Running head: UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN An Exploration into the Singing Competence of Primary School Aged Children and its Relationship with Verbal Ability Athina Pereira Supervisor: Dr. Mike Forrester MSc Developmental Psychology 2015-16 SP998 – Research Project University of Kent UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN i A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of M.Sc. in Developmental Psychology, in the Dept. of Psychology, University of Kent, 12th August, 2016. Manuscript length: 7,705 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN Abstract Singing is a natural humanistic tendency which is observed in human beings right from birth. With age, individuals develop in their speech and singing abilities. At the same time, speech is used more commonly than singing, in general. Moreover, research studies have placed more focus on the development and acquisition of speech rather than that of singing. Accordingly, one of the aims of this study was to assess singing competence in primary school aged children and the extent of its relationship with verbal fluency. Originally created with the purpose of acquiring data on the development of singing in individuals across different ages, the AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills (ATBSS) was administered to 103 children between the ages of four and nine in schools around the UK. The ATBSS consists of a range of eleven tasks of which, data from three tasks was used in this study. The two main tasks were a song composition task and a picture description task which were studied in comparison with each other, as they were both very similar in nature, to examine whether children who are more verbally fluent also show better singing competence. However, the main aim of the current study was to create a reliable scale of singing competence namely the Singing Competence Scale (SCS), and one that can be used in future studies involving singing development. The SCS consisted of different singing elements, namely melody, rhythm, pitch intervals, repetition, song length, cadence and lyrical fluency. Results revealed interesting trends in each of the elements among the different age groups, with visible age effects. Elements demonstrating a link as well as difference between singing and speech are also discussed. The SCS has possible implications in music education as it can identify different areas of singing competence in an individual. i UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 1 An Exploration into the Singing Competence of Primary School Aged Children and its Relationship with Verbal Ability Musical features have been found to appear in parent-infant interaction across different cultures worldwide (Papousek, & Papousek, 1981; Papousek, 1996b; Trevarthen, 2008; Dissanayake, 2000). This builds on the notion of communicative musicality (Trevarthen, & Malloch, 2000) that recognises musical nature as being innate to human beings. There are good reasons for the suggestion that individuals are predisposed to music right from birth as a means of adapting and engaging with the world around them. Rhythmic features are present in several day-to-day behaviours like breathing, walking, and most noticeably, speech. The onset of speech production, commonly termed infant babble, appears around three months of age, and is comprised of prolonged sounds in the form of elongated vowels. The earliest form of vocalised behaviour in an infant is in the form of crying (Vihman, 1996). Further, vocal play is commonly observed in the first few months (Papousek, 1996a) and consists mostly of a combination of sounds. The onset of speech production, or infant babble, appears around or after three months of age, and is comprised of prolonged sounds in the form of elongated vowels. On the other hand, musical babbling, also present around the same time, contains more defined musical features or elements including pitch and rhythmic patterns (Tafuri, & Villa, 2002). Parents and other individuals devote much of their face-to-face interaction time with infants to infant-directed speech (Trainor, Austin, & Desjardins, 2000). In addition, various musical characteristics (Welch, 2006) such as emotional modulations are used by parents, relatives, and caregivers, in interactions with the infant. Moreover, interactions between mother and child extend beyond speech to include facial expressions and movements, like a performance of sorts. This infant-directed speech is also known as ‘motherese’ (Fernald, 1985; Fernald, & Kuhl, 1987) and its prosodic features are said to be vital to the infant’s language development and comprehension (Jusczyk et al., 1992). In turn, infants are very sensitive to sounds and especially interactions with their caregivers. These continuous exchanges with their caregivers encourage the need to reciprocate. This gives way to UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 2 behaviours such as mimicking or imitation, which is one of the most basic forms of communication, and has been observed in neonates as young as 45 minutes old. Thus, relationships between infant and primary caregivers are essentially based on a sense of attunement which is fostered through these interactions; it could be said that the two engage in harmonic discourse with each other. In the first year, the infant draws on basic musical abilities or tendencies with the main purpose of engaging with others (Adachi, & Trehub, 2012). This raw musical ability predominantly serves as a useful tool in the process of socialisation and language development in the infant. By the first year of life, the infant’s babble has already been shaped considerably by the maternal culture (Ruzza, Rocca, Boero, & Lenti, 2003), and this can be observed in the different kinds of vocalisations produced by the infant (Welch, 2006). This musical babble is further shaped by interactions of musical nature in the home (Barrett, 2006), and is often viewed as the origin of invented and conventional songs (Ilari, 2014). Invented or spontaneous singing is, thus, an outcome of the child’s early musical experiences. It is an instinctive human behaviour that comes from regular and continuous exposure to music. Similar to infant-directed speech, which is vital to the acquisition of speech and singing (Papousek, 1996a), ‘infant-directed song’ can further encourage musical development (Trehub, 2001, 2003b). As children develop with age, their musical capabilities also increase and they are better able to produce music in general. This includes their ability to reproduce songs or tones. A study in the US by Davidson (1994), studied the spontaneous singing of two year olds’ first songs, through which they suggested that “phrases are the initial music units”. These phrases are characterized by limited pitch range, disconnect in key, and a descending contour. According to Young (2002), two- to three-year-olds demonstrate more singing behaviours, such as, free-flow vocalising, reworking of known songs, and the imitation of actual sounds. These singing behaviours are especially evident in free-play settings. From the age of three onwards, children produce more speech than song (Welch, 2006). More attention is also generally given to speech and conversation in everyday life. Thus one can say that there is a clear progression of singing behaviour in a child right from birth. UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 3 Music, in general, serves as an enjoyable experience. People may have different musical preferences, but share a common interest in music, which can be observed even in the first few days of life (Trehub, 2003a). However, music is essentially another form of expression or communication, and singing has been found to extend the capacity for emotional expression. The origin of the ability to detect emotions in vocal behaviours like speech and singing is said to stem from experiences by the developing foetus in response to the mother’s voice (Welch, 2006). There are moments when an individual is said to better express their emotions through the use of music. Expressive singing has been observed as fostering social and emotional aspects of an individual’s life from a very young age (Young, 2006). For example, ‘crib speech’ (Nelson, 2006; Kuczaj, 1983; Weir, 1970) is a combination of emotional expression and experience, and has been seen as a highly significant process in the emotional development of an infant (Sole, 2016). Besides the expression of emotion in the form of lyrics, emotion can also be found to influence the melodic contour of a song. However, the extent to which it does so is still uncertain. Research so far has presented contrasting findings. Some studies have suggested that ascending melodic contours could symbolise elements of surprise and fear, while descending contours are usually considered sad, boring, or even pleasant (Scherer, & Oshinsky, 1977). In their study involving adults as well as children from ages four to eight, Trehub, Cohen, and Guerriero (1987) found that participants of all ages interpreted note sequences of high pitch and fast tempo as happy, and note sequences of low pitch and slow tempo as sad. In addition, upward and downward sequences were interpreted as happy and sad respectively. With regard to major and minor melodies, Kastner and Crowder (1990) reported that children as young as three years tend to associate major melodic contours with happy or neutral emotions and minor melodies with sad or angry emotions. In contrast, Cunningham and Sterling (1988) indicated that four year old children were unable to interpret minor melodies as negative. Even with these opposing findings, all studied seem to acknowledge that children show an increasing ability to detect emotion in melody and rhythm as they grow older. As observed in past research, development is an important factor when considering the expression of emotion in music. For instance, older children are much more able to use songs to express emotion (Adachi, & Trehub, 1999; 2000; Gabrielsson, & Örnkloo, 2002). UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 4 For this reason and others, it is important to study children in their most transitional periods such as between five and twelve, as during these ages, children display a wide range of singing skills as they do with speech, especially when entering their first year of school. Another common observation across several studies in singing research is that girls are reported to be more advanced in their singing development than boys, with this difference widening especially from five to twelve years of age (Welch, Saunders, Papageorgi, & Himonides, 2012). Thus, taking age into consideration, it is useful to understand and distinguish between: (i) children’s