An Assessment of Motor Music Skill Development in Young Children

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to describe the characteristics of motor music skill development in children aged three to six. Variations in development were also examined in relation to age, sex, race, community size, and previous musical instrument experience. Data were gathered via administration of the Motoric Music Skills Test (MMST) to 808 children selected from seven eastern Kansas communities. Measures of central tendency and variability for each age group indicated that the skills tested by the MMST improve with increases in chronological age. Inferential statistical procedures included a canonical analysis to reduce the number of independent variables, followed by a multiple analysis of variance. Race, community size, and previous musical instrument experience were not significantly related to test performance, and no interactions were discerned among the variables.