The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that there is a link between children's musical experiences and attitudes, and their musical skills and understandings. For the purpose of the research, experience and attitudes have been measured by the National Education Monitoring Projects (NEMP) 2000 Music Survey, whilst the NEMP 2000 Assessment Results have been used to provide levels of musical skills and understandings. The first part of this study focuses on the nature of NEMP music assessment in relation to different aptitude, ability and achievement tests, and compares NEMP with various national assessments, in particular the ones used by the United States of America and Wales. The second part of the study tests the hypothesis that whether a link is present between children's musical experiences and attitudes, and the extent of their musical skills and understandings, as revealed in their NEMP survey results and scores. The analysed results should be helpful in teacher education situations in determining the balance and relationship between teaching musical skills and understandings alongside student attitudes and previous experiences. Based on the sample used in this research, correlation analyses showed that attitudes toward music do not have a strong influence on students' musical abilities. A greater number of relationships was found between musical experiences and students' NEMP scores. This result is similar to a few other attitude researches which will be briefly discussed and compared.

This diploma thesis deals with differences in the quality of phonematic listening as well as listening comprehension by pupils with above-average and below-average musical-auditory abilities. The goal of this work is a quantitative comparison of results from both tests. In the first part of the work is examined the theoretical basis of listening comprehension, phonematic listening and of musical abilities and skills. The work follows up musical-auditory abilities, their development and their influence on listening skills in German including researches in branches of other languages. In the practical part, we look by means of tests into the degree of comprehension to the German text and into the degree of phonematic literacy of pupils in German language. These are further compared by musically above-average and below-average group. The results of the work are exploitable for the teaching of listening comprehension, or for the development of phonematic listening.

The purpose of this diploma thesis is to analyse the ability of the human ear to hear slight rhythm deviations in speech and non-speech phrases. The first part contains theoretical background for the study of speech rhythm and summarizes the research that has been already conducted in this area. It focuses especially on the perceptual nature of rhythm, the concept of P-centers, and provides a comparative study of speech rhythm and musical rhythm and their common properties and functions. The theoretical part is concluded with the analysis of potential influences of linguistic and musical training on the production and perception of rhythm, and hypotheses and research questions are formulated. The practical part contains a perceptual experiment designed to examine the ability to identify rhythm manipulations in short speech and non-speech, i.e. percussive, phrases. Short English phrases are selected and their rhythmically altered counterparts are prepared. Participants are then presented with pairs of speech or non-speech phrases and a task to identify rhythmical discrepancies between them. The results highlighted several differences between the nature of speech and non-speech rhythm. While the presence of stressed syllables enhances perception of rhythm deviations in speech, this is not the case...

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of the family's influence on the development of a child's musicality at an early age, from birth to his pre-school period. In the work the author first describes the general development of the child and then the musical development of the child in individual developmental periods, because the development of music takes place inseparably from the overall development of the child and his personality. This description also includes the period of prenatal development. A part of it is the characteristics of individual musical abilities, the development of which can already be seen at children at this age. The work focuses on the influence of father, mother and siblings of the child on his overall development and development in the field of music, describes the appropriate musical environment in the family and the possibilities of its positive influence. The practical part logically follows the theoretical part and draws on the knowledge contained in it. It focuses on specific practical musical activities that can be performed with children of this age within the family. It aims to create a set of simple ideas for the development of musicality of children in toddler and early pre-school age. The author first characterizes the musical environment in her family and...

The thesis concerns practical possibilities how to work with folk-songs not only for building-up the musical skills of pre-school children but also for the influence of their overall personal development. The theoretical part describes the folk-song development in RVP PV, particular musical activities working with songs and this part also mentions the devolepment of pre- school child(e)ren abilities and shortly describes the personality of pre-school pedagogue. The practical part concerns how to work with the folk-song in practice. The concrete example (set of songs) shows how is possible to develop children's personality via musical activities. Songs contain practial topics according to defined aims, which are realised in the concrete nursery school. Subsequently are recorded children's reactions at implemented activities. Key words instrumental activity, folk song, singing activity, motion activity, listening activity, preschool age

