16 GASTOS POR SERVICIOS RECIBIDOS DE TERCEROS Este rubro comprende:

fully at school. It is, however, also important that the teacher knows his/her school chil- dren well. He or she should be aware of developmental characteristics of younger school children and he or she should definitely take them into consideration. Furthermore, he or she should have a resourceful and motivating approach towards children generally.

Let us look at developmental characteristics of younger school children from four ba- sic perspectives: satisfying needs, overcoming conflicts and crises, cognitive development and moral development. Psychologies of Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg will help us.

Sigmund Freud defines the age from 6 to pubescence as the latency-stage period. La- tent Character is a psychoanalytic term for solving the Oedipus complex (Electra complex) by means of identification with a parent. However, inactivity on the “sexual field” does not yet mean that the young person’s development stagnates – absolutely not. This is a period characterized by quiet reactivity, willing to be competent and efficient in cognition, obey- ing social and ethical norms, and attempt to establish good social relationships (especially with peers).

Erik Homburger Erikson also considers the period between the age of 6 to 12 as a la- tent period providing a child with time and space for establishing relation to work and to coordination with the others. This child creates something, adopts anonymous principles, does not fall into the world of imageries and games so frequently but focuses on tasks and developing skills. Nevertheless, he/she is endangered by feelings of insufficiency and inferiority, suffers from his/her own incapacity and he/she can regard him/herself as con- demned to mediocrity. Therefore, it is enormously important for the teacher to correctly assess the child’s abilities and skills for appropriate task orientation.

According to Jean Piaget, a child from the age of seven to pubescence evinces changes in his/her thinking: he/she classifies more successfully and he/she understands causality better. Egocentrism disappears and the child can realize much better how other people feel and think. In this period of concrete operations the ability of abstract thinking gradu- ally develops.

Regarding the moral stage, Lawrence Kohlberg divides its development into two stag- es according to younger and older age. Younger age, which is relevant for this study, is defined as a period of conventional morality. It is characterized by conformity or social harmony – in other words, what is expected is good; it is important to be a good man ac-

in educational concerts for preschool children and younger school children; and, additionally, it has performed three plays for a children opera, one music fairy tale and a children’s musical.

2 The term “younger school age” means here in this context the period from six (possibly seven) to eleven years of a child. This period covers the first five grades of primary school.

cording to common social norms. Social harmony may come only if we obey the norms – to fulfil the duties which a person agreed with is good; laws and rules should be obeyed and the only exception is the absolute extreme of discordance with another norm.

How children cope with the above-mentioned life tasks influences to what extent they will be successful in further life periods. Moreover, it has an impact on the quality of ma- turing and adulthood. Their teacher is one of those who fundamentally has a great impact on this development. He/she requires social and ethical norms; creates an environment for establishing social relations; helps develop their skills; directs children towards tasks and future expectations; finally, he/she lets children gradually interiorize and pass them on. Indeed, children who have been attending the school choir for some time become bearers of these norms and pass them to newly coming children. They fortify each other. They suc- cessively become those who co-educate, co-encourage, co-create, co-experience. It results in mutual enrichment and predominately natural and healthy instinctive, cognitive and moral development

Friendships from early school age which are further developed are often described as similar to sibling relationships. Almost everybody remembers his/her first or second grade teacher, often unlike those from later years.

Looking at the music development of children, it also has the above-mentioned cogni- tive development features. As far as the level of music capabilities, skills and experience of children entering first grade is concerned, the level varies significantly. Children come from different backgrounds. They bring in music experience of their families, their maternity schools and alternatively other music circles organized for pre-school children. There is, however, one thing all children have in common – it is a vivid interest in all which associates with music production and reproduction. Just like in other fields, children long for gaining knowledge. They are keenly interested in all they have not yet discovered and they are at- tracted by music instruments. Children generally have the need to manipulate with things; therefore, music instrument playing helps satisfy this need. Children love Orff instruments and most of classical music instrument players begin attending instrument lessons in this early school age. What obviously supports and helps music is when children are able to un- derstand graphic symbols such as notes and when they learn how to work with them. Thus outline perception of music structure gradually changes into analytical perception and un- witting memory becomes intentional. Music auditory abilities of children develop; and their rhythmic, harmonic and tonal feeling gets more accurate. Moreover, children’s motor coordi- nation improves with music too. What is typical of children from the first to the fifth school grade is their vivid imagination and fantasy, which, however, retreats with increasing age.

Music teaching, naturally including even singing during music lessons and during les- sons of choir singing for early-school-aged children, should be based on time-proven peda- gogic principles. It means that teaching should by attractive for children, diverse, interest- ing, respecting their actual experience, their level of music abilities and skills. Children of early school age need demonstrative teaching and activities need to be repeated. It is natural for children to express themselves by means of movement and children of this age love playful activities. A teacher is a great authority for children, especially at the begin- ning of their schooling, since children look up to him/her and they try to imitate him/her. It is beneficial to be aware of all these aspects.