Childhood Observation Paper

The past few weeks I have gathered knowledge and experience of three different adult age groups through the mediums of interview and observation. I interviewed (1) a young adult in college (He will be referred to as B), (2) a middle aged woman in her 50s (She will be referred to as D), and (3) a large group of older adults ages 50-93. From these experiences, I gained insight into how well developed the adult spectrum is socially and cognitively. With this information, I am able to connect how different brain functions correlate to the behaviors I observed, and how to consider it in music therapy context. Compared to children, adults are significantly more developed in the social domain. This does not necessarily mean that people become more
extroverted as they age into adulthood. We will see how in the case of B that well developed social skills are apparent in highly introverted people. As people experience more social interactions, they learn to consider other’s perspectives partially due to increased cognitive ability. This skill is essential in a healthy social development and affects how a person may interact, or chose not to interact, with others. During my observation of the New Horizons Band, the first thing I noticed when I walked into the room was the amount of conversation and socializing within the band members and the audience.
There was a lot of laughter and smiling among the people. The conversations were lively and full of humor. However, when I walked into the childhood observation, the children were quiet and would only talk if asked a question by the director. The older adults were able to interact more naturally due to their awareness and familiarity with the situation. They felt comfortable interacting through statistical learning. Over time, they have learned what people typically say and what responses are appropriate. They have gained the ability to see things from others’ perspectives and developed their sense of empathy. In contrast to children, older adults also have a longer attention span. This allows them to have conversations with others for a longer period of time. As a result, they are more willing to stay engaged in meaningful and deeper conversations. During the performance, the band members would need to have a social awareness of the people around them to match tempo, pitch, and dynamics. The audience members and band member would clap their hand or cheer when the band or soloist finished. These social behaviors show how older adults have the ability to understand another’s perspective (the hard work the performers put behind the program), and they knew how to acknowledge it
appropriately.