Developmental Trends and Relationships in Children's Aural Perception and Symbol Use

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among children's aural perception of tonal patterns and children's symbol use in drawing and selection tasks based on tonal information. Children's performances on perception, drawing, and selection tasks were investigated for developmental trends within and across tasks. Sixty-four children, ranging in age from 4 years, 7 months, to 12 years, 8 months, were tested for their performance on aural perception of tonal patterns (PMMA/IMMA), selection, and drawing tasks. A principal components analysis showed perception, selection, and drawing to load on one factor. When factor scores were examined for differences by age with a one-way ANOVA, age was shown to be a significant effect, F(3, 60) = 7.58, p < .001. Post-hoc comparisons showed that children at the youngest level differed significantly (p < .01) from those at the two older levels on the literacy factor, with scores on all tasks and factor score means revealing a linear trend in children's musical development of symbol use.