6. ANÁLISIS DEL CONTROL
7.3 INVOLUCRACIÓN CONTINUADA
Development: Ecological Systems Theory and a Russian Dolls
Model
One critical factor that arises in many studies of young children’s development relates to the children’s environment. All the socio-cultural contexts, such as family, school, friends, parent’s working environment, the area where they live, and the social
environment, are perceived to have some degree of influence in shaping the children’s identities, personalities, and behaviours, including their musical development. As an example, there are two theoretical models, which illustrate the various influences on young children’s musical development, language acquisition, and enculturation. One is Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979), which introduced a bio-ecological approach to human development. The other is a ‘Russian Dolls’ type model of the influences in early childhood musical development (Welch, 2006).
Bronfenbrenner introduced his Ecological Systems Theory in 1979 and considered development to be continuously changing in the ways that humans adapt and cope with their surrounding environments. He delineated the various environments around the child into four types of nested systems, embracing what he termed as the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem. The microsystem is the closest layer and core within which the child is placed. The most immediate and earliest influences are the family and siblings. In the mesosystem, local influences on the child derive from the neighborhood or community institutions, such as the school, religious institutions, and peer groups, as well as the specific culture with which the family identifies. The exosystem is seen as the external environment that indirectly influences the child’s development, such as the parental workplace and community- based family resources. The macrosystem is defined as the outermost layer of the child’s environment, and includes cultural values, customs, and laws. The chronosystem was added later, introducing the dimension of time as it relates to the child’s
environment (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). From this theory, the influence of the mother, although of prime importance, is not the only factor to be considered in the young child’s development. Additional account needs to be taken of the culture within which the child lives, and other factors that have some social and cultural importance.
A ‘Russian Dolls’ type model has been suggested for best conceptualizing the literature on the nature of the influences in the early childhood musical environment (Welch, 2006). This model also has a nested-style design in which individual musical behaviours are shaped. The ontogenesis and basic human neuro-psychobiological design (including the potential for musical behaviour) is at the core, and the layers (from inner to the outer) relate to enculturation, generative musical skill development, schooling, the influence of special groups (such as peer groups, genders or ethnicity),
and musical development that is shaped by the educational imperatives in the wider community. This model was designed to show the way that musicality is shaped in a child, and it can also be used as a framework to investigate the position and the relative importance of outcomes and findings of research in young children’s musical
development. Therefore, this model can be useful for mapping out the great number of findings obtained in previous researches. For this study, the most important suggestion from the Russian Dolls model is that enculturation is the closest layer to the core (the central ‘ontogenesis and basic human neuro-psychobiological design’ part of the individual), and closely allied to generative skill development. The core part, the “ontogenesis”, is derived from nature, while the other layers are all formed by influences from the outside world interacting with the core: something to learn, to acquire, to nurture etc. It suggests that enculturation is the most fundamental part, and it starts at a very early stage of musical development.
In looking at these two models, culture is treated as one of the layers that have an important degree of influence on the young child’s development
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Welch, 2006). Culture is also evidenced in early mother/carer- child interactions. ‘Motherese’ (parent-infant direct speech) is considered to be one of the most influential factors in the formation of young children’s musical behaviour, as well as in their language acquisition (see below). The mother’s (or caregiver’s) cultural background might also have an influence on the children’s development, as musical features in adult speech have some influence on early language development that is closely linked to these musical features.
Motherese is described as one form of language that is used between
mother/caregivers and infants. It contains rich musical features, such as a predominance of musical pitch intervals, and correlations between motherese and language
development (as well as musical development) have been reported in various studies (such as Papousek, M., 1996; Fassbender, 1996). Motherese is also known as
‘parentese’, ‘care-giverese’ and ‘child-directed speech’. It contains paralinguistic features such as high pitch, exaggerated intonation, a greater range of pitch variation
and words spoken at slower tempo. (Riken 理化学研究所 http://www.riken.jp/r-
world/info/release/press/2010/100810/index.html)
Trehub (2006) used the word ‘maternal speech’ and ‘infant-directed speech’ for motherese, and described it as follows;
‘Maternal speech has a larger pitch range and greater dynamic range (whisper to loud) than ordinary adults’ speech, which may contribute to infant
preference.’ (Trehub, 2006, p.40)
She noted that infants respond to infant-directed speech with greater
attentiveness and a more positive affect than they accord to adult-directed speech, that is, speech between adults. However, it is still unclear which aspects of maternal speech attract and maintain infants’ attention. Trehub also defined musical aspects from motherese and labeled this as ‘infant-directed singing’. She described ‘infant-directed singing’ as follows:
‘The distinctiveness of infant-directed singing goes beyond the repertoire, or
sing to their infants at a higher pitch level and slower tempo than they usually use for the same songs [elsewhere]’ (Trehub, 2006, p.39)
She noted that infants prefer infant-directed singing to other styles of informal singing from the earliest days of life. The elevated pitch level of infant- directed singing may contribute to infant preferences.
The influence of ‘motherese’ on infants’ musical development has also been reported in researches (Papousek, M., 1996; Fassbender, 1996). Papousek, M. (1996) called ‘motherese’ ‘infant directed speech’ and defined this as follows:
“Infant directed speech, parents intuitively guide infant vocalization towards melodic modulations, display prominent models for them…, and use the melodic profile of infant-directed speech as the first categorical messages about the infant’s momentary vital circumstances.” (p. 44).
Papousek, M. also said that infant-directed speech can be used by the infant as a form of vocal play, later leading to singing. Parents’ infant-directed speech uses melodic contours for vocal play as well, and they often sing nursery rhymes or lullabies. Musical elements are evidenced in the vocal productions of babies aged 2-15 months during vocal interaction with their mothers (Papousek & Papousek, 1981). Fassbender (1996) summarized the importance of ‘motherese’ thus: ‘The acoustic environment in the uterus and the post-natally experienced motherese provide frames to signal and teach the infant the important markers necessary to segment and structure speech and
music’ (p. 80). Therefore, motherese can be considered as the first step in learning to imitate nursery rhymes, and perhaps as a stimulus for the improvisation of a child’s own songs, and later an impetus in learning songs with lyrics.
The influence of ‘motherese’ on infants’ language development has also been reported in research (Leveitt et. al., 1991). They found same rhythmic features as participant infants’ learning language (mother tongue) in the reduplicative babbling. In French and American infants’ babbling, all three of features: final syllable
lengthening, timing of non-final syllables, and number of syllables per utterance, showed the same tendency as in the adults’ speech. The researchers found evidence for language-specific rhythmic influences in motherese. It could be said that, through motherese, infants acquire the rhythm of mother tongue.