An Exploration of the Relationships Between Perception, Production, Cognition and Environment in the Development of Singing in Children

Research on children’s singing has focused on music instruction techniques for developing singers, yet little is known about the developmental mechanisms and their interactions that might underlie singing acquisition in childhood. This chapter presents the results of two preliminary analyses examining the main components of the vocal sensorimotor loop model of singing (auditory perception, vocal motor production, cognition and experience) in a sample of school-aged children. Tentative findings suggest that increased research focus should be paid to the role of environmental factors that might facilitate sensorimotor translation in the development of proficient singing. This chapter presents the results of two preliminary analyses examining the main components of the vocal sensorimotor loop model of singing in a sample of school-aged children. Tentative findings suggest that increased research focus should be paid to the role of environmental factors that might facilitate sensorimotor translation in the development of proficient singing. It reports the findings from two preliminary correlational analyses between perceptual, productive, cognitive and experiential variables related to singing development in a diverse sample of school-aged children. Family music participation and musical self-concept were found to be significant predictors of middle school-aged children’s participation in singing activities as well as singing accuracy. In conclusion, the preliminary results reported in the chapter point to the need for further research studies examining the role of experiential components in singing development.