Children’s Improvised Vocalisations : learning, communication and technology of the self
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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https://hdl.handle.net/10642/347Utgivelsesdato
2008Metadata
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Originalversjon
Knudsen, J.S. (2008). "Children's Improvised Vocalisations: learning, communication and technology of the self". Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 9, (4), 287-296 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2008.9.4.287Sammendrag
The intention of this article is to explore, challenge and expand our understandings of
children’s improvised vocalisations, a fundamentally human form of expression. Based on selected
examples from observation and recording in non-institutional settings, the article outlines how this
phenomenon can be understood as learning and as communication. This is supplemented by
suggesting a third possible approach which places these vocal forms within the frame of understanding
implied by Foucault’s term ‘technology of the self’. This theoretical perspective entails recognising
improvised vocalisations as tools used to ‘act upon the self’ in order to attain or reinforce a certain
mental state or mood – happiness, satisfaction, anger or longing – in short, as a way in which children
learn to know the self as a self. In line with a Foucauldian perspective is also a focus on the negotiation
of power and how music serves as an empowering agent in children’s everyday social interaction.
Finally, informed by Vygotsky’s approach to understanding the relationship between language and
mental development, the author discusses the gradual disappearance of improvised vocalisations.