The aim of this thesis is to verify the effectiveness of children's listening activities in the preschool period from five to six years of age, to introduce the utilization of methodology connected with listening to the music by Jaroslav Herden in terms of preschool education, and to demonstrate the importance of motivation and integrative activities for the development of attention together with the overall harmonious development of children. In the theoretical part, I analyse the input of music into the consciousness of children in terms of basic psychological features and functions which are important for perception. I introduce basic musical abilities, particularly musical creativity and imagination. The theoretical part is concluded with the clarification of basic means of expression and shape features, which are important not only for the music perception as such, but also the music perception in an ontogenetic context. Moreover, I also present the philosophy of educational thinking concerning the listening activities proposed by Professor Jaroslav Herden. In the practical part, I introduce a comprehensive authorial project involving the methodology of Jaroslav Herden's music tailored to children who are aged from five to six years. This project was implemented into practice and evaluated...

The subject of the thesis is the use of musical activities in the development of graphomotor skills of preschool children. The theoretical part of the thesis is devoted to the problem of harmonization of music and movement at the level of gross and fine motor skills. It also deals with the issue of laterality and its distinctness. The practical part contains a detailed case study of a boy with a disadvantageous type of laterality and follows the development of his graphomotor skills during 15 lessons, the core of which are musical activities for the development of graphomotor skills of preschool children. I used multiple complementary research methods in the in-depth case study, which were participant observation, mother interview, open-ended questionnaire, family and personal history, and PPP report. The action research was conducted over a ten-month period, with the boys being 4 years and 3 months old at the start of the research. The practical part of the thesis analyses the action research data and evaluates the overall impact of specific musical activities in the development of preschool children's graphomotor skills.

Cette étude introduit un nouvel outil d’évaluation des troubles liés à la perception et la mémoire de la musique pour les enfants âgés entre six et huit ans. La batterie d’évaluation proposée est une adaptation de la batterie de Montréal de l'évaluation de l’amusie (MBEA) afin qu’elle puisse être utilisée chez les enfants, et ce, peu importe leur langue maternelle et leur culture. Dans l'expérience 1, la batterie, qui évalue les composantes musicales suivantes : la tonalité, le contour, l’intervalle, le rythme ainsi que la mémoire incidente, a été administrée auprès de 258 enfants à Montréal et 91 à Pékin. Dans l'expérience 2, une version abrégée de la batterie a été administrée à 86 enfants à Montréal. Les deux versions ont démontré une sensibilité aux différences individuelles et à la formation musicale. Il ne semble pas y avoir une influence de l'apprentissage de la lecture et de l’écriture sur les performances, mais plutôt un effet de la culture. Effectivement, les enfants qui ont comme langue maternelle le Mandarin (une langue tonale) ont obtenu de meilleurs résultats aux tâches de discrimination liées à la composante mélodique en comparaison à leurs homologues canadiens. Pour les deux groupes d’enfants, ceux qui ont été identifiés comme potentiellement amusiques ont principalement, mais pas exclusivement, des difficultés à percevoir de fines variations de hauteurs. Le caractère prédominant du déficit lié au traitement mélodique est moins distinctif avec la version abrégée. Par ailleurs, les résultats suggèrent différentes trajectoires de développement pour le traitement de la mélodie, du rythme et de la mémoire. De ce fait, la version de la MBEA adaptée à l’enfant, renommée la batterie de Montréal d'évaluation du potentiel musical (MBEMP), est un nouvel outil qui permet d’identifier les troubles liés au traitement musical chez les enfants tout en permettant d'examiner le développement typique et atypique des habiletés musicales et leur relation présumée à d'autres fonctions cognitives. / The present study introduces a novel tool for the comprehensive assessment of musical disorders and potential in 6- to 8-year-old children. The tool is an adaptation of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) for use with children from a range of language and cultural backgrounds. In Experiment 1, the battery, comprising tests of memory and of scale, contour, interval and rhythm discrimination, was administered to 258 children in Montreal and 91 in Bejing. In Experiment 2, an abbreviated version of the battery was administered to 86 Montreal children. Both versions were sensitive to individual differences and to musical education. There was little apparent influence of literacy, but there was an effect of culture. Children who spoke Mandarin (a tone language) showed enhanced melodic pitch discrimination relative to their Canadian counterparts, who mostly spoke French (a non-tone language). In both cultures, children designated as amusic were impaired primarily but not exclusively in musical pitch processing. The results also suggest distinctive developmental trajectories for melody, rhythm and memory processing. Thus, the child version of the MBEA, which should be renamed the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Potential (MBEMP), provides a means of identifying musical disorders in childhood as well as a means of examining the typical and atypical developmental course of musical abilities and their putative relation to other cognitive functions.

