List of Skills by Age

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1-2 Months

Calms to rhythmic movement, sounds, and music

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2-4 Months

Listens to sounds and begins to differentiate

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4-6 Months

Comforted by soft, rhythmic melodious sounds, music, and movement (stops crying)

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6-8 Months

Reacts differently to different musical patterns

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8-10 Months

Listens attentively to sounds and words

Watches and tries to imitate movements

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10-12 Months

Bounces to rhythm while standing

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12-15 Months

Shows intense interest in speech sounds and music

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15-18 Months

Imitate sounds, words, and movements

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18-21 Months

Remembers short action sequences

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21-24 Months

Identifies preference in instrumental music

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24-27 Months

Increases activity level with fast rhythms

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27-30 Months

Attends to more than one characteristic of objects at a time (sound and movement)

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30-33 Months

Remembers pictures, finger plays, dance moves, songs

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33-36 Months

Names or sings favorite songs, finger plays, etc.

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36-42 Months

Imbues music, dances with emotion

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42-48 Months

Enjoys group singing and dance

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48-54 Months

Begins to be aware of musical syntax (rules for how the various aspects of music come together) and to understand and use musical phrases (segments of music)

Attention span for listening to music increases in length and interests expand to various types of music

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54-60 Months

Capable of learning some basic musical concepts such as pitch (high/low), duration (long/short), tempo (fast/slow), and loudness (soft/loud)

Sense of pitch, rhythm, and melody emerging