developing skill in the performance of a taught song (Cooksey, & Welch, 1998; Rutkowski, 1990; Welch, 1986; Welch, Sergeant, & White, 1997, 1998; White, Sergeant, & Welch, 1996), and (ii) children’s ability to invent songs (Davies, 1986, 1992). In short, invented or spontaneous song is a way of expression, emotion, and communication. Children start to produce songs or song-like ‘chants’ from a very early age. These are characterised by features that are common across cultures such as, repetition, rhythmic patterns, melodic contouring, rhyme, and alliteration (Trehub, 2003b). In the first years of schooling, children demonstrate a clear understanding of musical form as well as a significant capacity to incorporate emotional expression into song form. In addition, when it comes to the invention of songs, five- to seven-year-olds display a range of song-making strategies (Davies, 1986, 1992) such as narrative songs, four-phrase structures, repetition, as well as more conventional features such as a clear indication of a start and end to the song, among others. Moorhead and Pond (1941) categorised spontaneous performance into chanting and spontaneous song. In his study of the music making abilities of young children from two to four years, Moog (1976) classified invented song into three categories of imaginative, narrative, and pot-pourri. Imaginative songs refers to those that emphasise on melody more than lyrics, with narrative songs focusing more on lyrical content than melodic contour. Pot-pourri songs refer to a combination of familiar melody or song with original melody and lyrics. To summarise, singing behaviour is subject to various developmental processes and invented songs are indicative of the process of growth and development in a child (Bjørkvold, 1992). Spontaneous singing is a useful way of understanding children’s language development as well. At the same time, other factors play an equally important UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 5 role in the development of singing. One factor is sociocultural context, to which music is highly sensitive. Moreover, music making serves several functions including the need to integrate oneself into his or her culture and society (Campbell, 2002). Children may draw on ‘unwritten or unspoken rules’ of musical form in the process of inventing a song or a piece of music. This encourages the usage of musical elements like repetition, pitch variation and cadence in singing or music production. However, spontaneous singing gives children the chance to interpret or “decide” (Elmer, 2011) these rules for themselves. Sufficient research has been carried out so far to show that speech and singing are linked in a highly naturalistic way (Trollinger, 2010) . Both consider body posture, breathing, emission, resonance and articulation as part of their individual processes, although breathing is more active during exhalation in song than in speech (Garcia-Lopez, & Gavilan Bouzas, 2010). Moreover, there are hundreds of tonal languages all over the world that make use of different tones for the same words to express different ideas or meanings. Additionally, several studies have demonstrated a positive impact of singing or musical training on language development, comprehension, and speech production and perception (Jentschke, & Koelsch, 2009; Kultti, 2013; Mora, 2000; Schon, Magne, & Besson, 2004; Thompson, Schellenberg, & Husain, 2004). Furthermore, the close link between speech and singing has even led recent research to consider the beneficial and therapeutic impact of the inclusion of singing activities in speech interventions (Rinta, & Welch, 2008). Several research studies have indeed demonstrated the positive effects of singing-based activity on learning, especially in language and verbal development. For instance, Thaut, Peterson, Sena, & Mcintosh (2008) showed that sung text enhances word order memory better than spoken text. Rainey and Larsen (2002) demonstrated enhanced effects of familiar melodies on initial learning and long-term recall as compared to spoken text. Similar recall effects have been found in studies including foreign language learning. Ludke, Ferreira, & Overy (2014) found that a “listen and sing” learning approach or method can facilitate verbatim recall for spoken foreign language phrases. Despite all this research, singing and speech have always been and continue to be considered as two UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 6 separate sets of behaviours, especially in clinical and educational settings (Rinta, & Welch, 2008), with more attention given to the development and acquisition of speech, as a whole. Strictly speaking, singing is as important as speech, if not more, when considering its impact on various areas of human development. However, there has been little research done on the development and acquisition of singing as compared to that of speech. Moreover, there is a need to distinguish singing acquisition and development from speech acquisition and development. This is in order to understand the joint and independent impacts of singing and speech on different areas of human development. Establishing this distinction may also help in the advancement of different fields such as linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychomusicology, and music education. Aims The current study is being carried out as part of the Advanced Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) which is a global research initiative devoted to singing research. The AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills (ATBSS) was developed as a standard test of singing skills and one that can be adapted in cross-cultural research (Cohen, Armstrong, Lannan, & Coady, 2009). Singing competencies vary according to musical task such as in the sung reproduction of melodic contour, pitch intervals, and song text (Welch, & Elsley, 1999). Hence, it is important for any assessment of singing abilities to encompass a variety of musical tasks to consider all aspects of singing development in the individual, and this is effectively recognised by the ATBSS. However, there is a need for a reliable singing competence scale that can be used as a standard measure of singing skill or capacity, and especially one that can be adapted for use even in cross-cultural singing research. This study aimed to create such a scale that could be an effective and reasonable measure used in standard singing tests like the ATBSS. Another key focus of this study was to understand the common elements involved in the song invention process in primary school aged children and how they translate into singing competency. To summarise, the main aims of this study are: i. To understand the relationship between singing competence and verbal fluency in children across the primary school age period. UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN ii. 7 To establish a reliable scale of singing competence, and one that can be used in future singing research studies. iii. To identify significant indicators of singing competence. Predictions i. It is predicted that children with better overall singing competence will also have better verbal fluency. ii. However, there is a possibility that children may score lower on verbal elements of the Singing Competence Scale than the Verbal Fluency Scale. If this occurs, it may be due to the requirement in Component 8 to invent a song rather than merely describe a picture. This may require more effort in creating a melody, and consequently lessen the attention given to lyrics and thus, lyrical performance will not be as good as verbal performance in Component 11. This reasoning is borrowed from Moog’s (1976) three-stage model of singing development that suggests that children focus primarily on linguistic features or words when learning songs, followed by rhythm, and then pitch and melodic elements. Thus, there appears to be a developmental model of children’s acquisition of singing behaviour. iii. Other predictions include age-related developments in singing competence as well as verbal fluency. Methodology Participants The participants in this study comprised a total of 103 students between the ages of 4.58 and 9.42 years, from three schools in England. This data sample was collated by previous final year students at the University of Kent and divided into three age groups: twenty-nine 4-5 year olds (16 boys and 13 girls), forty 6-7 year olds (21 boys and 19 girls) and thirty-four 8-9 year olds (16 boys and 18 girls). UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 8 Ethics Ethical guidelines according to the British Psychological Association were followed at all times for each participant. Prior to collecting data, all consent from parents and schools was obtained. It was necessary to obtain consent from the parents or legal guardians of the participants to participate in the study (see Appendix B). Parental consent further comprised of audio and video consent (see Appendix C and D) to allow the recordings of the responses to be stored in a digital library as part of the AIRS database that can only be accessed by authorised members of the AIRS research team. As per the consent forms, parents agreed to let their children take part in the study, and were informed that participant information would be kept anonymous and that they could withdraw from the study at any time, including requesting for the audio and video recordings to be removed from the database. Besides consent, all participants were informed, before the commencement of the test, that they could stop at any time if they did not feel comfortable. Further, the researcher would stop the test if the participant showed any reluctance or discomfort during the study. Ethical approval for the current study was acquired by the Psychology Research Ethics Committee at the University of Kent (see Appendix F). Materials The AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills (ATBSS) was carried out on each participant. The test consisted of eleven tasks, referred to as components in this study, of which 9 were a range of musical tasks. A dictation machine or sound recording device, video camera and audio-visual tapes were used to record the responses of each participant on all eleven tasks of the ATBSS. Four tasks involved the use of musical tracks, which were nine in total, and played to the participants using a CD/DVD player. A xylophone was also used to replay musical tones in case the children did not hear the tracks correctly or were not alert. The two components, which form the major part of the current study, Component 8 and 11, both make use of picture prompts. Two picture prompts, namely Globe and Jungle, were used for each participant. In total, three picture stimuli were used, with the other picture