Pre- and postnatal music education for holistic development and communicative wellbeing

Music education and early interaction are commonly well known as separate phenomena. Music, in the current research, was considered as a way of communication. The connections of music education with interaction, supporting development with musical nurture, were investigated in this phenomenological study to fill in the gap. Multiple strategies methodology: both qualitative and quantitative measures, theoretical -, data -, investigator - and methodology triangulation were employed in this investigation. The empirical study was conducted as an adaptation of an action study, systematic video analysis, however, as a main method. The musically structured amodal communication in the groups of (pregnant) mothers and (belly) babies were compared in the investigation in three groups, 1) for both pre- and postnatal musical sessions (E); 2) only for postnatal musical sessions (C1); and 3) for no musical sessions at all (C2). Strong, multiple connections between music and linguistic interaction were manifested in the early behaviour of the mother and the baby, and in the infant’s development. Especially the prenatal musical experiences were found significant for communication skills on the basis of vocal, visual, bodily and emotional evidence: early interaction and music are connected.