Abstract
During the second year of life, babies actively play with sounds they produce. Their sound-play often has musical qualities such as pitch, rhythm, and melodic contour, but it is not the same as singing. Singing is a complex activity, one requiring skills that usually take the entire preschool years to develop.
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Lyle Davidson is a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA. W. George Scarlett is a professor of child psychology at Assumption College, Worcester, MA. The research reported on in this article is based on work done at Project Zero, Harvard School of Education, Cambridge, MA.
The research reported here was part of a larger study of early symbolization carried out at Project Zero, Harvard School of Education, and funded by the Spencer and Carnegie foundations. The results of this larger study will appear in a formthcoming book,The Making of Meanings, edited by Dennie Wolf and Howard Gardner.
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Davidson, L., Scarlett, W.G. When is a song a song? The development of singing in early childhood. Early Childhood Educ J 14, 30–31 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01882435
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01882435