The views of early years children have historically been overlooked – and their abilities often underestimated. Yet new research from Youth Music shows why it’s crucial we start listening to their voices and choices. The findings demonstrate the diverse music tastes of 0- to 5-year-olds, sparking conversation around how the early years sector can adapt in response.
Nursery rhymes have long been the go-to music choice for 0- to 5-year-olds and, without a doubt, are valuable in supporting the development of language and communication skills in children. However, with 28% of early years parents now branding nursery rhymes as outdated and 47% believing that the lyrics need to be updated, many are branching out to new genres to entertain their children.
Nearly half (45%) of parents surveyed said that their children enjoy genres other than the traditional children’s ones, with hip-hop (17%), R&B (16%), classical music (12%) and even grime (3%) listed as music their 0- to 5-year-olds are currently listening to.
With those findings in mind, why wouldn’t we listen to young people when deciding what music they might enjoy? Collaborative approaches to early years music education allows a child’s natural curiosity for movement and play to come to the forefront of their listening and learning. This might involve changing the lyrics to a nursery rhyme to reflect a young person’s personal experiences, playing with the structure of traditional songs to reflect the broad spectrum of genres today or exploring songs beyond the traditional nursery rhyme repertoire.
This doesn’t mean ignoring nursery rhymes completely, but instead adopting the diverse styles representative of what children listen to around the home, in their daily lives and in music education settings. To do this, early years children must have a say in what they sing. They should be given every opportunity to influence what they learn based on their own culture, tastes and history.
Creative education in the early years has been deprioritised within policy and resource. It was only included in the National Plan for Music Education after the first 10 years and not being afforded extra resource. So, how can we make space for children’s voices and opinions about what they learn and listen to, allowing them to find their own way into music?
By being open to the co-creation of music with early years children, we can ensure that the ways in which they learn are reflective of the lives and stories that are meaningful to them as individuals with a right to be heard. Youth Music believes that the skills, creativity and tastes of babies and toddlers should be taken more seriously, which is why we have launched the £1.5m Energiser Fund, the first of its kind in the UK, dedicated to investing more in reimagining early years creativity.
This year’s Energiser Fund is supporting 11 early years projects:
- Magic Acorns
- Turned On Its Head
- The Spark Arts For Children
- TACO!
- Maines-Beasley Creative Limited
- The Whitworth
- Bristol Old Vic
- Take Art Limited
- Whitnash Nursery School
- The Herd Theatre
- Made with Music
For more information on Youth Music’s Energiser Fund, visit youthmusic.org.uk/energiser-fund