Cette étude introduit un nouvel outil d’évaluation des troubles liés à la perception et la mémoire de la musique pour les enfants âgés entre six et huit ans. La batterie d’évaluation proposée est une adaptation de la batterie de Montréal de l'évaluation de l’amusie (MBEA) afin qu’elle puisse être utilisée chez les enfants, et ce, peu importe leur langue maternelle et leur culture. Dans l'expérience 1, la batterie, qui évalue les composantes musicales suivantes : la tonalité, le contour, l’intervalle, le rythme ainsi que la mémoire incidente, a été administrée auprès de 258 enfants à Montréal et 91 à Pékin. Dans l'expérience 2, une version abrégée de la batterie a été administrée à 86 enfants à Montréal. Les deux versions ont démontré une sensibilité aux différences individuelles et à la formation musicale. Il ne semble pas y avoir une influence de l'apprentissage de la lecture et de l’écriture sur les performances, mais plutôt un effet de la culture. Effectivement, les enfants qui ont comme langue maternelle le Mandarin (une langue tonale) ont obtenu de meilleurs résultats aux tâches de discrimination liées à la composante mélodique en comparaison à leurs homologues canadiens. Pour les deux groupes d’enfants, ceux qui ont été identifiés comme potentiellement amusiques ont principalement, mais pas exclusivement, des difficultés à percevoir de fines variations de hauteurs. Le caractère prédominant du déficit lié au traitement mélodique est moins distinctif avec la version abrégée. Par ailleurs, les résultats suggèrent différentes trajectoires de développement pour le traitement de la mélodie, du rythme et de la mémoire. De ce fait, la version de la MBEA adaptée à l’enfant, renommée la batterie de Montréal d'évaluation du potentiel musical (MBEMP), est un nouvel outil qui permet d’identifier les troubles liés au traitement musical chez les enfants tout en permettant d'examiner le développement typique et atypique des habiletés musicales et leur relation présumée à d'autres fonctions cognitives. / The present study introduces a novel tool for the comprehensive assessment of musical disorders and potential in 6- to 8-year-old children. The tool is an adaptation of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) for use with children from a range of language and cultural backgrounds. In Experiment 1, the battery, comprising tests of memory and of scale, contour, interval and rhythm discrimination, was administered to 258 children in Montreal and 91 in Bejing. In Experiment 2, an abbreviated version of the battery was administered to 86 Montreal children. Both versions were sensitive to individual differences and to musical education. There was little apparent influence of literacy, but there was an effect of culture. Children who spoke Mandarin (a tone language) showed enhanced melodic pitch discrimination relative to their Canadian counterparts, who mostly spoke French (a non-tone language). In both cultures, children designated as amusic were impaired primarily but not exclusively in musical pitch processing. The results also suggest distinctive developmental trajectories for melody, rhythm and memory processing. Thus, the child version of the MBEA, which should be renamed the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Potential (MBEMP), provides a means of identifying musical disorders in childhood as well as a means of examining the typical and atypical developmental course of musical abilities and their putative relation to other cognitive functions.

This diploma thesis is focused on possibillities of using the people's habits in music activities in nursery schools and their influence the development of music abilities. It brings the outline of the religious holidays in the course of the year. The thesis explores the use of people's habits in musical activities in kindegartens and the suggestions of the possible solutions how to apply people's habits in musical activities have been outlined based on this research.