The influence of music on the emotional development of a preschool child

Glazba je sveprisutan segment našega života s kojim se susrećemo od ranoga djetinjstva. Ona je jedan od najbogatijih izvora za poučavanje djece i njihovo emocionalno razvijanje te je važno da iskoristimo njezin potpuni potencijal. Dijete svoj emocionalni razvoj kroz glazbu započinje u dojenačkoj dobi te sukladno s njegovim razvojem i rastom, razvija se i njegova percepcija emocija izražena kroz različite vrste glazbe. Upravo zbog tih činjenica, ovaj rad prvenstveno nastoji odgovoriti na pitanje o tome kakav je i koliki je zapravo utjecaj glazbe na emocionalni razvoj predškolskog djeteta. Potrebno je naglasiti kako bi se u budućnosti morala provesti dodatna istraživanja ove tematike u ovom području. Metode korištene prilikom pisanja ovoga rada uključuju analizu dosadašnjih istraživanja te interpretaciju navedene stručne literature iz ovog područja. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su utjecaj ritma, visine tona, tonaliteta glazbe i teksta pjesme na razumijevanje emocija u glazbi, slabu prisutnost glazbe u odgojno-obrazovnim ustanovama te nedovoljne kompetencije odgajatelja u području glazbenog odgoja i obrazovanja u predškolskim ustanovama. Utjecaj glazbe na emocionalni razvoj djece predškolske dobi nedovoljno je istraženo područje te je zbog toga kvantiteta znanstvenih i stručnih radova i istraživanja u iznimno malom broju. S obzirom na veliki značaj emocija u daljnjem životu pojedinca te velikoj prisutnosti glazbe u svakodnevnom životu, važno je pomno i u većoj mjeri istražiti kako bolje primijeniti glazbu u radu s djecom predškolske dobi u odgojno-obrazovnim ustanovama u svrhu emocionalnog razvoja. Na taj način, boljom istraženosti, moglo bi se doći do novih metoda odgoja djece kroz glazbu, a time bi se dugoročno mogla unaprijediti kvaliteta ne samo nastave u predškolskim ustanovama, već i sama kvaliteta života djece.Music is an omnipresent part of our lives, which we meet in an early childhood. It presents one of the richest sources of teaching children as well as their emotional growth, so it is important to use its full potential. Child starts its emotional development while in stage of infancy and accordingly with its development and growth, his emotional perception develops as well – expressed through a variety of music types. It is because of these facts that this paper firstly wants to answer the question of what kind of an influence and how much of an influence music has on an emotional development of a child in its preschool years. It should be emphasized that more research of this topic must be done in the future, in this field. Methods used during writing this paper include analysis of already conducted researches as well as interpretation of professional literature. Results showed the influence of rhythm, pitch height, tone of music and lyrics all influence child's understanding of emotions in music. Music is very scarcely present in educational institutions and preschool teachers are not competent enough for musical teaching in preschool institutions. Influence of music on an emotional development of preschool children is a field which has not been researched enough and because of that, the quantity of scientific as well as academic papers and researches is very small. Considering the great importance of emotions in later life of an individual as well as big presence of music in everyday life, it is of great importance to do more research on how to apply music more while working with preschool children in order to further better their emotional growth. That way, there could be discovered some new methods of teaching children through music which could then improve, long-term, the quality of not only the class itself but the quality of children's lives