being used in Component 1 or opening task (see Appendix A). UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 9 Procedure The ATBSS was administered to each participant in a quiet room within the participant’s school. At each session, there would either be one or two researchers carrying out the test on the participant. The children were made to feel welcome by initiating a friendly conversation with them followed by the opening task or Component 1 in which each participant was given a paper with the sentence, “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” along with a drawing of the same, and asked to read out the sentence. They were asked to only describe the picture if they were too young to read the sentence. This sentence was chosen because of its holoalphabetical nature, which is a sentence that contains all letters of the English alphabet, in order to assess level of speech development in the participant. Verbal instructions were given throughout the test and repeated if the children did not understand. If the participant did not respond to a task, he or she was gently encouraged by the researcher, but not forced to complete the task. A brief description of each component is given in Table 1. Table 1 Components of the ATBSS Component Description 1 Opening conversation and read sentence: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog 2 Determine vocal range 3 Sing minor third melody (sol mi) 4 Sing back Brother John (in 8 segments) 5 Sing favourite song or song of choice 6 Sing back music elements: 3-note, 4-note, 8-note scales, and major triad UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 7 Sing improvised ending for a given song opening 8 Invent song to a choice of 2 picture prompts 9 Sing back unfamiliar song: We Are One 10 Sing Brother John from memory 11 Describe picture prompt 10 In Components 8 and 11, the two main components being examined in the current study, both tasks involved the use of the same two picture prompts. In Component 8 or the song composition task, each participant was asked to choose one out of the two picture prompts available – the Globe or Jungle – and invent a song based on what was observed in the picture. In the closing component, the participant was asked to provide a description of the picture that they did not choose in Component 8. This ensured that both prompts were used by every participant, whether in Component 8 or 11. Some children showed uncertainty in their understanding of both tasks. Here, instructions were repeated by the researchers. However, if the participant’s response was too short, the researchers prompted the participant again by saying, “What else do you see?”. Responses that came after these secondary prompts were not counted as part of the responses. This was done in order to allow the data to only consist of the children’s interpretation or response of the task. Measures Since one of the key aims of this study was to establish a reliable scale of singing competency, the Singing Competency Scale was created to include various elements of singing, in order to explore the singing capacity of each participant as compared to their verbal capacity in the case of separate but similar tasks. Thus, Components 8 and 11 were examined through the creation of two scales specifically designed to study the two tasks in relation with each other. The Song Composition task, or Component 8, was examined using the Singing Competence Scale, and Component 11 was examined using the Verbal Fluency Scale. Component 1 was analysed as a measure of general language ability. It is important UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 11 to note that for the purposes of this study, verbal fluency refers to the extent to which participants could describe a picture prompt fluently. Singing Competence Scale. The Singing Competence Scale (see Figure 1) was created with the aim of incorporating the key elements of songs, and accordingly include three main sub-elements comprising of an Improvisation Index, Lyrical Fluency Index, and a measure of the cadence or ending to the song. Figure 1: Singing Competence Scale Improvisation Index. This index further consists of melody, pitch interval index, rhythm, repetition, and song length. Melody was treated as an ordinal score from 1 to 3, with 3 corresponding to complete melody, 2 to part melody and part spoken verse, and 1 to only spoken verse and lacking any melody. The pitch interval index (PII) was estimated by UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 12 analysing the pitch contouring of each invented song. Speech and audio analysing software, Praat, was used to examine pitch contours. This index was also treated as an ordinal variable by measuring it from 1 to 5, with 1 corresponding to static pitch contouring to 5 with most variations. Examples of these can be seen in Figure 2 and Figure 3. It should be noted that the pitch interval index must not be estimated by using these graphs alone, and instead as a visual representation of the pitch contour and accompaniment to the audio. Merely looking at the graph may not give an accurate or complete picture of the pitch contouring. Similarly, rhythm was also treated as an ordinal variable with a measure from 1 to 5, with 1 corresponding to no rhythm and 5 corresponding to complete rhythm. Repetition is one of the most basic features of music making (Elmer, 2011). Accordingly, the number of repetitions in each song were also counted and included as part of the Improvisation Index. Finally, it would be useful to have an understanding of the significance of the duration of the invented song, and its meaning in relation to the other elements of the scale. Hence, the length of each song was also added as part of the scale. B2_13 42.7004423 Pitch (Hz) 39.4518096 500 75 39.45 42.7 Time (s) Figure 2: Example of static pitch interval UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 13 GR_2 2.81307043 500 Pitch (Hz) 22.7982734 75 2.813 22.8 Time (s) Figure 3: Example of lots of variations in pitch interval Lyrical Fluency Index. Lyrical fluency was measured by categorising participants’ responses into basic words, description, story elements and narrative. Basic words refer to songs or descriptions that comprise only words and incomplete sentences. Description refers to literal descriptions of the picture prompts, while story elements go beyond literal descriptions and can even include expressions of emotion. Finally, narrative indicates an actual storyline. This is an important aspect of the study as song lyrics are an important element of any song and add meaning and expression to it. The lyrical fluency index was accordingly coded from 1 to 4 for basic words to narrative. Cadence. The third element in the scale is the type of cadence in each invented song. In simple terms, cadence refers to the harmonic pattern that denotes the conclusion of a song or piece of music. For the current study, three types of cadences were taken into account, namely, perfect, interrupted, and imperfect cadences. Perfect cadences indicate endings that very clearly make the musical piece sound like it has come to an end. Those songs that had a sense of finality, but did not have a typical ending, were categorised as UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 14 interrupted cadences. On the other hand, songs that sounded incomplete or stopped abruptly were scored as imperfect cadences. Scores were coded as 1 for imperfect, 2 for interrupted and 3 for perfect cadences. Verbal Fluency Scale. In an effort to be consistent and study both tasks in relation with each other, the Verbal Fluency Scale is based on the Lyrical Fluency Index and contains the same four categories of basic words, description, story elements, and narrative. These were coded in the same way as in the Lyrical Fluency Index. Language Ability. Performance on Component 1 or the opening task was also analysed as a measure of general language ability of the participants, and as a secondary measure of . In the 4-5 year age group, participants were asked to describe what they saw in the picture as they were considered too young to read. Here, scores were coded as 1 for no descriptions or just one word, 2 for a simple description such as “wolf and dog”, and 3 for a complete description. For the 6-7 and 8-9 year age groups, scores were coded as 1 if the participant was unable to read or skipped more than two words, 2 if the participant skipped or was unable to read up to two words, and 3 if the participant had no errors at all. Inter-reliability checks It is important for there to be more than one rater to establish the reliability of measures, especially when considering measures that are subjective in nature, like lyrical and verbal fluency and other singing variables in this study. Therefore, another rater was asked to code responses on Melody, PII, Repetitions, Cadence, Lyrical Fluency and Verbal Fluency. Moreover, it was recognised that there was a need for the measure to be used by anyone, and not only someone with a background in music. Hence, the second rater was someone who had never had formal music training, and was not made aware of what the study was about. Cohen’s Kappa was carried out to check consistency of the two raters’ scores for each of the variables. UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 15 Results The final number of participants whose data was counted in the present study was 84. Thirteen participants failed to provide a response in Component 8, and thus, their responses on Component 11 were also not included, as the purpose was to study the children’s responses to both tasks in relation with each other. There were, however, three missing cases in Component 11, 2 in the 4-5 age group, and 1 in the 8-9 age group, as the participants may have not completed the ATBSS for various reasons not given. A Pearson’s correlational study was carried out taking all variables into consideration with a total of eleven variables, including age and gender. Results showed that gender is not significantly correlated with any of the other variables. However, age had a positive significant relationship with all variables except repetition and rhythm: melody, r(84)=.32, p=.003, pitch interval index (PII), r(84)=.32, p=.003, song length, r(84)=.26, p=.016, cadence, r(84)=.31, p=.004, lyrical fluency, r(84)=.24, p=.026 as well as language ability, r(83)=.23, p=.039 and its highest correlation was with verbal fluency, r(81)=.47, p<.001. This demonstrates that most abilities improve with an increase in age. Among the variables in the Singing Competence Scale (SCS), there were several significant correlations. The highest correlations in the study were found between melody and rhythm, r(84)=.62, p<.001 and PII and melody, r(84)=.57, p<.001. Rhythm