Embodiment and Early Childhood Music Education

The embodied music cognition research paradigm increasingly leads to findings that convincingly undergird the idea of the relationship between human movement and musical experience as a cornerstone of musical meaning formation and understanding. But even though movement is an integral part of early childhood music education, the findings and concepts (e.g. entrainment, alignment, prediction and reward) from the embodied music cognition paradigm have not been fully embraced by researchers and practitioners working with young children. Yet, findings from embodied music cognition research might serve as valuable tools for practice and research. They can support early childhood practitioners in developing music learning activities that encourage children to shape their experiences of linking sound and movement in a meaningful and fulfilling way. They may provoke early childhood music researchers to address more fundamental questions and issues about learning music. Finally, the research domain of embodied music cognition is intrinsically linked to the use of sensing technologies and provides a context for researchers and practitioners to engage in fruitful collaborations that join theoretical, practical and empirical knowledge in the pursuit of technology-supported educational practices for young children. This chapter briefly describes the concept of an interactive technology that is currently under development and will also be implemented in early childhood education, namely Singewing Space. This interactive web-based application stimulates participatory sense-making and embodied learning through collaboratively creating a visualization of sound and movement in a shared virtual space.