Recognition of Musical Instruments by Children between 4 and 6 Years of Age and Research concerning the Natural Sounds They Associate with Those Instruments

Musical instruments help children to gain a lot of experience related to sounds and they play an important role in supporting skill development in children. In addition, with instruments children can create and explore their own music, rather than participate with and react to others. In this school-based research study 147 children were chosen randomly from among those who attended private kindergartens in high socio-economic areas in the city center of Ankara, Turkey. All children were aged between 4 and 6 years. The research methodology comprised a questionnaire to gather demographic information about the children, the use of musical instruments and a set of cards containing pictures of musical instruments. When the children were asked the question, ‘What is music’, they answered mainly by saying, ‘playing a musical instrument’. Many of the children were able to identify musical instruments correctly when shown pictures of them.