and PII also shared a positive relationship, r(84)=.45, p<.001. PII was found to be positively related with all other variables in the study, with its highly significant correlations being with melody, song length, r(84)=.50, p<.001, lyrical fluency, r(84)=.48, p<.001, and cadence, r(84)=.45, p<.001. Similarly, lyrical fluency also had a significantly positive relationship with all variables except melody and language ability, with its strongest correlations being song length, r(84)=.51, p<.001, PII, and number of repetitions, r(84)=.44, p<.001. Lyrical fluency and verbal fluency were weakly correlated but had a positive relationship nonetheless, r(81)=.24, p=.03. Further analyses showed that verbal fluency was correlated with all variables except gender, melody and rhythm, with its highest correlation being with age. On the other hand, UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 16 language ability had a positive association only with age, PII, song length and verbal fluency. Inter-reliability checks using Cohen’s Kappa or Cohen’s k also indicated different rates of agreement between scores of the two raters of this study. The highest rates were for repetitions, k=.85, p<.001, verbal fluency, k=.83, p<.001, lyrical fluency, k=.75, p<.001 and melody, k=.75, p<.001, while lower rates of agreement were found for rhythm, k=.68, p<.011, PII, k=.65, p<.001 and cadence, k=.55, p<.001. Table 2 Score on Lyrical and Verbal elements according to age group Frequency Age group Sub-elements Lyrical Verbal 4-5 years Basic Words 2 2 Description 9 10 Story Elements 2 0 Narrative 2 1 TOTAL 15 13 Basic Words 1 3 Description 15 26 Story Elements 16 7 Narrative 4 0 TOTAL 36 36 Basic Words 0 0 Description 10 12 Story Elements 20 11 Narrative 3 9 TOTAL 33 32 6-7 years 8-9 years UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 17 Table 3 Comparison of performance on Lyrical Fluency and Verbal Fluency according to age group Lyrical Verbal Fluency TOTAL Fluency Age Sub-elements group 4-5 Basic Description Words Story Narrative Elements Basic Words 0 1 0 0 1 Description 1 8 0 0 9 Story 0 1 0 0 1 Narrative 1 0 0 1 2 TOTAL 2 10 0 1 13 Basic Words 0 1 0 0 1 Description 1 12 2 0 15 Story 2 10 4 0 16 Narrative 0 3 1 0 4 TOTAL 3 26 7 0 36 Basic Words 0 0 0 0 0 Description 0 4 4 2 10 Story 0 8 6 5 19 Narrative 0 0 1 2 3 TOTAL 0 12 11 9 32 Elements 6-7 Elements 8-9 Elements As seen in the contingency table of lyrical and verbal fluency scores (see Table 3), in the 4-5 year old age group, most children scored on description in both tasks. Among the 6-7 year olds, almost an equal number of children scored on description and story elements in lyrical fluency, while seventy-two percent scored on description in verbal fluency. Besides, among the 8-9 year olds, more children scored on story elements than on the other UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 18 three verbal elements in lyrical fluency, while the number of participants was almost equal for description and story elements in verbal fluency. Further analyses of age effects on performance revealed that as age increases, the frequency of descriptions involving only basic words falls, whereas those involving story elements and narratives increases. For instance, none of the 8-9 year olds scored on basic words in either task. Additionally, on an average, the 6-7 year olds most produced descriptions while they produced more story elements and narratives than the 4-5 year olds. In comparison, the 8-9 year olds produced mostly story elements, and there was a 67 percent increase in the number of participants who produced narratives. This is an expected finding considering the development of abilities in children as they get older. Discussion Results revealed several expected associations between the different variables in this study. For instance, melody, rhythm and pitch interval index (PII) all have a significant relationship with each other. These are expected results and confirm that individuals who are able to produce complete melodies are also able to produce better pitch variations and rhythm in their song inventions. Moreover, there may be a good reason for why the relationship between melody and rhythm is the strongest among all the other correlations. Rhythm is always present with melody, while it is not necessary for melody to be present with rhythm. Rhythm is also commonly found in speech, apart from being one of the main features of any melody or song. In this way, this finding links speech with singing. A few participants have scored low on the melody component, but have scored high on rhythm. However, the correlation between melody and rhythm signifies the important relationship between the two. Additionally, one’s vocal range may not be all that developed, but the presence of a good rhythmic structure suggests that the individual does have some singing or musical competence. It is important to note that this study did not differentiate between linguistic and melodic rhythm. This was done for the purpose of understanding whether rhythm is an indicator of singing competence, which the study confirms it is, through its correlation with melody and other singing elements and no association with verbal fluency. UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 19 Verbal fluency had a positive association with several singing variables including PII, song length, repetition, cadence and lyrical fluency. Thus, even though it did not show a significant relationship with melody and rhythm, it can be said that children with better singing capabilities may also show higher verbal fluency. It should be noted, however, that these correlations are weak, and thus, increase in ability to produce pitch variations, more repetitions, longer songs, perfect cadences and fluent lyrics may not necessarily also suggest an increase in verbal fluency. Further, performance on Component 1 was analysed to understand whether the level of general language ability would be similar to the level of verbal fluency and related to the same singing variables as verbal fluency. Results showed that although both language ability and verbal fluency were correlated with age, PII and song length, verbal fluency was found to have an association with more singing variables including lyrical fluency, number of repetitions and cadence. However, both the variables were correlated with each other, even though this relationship was weak. Contrary to the hypothesis that children would score lower on lyrical fluency than they did on verbal fluency, participants on an average scored the same or higher on lyrical fluency than they did on verbal fluency. Some assumptions for this may be that it could have been easier for them to describe a picture of their choice or one picture prompt may have been more visually descriptive in nature than the other. There is reason to assume the latter as, out of the 33 children who scored lower in verbal fluency than in lyrical fluency, 67 percent of the children chose the Jungle picture prompt in the song composition task and as a result, had to describe the Globe picture prompt in the last task. Thus, the Jungle prompt may have been more descriptive than the other. Therefore, the hypothesis that the children would not perform on the verbal elements of the song composition task as well as they did in just the describing task does not fit with the current findings. A possible explanation is that if a child is good with language, this allows him or her to focus more on melodic elements, thus making him or her a better singer (Young, 2006). This suggestion can be reflected in the data as ten out of eleven participants who produced a song with a narrative also sang in complete melody. This can further be seen in the pitch contours of the participants’ songs. The PII is indicative of variations in pitch intervals of the invented songs of the participants, and not vocal range. Static pitch contours represent few pitch intervals, while UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 20 more dynamic pitch contours depict more and varied pitch intervals. A few participants scored high on PII while producing spoken responses in the song composition task. This observation along with the results from the correlational analysis between melody and PII indicate that children do have an understanding of the importance of pitch intervals or contouring in a song as opposed to speech. Thus, it could be said that variation in pitch intervals is an indicator of singing competence or simply a differentiator between speech and singing, with more variations found in singing than in speech. On an average, the higher participants scored on lyrical fluency, the higher the occurrence of more variations in pitch intervals in their songs. All these results together indicate that for the most part, primary school aged children seem to have a fairly good awareness of the use of pitch variation and melodic contouring in producing a song. Forty-four percent of the participants used repetition of lyrics in their invented songs. According to Davies (1992), the use of repetition indicates “an increasing ability to embody the verbal content within musical ideas”. Results show that the number of repetitions produced in the participants’ songs has a significant positive relationship with several singing variables including PII, song length, cadence and lyrical fluency. With the relationship between repetition and lyrical fluency, one may be able to infer that participants who are more fluent in their lyrical ability are better able to use the element of repetition in the songs that they invent. However, the fact that repetition has no association with verbal fluency may mean that the use of repetition is more common in songs than in speech. Rather, it is identified as an element of singing by primary school aged children. This comes as no surprise as children’s songs, especially nursery rhymes, very commonly include repetition in them. On the other hand, the type of cadence produced in the invented song reflects a higher understanding of the process of a song. It should be noted that in this study, cadence refers to the ability of the children to end a song melodically. There is an interesting trend in the kinds of cadences produced by the participants. Only about thirteen percent of the participants end with a perfect cadence, while more than half end with an imperfect cadence. An interesting observation is that six children in total break into speech while ending their song. Davies (1992) suggests that in these cases, they “may lack the technique needed to complete their piece”. She further goes on to explain that “in some cases, this UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 21 tailing off becomes more stylized”, suggesting that these