O canto espontâneo da criança de três a seis anos como indicador de seu desenvolvimento cognitivo-musical

Abstract

Observing children from three to six years old, as well as listening to their spontaneous music, we came up to this question: its feasible that childrens spontaneous singing be considered an indicator of their cognitive and musical development, and so, a way of representation, such as drawing and language? As theoretical framework on musical development, we elected Howard Gardners (1973), Hans Joachim Koellreutters (1984), Keith Swanwicks (1988) and David Hargreaves (1996) theories. Piagets developmental theory was the main reference to investigate the relationship between childrens cognitive development and their spontaneous singing. Product analysis was the first method we used to carry out this investigation. Fifteen childrens spontaneous songs were selected and analyzed on their musical aspects by six independent judges. Based on these data, qualitative analysis was made, from which musical patterns emerged. These patterns were confirmed by the framework. Our findings pointed out a predictable evolutionary course for childrens spontaneous singing, from babbling to transcendent songs, which indicates its possible relationship with their cognitive and musical development.