Best Practice

Musical play: A powerful tool for self-regulation

The arts Pedagogy research Key stage 1 Key stage 2
Musical play can help to teach young children crucial self-regulation skills, research has suggested. Dr Antonia Zachariou explains more and offers some practical ideas based on their findings

 

As of September 2021, the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) will require early years settings to consider self-regulation. The Early Learning Goal on self-regulation, stipulates that children should start primary school (year 1) able to:

However, what self-regulation is and how primary schools might respond to this and build on it is not clear.

 

Our research (Zachariou & Whitebread, 2015, 2017) alongside that of others in our field, can help primary schools to build on this with children in key stage 1. The evidence we have gathered shows that musical play can be a powerful tool to help children build these skills.

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