children’s “implicit understanding of the structured wholeness of music is developing along with, or even before, their control of musical materials.” Moreover, one could suggest that the familiarity of the beginningmiddle-end structure in children’s stories and songs may indeed have a part to play in their songs. A few notable examples of the inclusion of lyrical cadences must be included to show that children do have this skill, though it may be underdeveloped at this stage. For instance, one participant from the 8-9 year old group seems unable to finish her song, but still takes a few seconds more and makes an effort to finish. Another participant is successfully able to invent a perfect cadence in terms of melody and lyrics. The song is as follows: “Children around the world, celebrate Christmas all the time. Children around the world, celebrate Christmas all the time. Like India, Spain. America is a special place where Jesus was born in a stable. Children around the world, celebrate Christmas every time. Children around the world, celebrate Christmas all the time.” This response demonstrates that the participant has indeed followed the beginning-middle-end structure. Another interesting observation was the addition of elements like rhyme, which is a very common feature of songs, and one that children are accustomed to. For instance, one participant’s complete song response was, “All the people are happy, everybody dance with me”. Although just two lines, the song was quite sophisticated in terms of its melody and pitch interval. In contrast, another participant included the following line in her response which was quite detailed, “Giraffes are tall, tigers laying small”, but the whole response sounded completely like a chant and lacked any melody. In comparison, while one child is able to produce a very brief song but at the same time display a rather remarkable melody, the other demonstrates better ability to produce detailed lyrics with good rhythm, with both being important features of a song. With the latter participant, the focus seems to be on the lyrics rather than on the melody which consequently, in this case, results in restricted pitch variation. This is also described as the first phase in Welch’s (1998) model of vocal pitchmatching development, wherein children produce more chant-like songs when they focus on lyrics. It also holds true when considering Moog’s (1976) three-stage model of singing development which suggests that children pay more attention to lyrics when learning songs. UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 22 The children’s invented songs can also be classified into categories of imaginative, narrative, and pot-pourri songs (Moog, 1976). Twenty percent of all participants produced songs that scored higher on melody than on lyrics consequently falling into the category of imaginative songs. On the other hand, thirty-two percent produced narrative songs, with more emphasis on lyrics than on melody. However, there was no age effect observed here. Moreover, there is sufficient reason to suggest that children borrow elements from familiar songs or melodies when inventing their own songs (Moog, 1976; Davies, 1992). Four children sang familiar songs that the pictures reminded them about, while three other children borrowed a part or all of the Brother John melody in their song responses. The reason for including the Brother John melody was most probably the result of a priming effect; the use of Brother John in Component 4 (see Table 1) may have influenced the children’s ability to invent a new melody in the song composition task. Within the lyrical categories alone, there are very noticeable differences. Some children produced mere descriptions of only two to three lines long, whereas a few others produced longer descriptions. But both kinds of descriptions were scored as description under lyrical fluency, however long or short they were. This demonstrates the importance and relevance of looking at performance on all singing variables simultaneously rather than drawing conclusions from scores on a single variable. With a deeper analysis of the performance of the participants on both tasks, one may be able to notice a trend of how children who show good singing competence also exhibit good levels of creativity which is reflected in their ability to produce story elements and narratives in their responses. Studies have found that individuals who have better musical ability or have prolonged exposure to music, in general, display very high levels of creativity (Kalmar, 1982; Hamann, Bourassa, & Aderman, 1991). Thus, this may explain, to some extent, why those children with high scores on melodic and pitch contouring also score high on verbal elements on both tasks. It is, however, important to note that in the current study, children were not judged on their ability to produce original or creative melodies or songs. Rather, the purpose of this study was to understand the relevance and occurrence of important and common elements in children’s songs, how and to what extent these elements determine their singing competence. Thus, the current study recognises the presence of several elements that are UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 23 part of the singing process. This essentially means that the ability of a child to produce some elements such as repetition and rhythm, but not a complete melody may still be a significant indicator that the child has a good understanding of the behaviour of singing while also being able to easily differentiate it from speech. As hypothesised, age has a positive and significant relationship with all variables except gender, repetition and rhythm. This shows that development in children is definitely one of the most important factors when it comes to competency in singing. With regard to results showing no significant gender differences, both primary school ages boys and girls show consistency when it comes to age-related developments in singing. This study also demonstrates how children become more emotionally expressive as they grow older. For instance, no emotions were expressed in descriptions in both tasks by 4-5 year olds. However, four children in the 6-7 age group and ten children in the 8-9 age group used emotions as part of their responses or descriptions of the picture prompts. Some examples of lyrics or descriptions including emotion (see Appendix G and H) were, “The tiger is looking worried, and the hippo is really happy”, or simply, “A lion is scared”. Out of the fourteen children in total, only three expressed emotion in both tasks: one 6-7 year old and two 8-9 year olds. Moreover, it is interesting to note that the remaining eleven children used emotion in their descriptions only for the ‘Jungle’ picture prompt. On the whole, the current study was extremely informative in identifying the significance of different indicators of singing competence. However, there were a few limitations in the current study. The singing variable, cadence, may not have been very clearly divided into distinguishable categories, owing to low inter-rater reliability rates. Thus, future research must consider a more simpler categorisation of the variable. Further, it would have been more informative if the experiment had included another task of verbal fluency, such as a conversation between the researcher and participant. This would have been a more reliable determinant or measure of verbal fluency rather than the language ability measure. Similarly, it would have also been more useful if the current study had included a secondary measure of singing ability from among the other tasks in the AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills (ATBSS), such as the ability of the participants to reproduce musical tones as in Component 6 (see Table 1), which is a more visible measure of singing ability. UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 24 There are a number of pedagogical implications that come from understanding the level of singing competence in children especially in relation with their level of speech. Pedagogical strategies are required to be put in place in order to equip music teachers or trainers to help develop improvisational skills in children. Children appear to have a natural ability to produce musical vocalisations, and singing and composing songs can contribute to a deeper understanding of musical structure (Barrett, 2003). On the other hand, it would be interesting to apply the Singing Competency Scale to different cultures to study the occurrence of common singing elements, and how they vary by culture, and even the extent to which culture determines singing competence in a child. There is also a need for more longitudinal studies to be conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of the acquisition and development of singing with relation to that of speech. In conclusion, findings from the current study suggest that singing is a process that is made up of various elements, and scoring low on one element does not bring the level of singing competence down. Rather, it may indicate the level of singing skill in different elements, such as melody, rhythm, and so on. Consequently, the Singing Competency Scale has potential implications for music training and education, wherein it can effectively be used to identify different areas of singing competence that a child needs to develop in. The ATBSS is a valuable test of singing development, allowing one to make observations about different areas in singing development. A powerful accompaniment would be reliable and standardised measures, like the Singing Competence Scale, that can be used to interpret data collected from the ATBSS within a range of different singing cultures. However, more research needs to first be carried out to establish the reliability of the Scale. It can seem fairly obvious that children develop in their singing ability, like they do in their verbal ability, as they grow older. However, every child has his or her own rate of development, and no abilities may be fixed. In other words, with appropriate and efficient training, musical abilities can be developed further. On the contrary, there is also a possibility that these abilities may witness a decline due to inefficient training methods, such as whole-class singing alone (Rutkowski, 1996). 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Young children's spontaneous vocalizations in free-play: Observations of two-to three-year-olds in a day-care setting. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 43-53. Young, S. (2006). Seen but not heard: Young children, improvised singing and educational practice. