Early Years: Creating Perceptual Space Where Music and Language Can Meet

Abstract

ABSTRACT Auditory perception and auditory cognition development in early years are foundational for social and emotional development and language acquisition. The ability to recognize sound patterns around us and the delicate balance between their acoustic features determines our understanding of the intrinsic nature of language, socio-emotional interactions, and music. Both acoustic feature recognition and an ability to effectively form a perceptual unit – an auditory object – are fundamental for developing an ability to make sense of sound. Since both music and language rely on the auditory system to perceive and produce sound, the potential of using music in interventions for children with language acquisition difficulties like Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has been raised by numerous scientists. Based on personal experience, the current paper discusses opportunities for supporting auditory perception development in music-based interactions using instrumental sound patterns. It details how manipulation of acoustic features like pitch, rhythm, timbre, duration, and intensity can help develop auditory skills like auditory pattern recognition, categorization of sounds by timbre, pitch, auditory object formation, and symbolization – the prerequisites for recognizing vocal identity, understanding spoken language, and articulating spoken messages.