Exploring Young Children’s Communication Development through the Soundbeam Trigger Modes in the ‘Holistic Music Educational Approach for Young Children’ Programme

Abstract

The Holistic Music Educational Approach for Young Children (HMEAYC) is a professional method that aims to provide a music curriculum for children in both mainstream and special education settings. The purpose of this research was to examine the effectiveness of the HMEAYC in communication development through the use of the Soundbeam trigger modes in young children from the mainstream and with special needs. The participants were divided into two groups, and they were aged between 41 and 55 months. All the children received the same number of hours of music instruction per week incorporating the ‘Soundbeam technology’ adapted from the HMEAYC method. The duration was 32 weeks with a 40-minute instructional session once a week. The results and findings showed that both of the groups increased their participation in the musical activities and improved their communication ability by the end of the study. The findings suggest the HMEAYC curriculum framework is beneficial for making connections between music activities and comprehension processes in communication. The results showed that in the autism spectrum disorder children and young children, the manipulation behaviours are both related to single operation through the Soundbeam trigger modes in the HMEAYC.