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(3), 270-280. doi:10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.270 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN Appendix A Standard Stimuli Pictures Component 1 Component 8 and Component 11 31 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 32 Appendix B Parental Consent Letter The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ Tel: +44 (0)1227 7823489 Dear Parent/ Guardian, We are currently conducting research in schools and nurseries within Kent with the focus of understanding how children learn to sing. We would be most grateful if you would allow your child to take part. This is why we are writing to you. We are final year students at the University of Kent and have been trained by and will be supervised by a professional research at the University. Our study is part of a global research project originating in Canada which hopes to collect information from different countries across the world about children’s base-line musical skills. If you are happy for your child to take part, we will be asking your child to perform a range of tasks involving some basic musical repetition exercises with one of our researchers and their responses recorded. To give two examples, your child will be asked to sing their highest and lowest note in a simple la-tra-la-la type of song, and asked to repeat a well-known song when it is played to them. The individual recordings will be analysed and the scores for a whole age group collated so as to provide a picture of the musical abilities at that age. We would like to stress that the exercises will take a small amount of your child’s time and will be invaluable for our research. We are aware that music plays a large role in a child’s all round development and we aim to find out more about when and how children’s singing abilities are fully developed by looking at the different ages of children and adults from different cultures. We are very glad to say the tasks themselves are a lot of fun for children to do. If you are happy for your child to take part, then we would like to reassure you that your child’s data will remain anonymous, and confidential. No individual child will be identifiable from the data set produced. If at any point you wish for your child’s data to be removed from the data set, this can be done at any point prior to analysis or publication. The University conducts police criminal records checks on all researchers working with children. The procedures for this research project have been approved by the ethical committee of the School of Psychology at the University of Kent, and we would be very happy to answer any further queries regarding the project. Most of all, we will be very grateful if you are happy for your child to participate. I am happy for my child ……………………….(print name) to take part in the study Signed…………………………………………..[print name here: ] Date: Please direct any further queries or questions you might have to the contacts below. Many thanks, Tanya John & Li Uen Wing Ella Final Year Undergraduate Psychology Students Email: tj74@kent.ac.uk ; uwel2@kent.ac.uk Supervisor email: M.A.Forrester@kent.ac.uk Tel: 01227 823489 Address: Psychology Department, Keynes College, University of Kent, CT2 7NP Further details on the AIRS Project can be found at: www.airsplace.ca If you wish to withdraw your data from this study, please contact the Psychology Department Office on: Tel: 01227 823699 If you have any serious concerns about the ethical conduct of this study, please inform the Chair of the Psychology Research Ethics Panel (via the Psychology Department Office) in writing, providing a detailed account of your concern. Email: psychethics@kent.ac.uk or Post: Ethics Chair, School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NP UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 33 Appendix C Audio Consent The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ Tel: +44 (0)1227 764000 Dear Parent/Guardian, The children who take part in this study are audio-taped doing these singing tasks so that we can analyse in detail the singing skills they exhibit. From the audio-recordings only anonymous numerical data is collected, representing the performance of the child. The AIRS singing research facility in Canada hope in the future to create a digital record of children’s singing skills across the world. Towards this aim, they would be grateful if parents of the participating children would agree to the audiorecordings being stored in a digital library of these recordings. These will only accessible by University based researchers, and procedures are put in place to ensure that individuals’ names cannot be recognized. Other similar libraries exist for the study of children’s language acquisition. It is very important to the project however, that only if you give explicit permission for these audio recordings to be lodged in a cross-cultural digital library at AIRS (in Canada) will they be so. If you are happy for your child’s recording to become a research data resource, then we would be very grateful if you could sign this form. If you are not happy, then only the numerical data representing your child’s performance will be stored (and again, anonymously). I am happy for [my/ or the child’s] the audio-recording of the AIRS test battery set of singing tasks to be made available to the AIRS research team in Canada. (Signature)……………………………………………… [Name here: ] Please direct any further queries or questions you might have to the contacts below. Many thanks, Tanya John & Li Uen Wing Ella Email: tj74@kent.ac.uk ; uwel2@kent.ac.uk Final Year Undergraduate Psychology Students Supervisor email: M.A.Forrester@kent.ac.uk Tel: 01227 823489 Address: Psychology Department, Keynes College, University of Kent, CT2 7NP Further details on the AIRS Project can be found at: www.airsplace.ca If you wish to withdraw your data from this study, please contact the Psychology Department Office on: Tel: 01227 823699 If you have any serious concerns about the ethical conduct of this study, please inform the Chair of the Psychology Research Ethics Panel (via the Psychology Department Office) in writing, providing a detailed account of your concern. Email: psychethics@kent.ac.uk or Post: Ethics Chair, School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NP UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 34 Appendix D Video Consent The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ Tel: +44 (0)1227 764000 Dear Parent/Guardian, The children who take part in this study are video-taped doing these singing tasks so that we can analyse in detail the singing skills they exhibit. From the video recordings only anonymous numerical data is collected, representing the performance of the child. The AIRS singing research facility in Canada hope in the future to create a digital record of children’s singing skills across the world. Towards this aim, they would be grateful if parents of the participating children would agree to the videorecordings being stored in a digital library of these recordings. These will only accessible by University based researchers, and procedures are put in place to ensure that individuals’ names cannot be recognized. Other similar libraries exist for the study of children’s language acquisition. It is very important to the project however, that only if you give explicit permission for these video recordings to be lodged in a cross-cultural digital library at AIRS (in Canada) will they be so. If you are happy for your child’s recording to become a research data resource, then we would be very grateful if you could sign this form. If you are not happy, then only the numerical data representing your child’s performance will be stored (and again, anonymously). I am happy for [my/ or the child’s] the video-recording of the AIRS test battery set of singing tasks to be made available to the AIRS research team in Canada. (Signature)……………………………………………… [Name here: ] Please direct any further queries or questions you might have to the contacts below. Many thanks, Tanya John & Li Uen Wing Ella Email: tj74@kent.ac.uk ; uwel2@kent.ac.uk Final Year Undergraduate Psychology Students Supervisor email: M.A.Forrester@kent.ac.uk Tel: 01227 823489 Address: Psychology Department, Keynes College, University of Kent, CT2 7NP Further details on the AIRS Project can be found at: www.airsplace.ca If you wish to withdraw your data from this study, please contact the Psychology Department Office on: Tel: 01227 823699 If you have any serious concerns about the ethical conduct of this study, please inform the Chair of the Psychology Research Ethics Panel (via the Psychology Department Office) in writing, providing a detailed account of your concern. Email: psychethics@kent.ac.uk or Post: Ethics Chair, School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NP UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 35 Appendix E Debrief Letter The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ Tel: +44 (0)1227 764000 Dear Parent/ Guardian, Thank you for permitting your child to take part in our research project. All the data collected will be collated to determine whether there is any similarities and differences of the children’s musical ability within their age group and culture. If you have any further queries or questions regarding the research study, please do not hesitate to contact us. Should you wish to your child’s data can be removed at any time from the results please also contact us as soon as possible prior to publication. Please remember your child will remain anonymous throughout. Many thanks for your participation, Tanya John & Li Uen Wing Ella Email: tj74@kent.ac.uk ; uwel2@kent.ac.uk Final Year Undergraduate Psychology Students Supervisor email: M.A.Forrester@kent.ac.uk Tel: 01227 823489 Address: Psychology Department, Keynes College, University of Kent, CT2 7NP Further details on the AIRS Project can be found at: www.airsplace.ca If you wish to withdraw your data from this study, please contact the Psychology Department Office on: Tel: 01227 823699 If you have any serious concerns about the ethical conduct of this study, please inform the Chair of the Psychology Research Ethics Panel (via the Psychology Department Office) in writing, providing a detailed account of your concern. Email: psychethics@kent.ac.uk or Post: Ethics Chair, School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NP UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 36 Appendix F Ethics Approval APPROVAL BY PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEE The following research project has been approved by The Psychology Research Ethics Committee Date: 18-05-2016 Code: 20153680 Applicant Details: Name of the researcher Athina Pereira Name of the supervisor Mike Forrester Status MSc Student Email address ap714@kent.ac.uk Title Understanding the relationship between