooned with silver tape. Grown ups choose which pot, wok lid, door chime or set of wooden spoons they want and where to hang them near to the children. So they get to choose too and think about what sounds might hang next to each other. Babies lying down wobbled strings of bells with their feet, stopping from time to time to watch as they stopped ringing but continued to turn and glint in the light above them. ‘OK shall we relax now?’

74

suggests Tracey, reaching for some large bath towels and a cotton bed sheet. These are made into hammocks with a parent at each end, swinging a baby – or sometimes two – at a time, as all sing ‘We love baby yes we do, Baby is our darling’ (using their names, to the slowed down tune of ‘Skip to my Lou’).

‘So what have you noticed about your child in these 8 sessions?’ we ask. Aaron’s mum said he was using his voice at home with different sounds and a wider range of pitch. Lewis is really soothed and calmed by music and really listens to sung words. All mothers think they have learnt lots more songs and would sing more at home now. They were struck by the variety of movement and sounds-play as well as singing that you could do with this age group. Several wanted to get instruments as Christmas presents for their babies and gave each other information about useful CDs. We had set up a borrowing box and this was very popular. ‘It was really good to be able to take things home too.’ ‘It was good to try before you buy,’ was another way of looking at it.

We have found that music with this age group takes time – and space, to allow people to be with each other, learn from each other and to notice and respond to their children’s reactions and choices. As practitioners we have had to adjust to a different pace, to find a way of working as partners rather than assuming that we lead. We have had to find words that draw parents’ attention to noticing and seeing the value of providing musical play to help their joint communication and creativity and to build confident relationships.

Thank you to those PRESMA practitioners who answered our Music One2One questionnaire on ways of working with children under two. For information on Music One2One training and workshops on this area contact Alison Street, Project Officer on 01865 371748, streetalison@aol.com, Tracey Milne, at Traceymarymilne@hotmail.com and Helen Brayley at Helenjbrayley@hotmail.com, or visit the One2One website on www.education.ex.ac.uk/music-one2one.

75