Parental perception on the role of music on children’s socio-emotional development in preschool years

Abstract

Music fuels all areas of human development, and development is best stimulated when young. Since parents are the first and most influential teachers of children, the duty of providing the right stimulation, and the right stimulating environment, rest upon them significantly. This qualitative study, therefore, explores the parental perceptions regarding the role of music on the socio-emotional development of children in the preschool years. Through six in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion, this research tried to capture the knowledge, practices, and attitude of parents regarding music. The study findings indicated mixed comprehension from parents. While a few of the parents were aware of music as a developmental agent for their children, others had lesser clues on it. The majority of the participating parents carried habitual practices with music at home but didn’t have any associative knowledge on how it helped their children, or what were music’s theoretical benefits with development. However, music as a stress reliever and calming agent was cited by all parents. Furthermore, the terms ‘social’ and ‘emotional’ development were found to be quite ambiguous among them. In fact, early childhood development was more of an unaccustomed term for them to comprehend. Therefore, the research suggested advocacy to parents, integrating music-based curriculum and pedagogy in the pre-primary education system, bringing necessary changes in the education policy, and conducting research on the matter in a larger, and profound manner.