singing and verbal development in children Summary Elements of singing and verbal development in primary school children aged 4 to 9 will be closely examined in this study. The study will work on analyzing already existing data collected from a previous research project approved by the Ethics Committee at the University of Kent. The project included the use of the AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills (ATBSS) in order to understand singing development in individuals. Course Developmental Psychology UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN Appendix G Responses in Component 8 Participant No. Song BR/1 A giraffe has a long neck, hippo and a monkey climbed on a tree and a (not clear) and a leopard ate some grass, and some tigers and some tigers BR/3 Monkeys and lions and elephants and giraffes and birdies and snakes and cheetahs and monkey and hippos BR/7 There's people on the moon, there's people on the moon. BR/11 Lovely animals in the jungle, lovely animals in the jungle, tiger and elephant, giraffes and monkeys BR/16 (not clear) Animals are in the jungle, as they are, as they are BR/17 People are standing on the world BR/18 A soldier, a boy, a girl, a girl, a boy, a girl, a girl, a boy, a girl, a girl, a boy, a girl BR/19 Person is on the moon BR/20 They're in the jungle, they're in the jungle, Some giraffes come down to (not clear) the trees BR/22 He's swinging on the tree BR/25 I can see a monkey BR/27 (familiar song) Ringa, ringa roses, pocketful of posies, a-tishoo atishoo, we all fall down. Fishes in the water, fishes in the sea, we all jump up with a 1, 2, 3 B2/2 (familiar song) Five little men in a flying saucer, flew out of the world one day. They looked left and right but they didn't like the sight so one man flew away. B2/3 People on the planet B2/4 In a circle, in a circle 37 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN B2/5 Tiger sad, tiger's sad B2/6 A giraffe is there, an elephant is on a bench B2/7 All the children around the world, celebrate Christmas every time Children around the world, celebrate Christmas every time Like India, Spain, Ireland, and America. America is a special place where Jesus was born in a stable. Children around the world, celebrate Christmas every time Children around the world, celebrate Christmas every time B2/9 The monkey's swinging from the tree B2/10 It is pretty, very pretty. I love it today. B2/11 People round the planet B2/12 The people are going round the world, the world, the world. The bird is flying past B2/13 I can see a giraffe B2/15 The bird is sitting in the tree B2/16 There are stars in the sky. B2/17 Monkey's next to the hippo B2/18 Hello lion. Hello elephant. Hallo (what’s that one?) hippo. Hello (What’s that one?) cheetah. B2/19 The monkeys are swinging on the trees. The elephant is reading. The giraffe is standing. The snake is curling and the puffin is in the tree. The lion is surprised and the hippo is giving a monkey a ride. The cheetah is lying on the wet sand and the leaves and flowers are just standing there in the breeze. B2/20 The monkey is hanging on a tree, the elephant is reading a story to all the animals. B2/22 (inaudible) ..There's a spotted leopard and a cute little monkey B2/23 People are standing on the earth. B2/24 Monkey, lion, elephant, hippo, leopard, giraffe, pelican, snake B2/25 I see people holding hands. B2/26 People are holding hands around the world B4/1 The elephant's reading the book. The hippo is dancing. The monkey's hanging from the tree. And the bird's watching the elephant. 38 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN B4/2 Animals, animals, look up high, look up high. You are so beautiful, you are so beautiful, animals, animals. B4/3 The monkey's hanging from the tree . It's saying a a a. B4/4 Elephant, elephant, read us a story. Lion, giraffe, hitopotamus (sic), monkeys, listen. Elephant, elephant, read us a story. We love it and we love you too. B4/5 There's a giraffe that's nearly as tall as an elephant. B4/6 (familiar song) Children of the world singing together, make a (not clear) of hope, shine like a star, wherever you are. Children of the world. B4/7 Children holding hands, children holding hand, Holding hands, holding hands, Children playing on the earth, children playing in the earth, Holding hands, holding hands. B4/8 The hippos got his mouth open. The lion is saying whaa (sic). The monkeys hanging down the tree. The giraffe is looking way up high. The toucan is peeking out the tree and the snake is curling whirling around the tree. B4/9 Children of the world holding hands together. B4/11 The elephant's read a book with the animals. It was a pop up with all the animals in the zoo. B4/12 I see the earth, I see white dove, lots of people from different countries wearing their clothes. B4/13 The children are going around the world, running around the world. B4/14 People are holding hands around a circle B4/15 The tiger is looking worried and the hippo is really happy. The giraffe is looking down with his nice long neck. The snake has curled up in a tree. And the elephant is looking at the book sitting on a bench. B4/16 The hippo is walking with a monkey on his back. B4/17 The children around the world. They're all together. The children around the world. They're dancing, dancing too. The world. Children around the world, all dancing together. GR/1 All the children are holding hands in the world. 39 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN GR/2 Hands going around the world in a circle, with people. Everyone being good, everyone, being good, very good, very good indeed. GR/4 There was an elephant reading a book with a camel in a jungle. And they was all listening in the jungle with a bird and a monkey. GR/5 They're running around the world in a circle. G4/1 All the people are happy, everybody dance with me. G4/2 The earth is turning around every now and then. I keep turning around and it's fun, oh yes it is, I can't believe it, oh yea yea. G4/3 There is a monkey dangling from a tree. There's a tiger who's standing on the elephant. There's a toucan under the snake and going to bite the giraffe's head. There's a leopard who's lying down by the hippo with a monkey on top. G4/4 I can see eleven people, I can see some yellow stars. I can see a white bird and the people are standing on the earth. G4/5 I can see children standing on the world. D2/1 I went to the zoo, I saw a giraffe x4. I saw a lion looking at an elephant reading a book, la la la. A hippopotamus was in the grass and a monkey was looking at him. The monkey was on top of him, he was looking at the giraffe and they all went for a swim. D2/2 Girls and boys all around the world, stars are twinkling all around space. Everything's green and blue. D2/3 Round the world, people join, Christians and Muslims join their hands. The stars shine bright all through the night as the world spins round. The moon shines out to light up the world as people started (not clear). As the morning comes, night is done, and people have fun all over again. D2/4 All the animals are looking at what the elephant's holding. D2/5 All the animals, all the animals, Are coming, are coming, To listen to the elephant, to listen to the elephant, To read the book, to read the book. D2/6 All the people round the world is (not clear), Everyone is (not clear), It's time to (not clear), All round the world. Now the world's spinning round and round all the people cheering, go around the world, and (not clear). D2/7 There are people standing on the world, there are birds flying in the sky. Stars are glittering, people, the world is green. And they're all happy. 40 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN D2/8 Snakes are wrapped round the trees, birds are up in the trees. Lions are looking, lions are looking, Elephants are screaming, elephants are screaming, Hippos are laughing, hippos are laughing, Monkeys are hanging, monkeys are hanging, Giraffes are tall, giraffes are tall, Leopards are laying, leopards are laying, Ding dang dong, ding dang dong. D2/9 Trees with coconuts. Monkeys everywhere. Tigers, snakes wrapping around elephants on comfy grounds. Giraffes are tall. Tigers laying small. Big hippos laughing with the little baby ants. D2/10 People on the earth walking in circles D2/11 Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, there were (not clear), there were (not clear), People are running, people are running, run run run, run run run. D2/12 There's giraffes and parrots and elephants, there's hippos and monkeys and lions. D2/13 I can see little animals. D2/14 The animals are in the wild, the animals are in the wild, The monkey's hanging from the trees, the lions roar coz (sic) they're the kings, The elephant's trumpets are all around. And the giraffes like to eat, and the giraffes like to eat, with their long necks. D4/1 The snake is sleeping on the tree. D4/2 Monkey, monkey, what are you doing? Watching the elephant holding a mouse. Lion, lion, what are you doing? Watching the mouse running up the elephant's arm. Giraffe, giraffe, what are you doing? Watching the little tiny mouse run about. D4/3 I can see a giraffe, I can see a lion, I can see an elephant, a monkey and a hippo. I can see a cheetah, oh I can see a bird, I can see a snake see a monkey see a bird. D4/4 People like to join around the world holding hands, holding hands. D4/5 Ten children around the world with a bird flying up in the skies. And how many stars are around the world right up in the dark blue sky 41 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN D4/6 I can see people holding hands standing on the earth. D4/7 Elephant's reading a story to a giraffe, hippo and two monkeys. A snake's cuddled up on a tree and there's an elephant behind the elephant. D4/8 Children around the world, children from all kinds. Children together, they're holding hands. D4/9 There's a dove soaring through the sky, lots of people around the world are holding hands above the world. D4/10 A lion is scared, a tiger is watching an elephant read. A snake is looking at a giraffes body along with the bird too. A hippo and another monkey is watching the elephant read too. D4/11 Little elephants reading books. 