The positive learning transfer from a musical play early-learning system® to young children's linguistic and spatial skills

• Published in: Music education research 2022-08, Vol.24 (4), p.494-511
• Main Authors: Caracci, C., Martel, K., Le Normand, M.T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child Care Centers; Cognitive Development; Early childhood education; Early Childhood Music Education; Education; Foreign Countries; Humanities and Social Sciences; Intelligence Tests; language; Language Skills; Learning; Linguistics; Multicultural Education; Music Activities; Music Education; musically enriched environment; Prediction; Preschool Children; Program Evaluation; SES; Socioeconomic Status; Spatial Ability; spatial skills; Story Telling; Transfer of Training; Young Children
• ISSN: 1461-3808; 1469-9893
• DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2022.2076820

The benefits of musical play in cognitive development have recently received an upsurge of interest in the field of early childhood music education research. This study examines the positive learning transfer from a musical play early-learning system® to cognitive development. Specifically, we investigated the effects of early musically enriched multicultural play activities on linguistic and spatial skills once the children have reached school age. Four subtests were selected from the Wechsler's Preschool and Primary Intelligence Scale to assess linguistic and spatial skills. A group of twenty children aged between 50 and 82 months who had been exposed daily to a musical play platform over a period of 24 months (4 or 5 days a week, 45min/day) in daycare centres was selected and compared to a matched group of twenty children aged between 48 and 79 months who had not been exposed to this programme. Results showed that the musical play group obtained significantly higher scores than the non- musical play group in linguistic but not in spatial skills, regardless of parental SES. Linear regression analysis revealed that spatial skills predicted linguistic skills in the musical play group. A broader implementation of this musical play early- learning system® in more daycare settings is suggested.