A Preliminary Study of the Tempos Used by Preschool Children in the Three Rhythms - Walking, Running, and Skipping

Authors

Eva Leah Hulson, State University of Iowa

Document Type

Research

Abstract

A preliminary study was undertaken to find out at what tempos young children from four to five years of age are best able to walk, run, and skip in concert with music - in this case appropriate music played on the piano. It was carried on with a group of about twenty children from four to five years old from the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station. It was performed under group conditions - all of the children being present during the testing periods. For this study, sixteen measures of music - chosen because of its suggestiveness as well as for its simplicity - were played by an adult at designated tempos while a second adult observed a group of three or four children as they responded to the music. Eight consecutive steps were arbitrarily chosen as being the minimum upon which a child could be judged as being able to keep the rhythm. Three methods were used for gathering the data for this study, (1) without instruction in order to get the children's first response to the music, followed by (2) verbal instruction, and (3) without music, using stop-watch, to get the children's natural rates.

Publication Date

1927

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

34

Issue

1

First Page

312

Last Page

313

Copyright

©1927 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Hulson, Eva Leah (1927) "A Preliminary Study of the Tempos Used by Preschool Children in the Three Rhythms - Walking, Running, and Skipping," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 34(1), 312-313.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol34/iss1/106