42 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN Appendix H Responses in Component 11 Participant No. Response BR/7 There's an elephant and a giraffe and a monkey. BR/11 All the boys and girls are on the moon. I like the girl with the flower. BR/16 There are people on the (not moon) planet. BR/17 Monkey, lion, elephant, a giraffe, a parrot, a snake, cat and a hippo BR/18 It's got a monkey in it and a lion and a hippopotamus, a giraffe, a snake, a parrot and monkey and a hippopotamus, a cat. BR/19 Animals in the jungle. BR/20 They are holding hands and going around the (not clear). BR/22 They're standing on the world. BR/25 There's people. There's the earth. BR/27 It looked like a jungle. Maybe it's the animals from Noah's ark. B2/2 A monkey and a hippo and a tiger and a elephant and a giraffe and a snake and a parrot. B2/3 There's lots of animals. B2/4 There's a monkey. B2/5 All the people are sad B2/6 I can see a moon and a bird and some children and lots of stars B2/7 A monkey's sleeping on a tree B2/9 Bird B2/10 I think it's very neatly set out with all the tallest ones in the middle and then the palm trees with some animals who live on the tree hanging out, and then all the ones that are quite fast or live in water are in the bottom bit where the water might be. 43 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN B2/11 There's people in the jungle. B2/12 There's lots of animals and they're like having a talk. B2/13 I can see a white bird. B2/15 Going around the world. B2/16 It looks like there's an elephant reading a book. B2/17 People (not clear) and they're holding hands when they're on it B2/18 Well, it looks a bit like out of our world with a world and then loads of people holding hands around it. B2/19 I can see some stars, I can see the Earth and I can see some children and some adults and I can see the blue night sky and I can see the moon and I can see a pigeon or something B2/20 Children are holding hands around the world and they all got different tops on B2/22 There's a bird and there's lots of people standing on the world. B2/23 An elephant is reading a book. B2/24 There's children lining up in a circle and all around the world B2/25 I see animals. B2/26 I can see animals and trees with coconuts B4/1 All the people are holding hands and there's bright stars and there's white bird flying in the sky. There's man with a yellow and blue t-shirt on And a lady is touching her hair and a lady with short hair and a dress that's yellow with some flowers. B4/2 I can see people around the Earth and I can see stars. There's little fireworks. A bird. B4/3 A man's wearing shorts and it’s wearing a necklace and they're all standing on the world. B4/4 The people are holding hands and going around the Earth and they're all from different countries 44 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN B4/5 Lots of people running around the earth. There are children from around the world. B4/6 It's in the jungle. B4/7 An elephant, a monkey, a lion, a giraffe, a leopard, and a hippopotamus B4/8 All the children are standing on the world holding hands. B4/9 There's an elephant reading a story to all the animals. B4/10 People standing around the world in a circle B4/11 People are standing on the Earth and the (not clear) is small and there's stars and there's a white bird B4/12 I can see a elephant sitting on a curly (not clear) and it’s reading a book and there's a monkey on a tree and a monkey on a hippo's back and there's a lion standing up and it's looking shocked. B4/13 I can see a giraffe, got pink legs. And a monkey hanging from the tree and a monkey is pink and sitting on a hippo. B4/14 The elephant is sitting on a bench and going down and he's reading a book with the mice. B4/15 Everyone's holding hands and a boy in a blue jumper looks like he's standing on the water and there's a girl standing on the grass with another boy and the boy's standing on the grass and the two girls are standing on the water while the boy is on the grass and the girl and the boy are on the grass as well and we go back to this girl who's standing on the water looking like she's holding a boy's hand in a red and yellow suit. B4/16 The children are standing around the world B4/17 One of the hippos is reading a popup book and all the animals are all looking at him. The parrot is on the tree and the monkey's hanging. GR/1 The elephant's reading a book GR/2 A monkey is hanging from a tree and a hippopotamus is standing on the tree with a monkey standing on him and there’s a kinda (sic) puzzled lion and a tall giraffe and they're laughing and reading a bird sitting on a tree, snake going around the tree the birds sitting on. 45 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN GR/3 There's lions, elephant reading a book and leopard, giraffe, snakes, a bird and a hippo GR/4 Can see there's loads of people on the world in the night when the bird was flying with the stars that was there. And there was five girls and six boys. GR/5 There’s animals in the jungle that is crowded G4/1 The elephant is reading. All the animals are happy. All the birds are (not clear) and the (not clear) are laughing. G4/2 Once upon a time, there was an elephant reading to a Giraffe, lion, monkey, monkeys, hippo and a snake. And a tiger, and it was about a dinosaur trying to find a home and stuff. G4/3 Children are in party dresses standing on the Earth. Lots of stars and a bird G4/4 I can see one lion that’s yellow and has orange hair. Giraffe that has pink legs and a purple (not clear) And they're all different colours and imaginary because they (not clear). Giraffe and I can see a snake wrapped around the tree and a monkey hanging off branches. G4/5 There’s an elephant reading a story to a mouse, giraffe, snake, parrot, lion, monkey, rhino and leopard D2/1 All the people in the Earth want to help save the Earth from, like, pollution, maybe? D2/2 There's a lion, and there's an elephant reading a book. There's a hippo opening his mouth. There's a leopard. There's giraffes standing still. There's a snake hugging onto a tree. There’s monkey trying to get mangos. Then there’s a bird there. There's a monkey there on the hippo. D2/3 I think they're all in a zoo. It's one of the (not clear), it's night time. And there's a little story going on and all the animals come and take part in it and tells a story what some of the animals did. And each night they take turns and they bring down one of their little friends to say/see because the little friend says what story she kinda (sic) wants and then they start reading that story. And I think at the moment they're all gathered around for a reading anniversary because they're all excited about it coz they've had a year and it's back to when they started reading. 46 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN D2/4 People from different countries are all holding hands around the world and there's a white dove flying above them D2/5 I can see children holding hands and standing on the world. Dove in the sky. D2/6 D2/7 D2/8 Animals are gathered around the tree. They might be talking about something and the elephants holding a book. There’s monkeys, lions, elephant. Parrot, giraffe, hippo, snake, and more monkeys There's a giraffe with a very long neck, the giraffe's got pink feet. There's a snake on the tree. There’s a monkey hanging from the coconuts. And there’s a monkey sitting on the …forgot.. Rhino? There’s a leopard and there’s big trees with coconuts and there’s grass. There is ten people on the earth and they gathered around and making a circle around the earth. And there’s like a little bird up in the sky and all the stars are twinkling and bright and I think (clouds..) and they’re making a circle and there’s different kind of people in different kinda (sic) shirts. A soldier, farm girl on vacation, an artist. D2/9 Bird flying around the earth, people floating around the earth holding hands from different countries and different ages. D2/10 They're in like a jungle, and there's a little (not clear) Animals and the elephant's reading a book to them and the monkey's on a tree and (not clear) hanging onto a branch and then the snake's coiled around the tree branch, And all the other animals are walking and talking around the elephant and they're listening to the elephant snoring D2/11 I can see a lion, elephant, monkey, hippo and a bird, a snake, a giraffe and a.. don't know that one. D2/12 I can see people holding hands on the planet and making friends and telling you what's important about the Earth D2/13 It's got lots of people around it. In the night with a pigeon or a dove. D2/14 Maybe people from different nations together like if there’s a war, all the nations can make peace with each other. And that could be Jap, Chinese, American, Mexican, and all these countries are united. And like, when you find something is made in China, that means where you're from is linked to China coz they have a supply of toys and they make them and bring them over. 47 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN D4/1 They are joining hands around the world D4/2 They were standing on the moon walking around the moon holding hands D4/3 I see old people coming together around the world. Think it's trying to make the world a happier place. D4/4 There is like animals are alive and sort of doing whatever they want and they're in control of the forest. D4/5 There's elephants reading a book to all the animals and they look like they're surprised about what's happened and might have enjoyed it a little bit D4/6 All the animals are looking at the elephant coz he's reading a book. D4/7 There's loads of people round the earth and looks like they’re all from different countries and they’re all dressed differently and there’s a dove in the background. There’s lots of stars and fireworks D4/8 There’s thirteen animals in a rainforest. There’s lions monkeys elephants frogs and (not clear). D4/10 In this picture, I see like a Chinese woman or Indian and I guess they all be standing around the country D4/11 The world's sort of together and like they're all different in a way they're all the same. 48 UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN 49 Appendix H Correlations between all variables Variable 1 2 3 4 1. Melody ─ 2. Rhythm .624** ─ 3. Pitch Interval Index .573** .454** ─ 4. Number of repetitions 0.126 0.176 .317** ─ 5. Type of cadence .305** .350** .454** .280* 6. Lyrical fluency 0.204 .216* .482** .436** 7. Length of song 0.171 -0.004 .502** .431** 8. Verbal fluency 0.135 0.099 .249* .253* 9. Language ability 0.090 0.008 .267* 0.181 10. Age group .316** 0.202 .316** 0.200 11. Gender -0.039 0.105 -0.032 -0.204 7 8 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Variable 5 6 1. Melody 2. Rhythm 3. Pitch Interval Index 4. Number of repetitions 5. Type of cadence ─ 6. Lyrical fluency .264* ─ 7. Length of song .360** .512** ─ 8. Verbal fluency .314** .241* .233* ─ 9. Language ability 0.164 0.100 .257* .264* 10. Age group .314** .243* .263* .474** 11. Gender -0.081 0.074 -0.114 -0.016 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). UNDERSTANDING SINGING COMPETENCE IN CHILDREN Variable 9 10 11 1. Melody 2. Rhythm 3. Pitch Interval Index 4. Number of repetitions 5. Type of cadence 6. Lyrical fluency 7. Length of song 8. Verbal fluency 9. Language ability ─ 10. Age group .227* ─ 11. Gender -0.034 0.085 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ─ 50