Teaching Children Singing

Teaching Children: Vocal Pediatric Research

Pediatric Vocal Development: Implications for Teaching Singing to Children

I’ve just read an article discussing the vocal differences between child and adult singers and the implications for teachers. The information cited below is a reduced version of that article. For more information and the complete article, please see the footnote.*

Most of what we learn about vocal pedagogy and the voice science behind it is based on adult vocal pedagogy. With few exceptions most research in pediatric pedagogy for singing has not incorporated findings from the voice science field. The following is a brief outline of more current research findings in voice science that music teachers need to know to work effectively with young voices.

1. Children’s Vocal Anatomy is Not Like That of Adults.
The primary function of the larynx is to protect the airway from unwanted food and liquid. Because of this, the infant larynx is placed very high in the vocal tract and the rest of the vocal structures are also undeveloped and remain so until the onset of puberty.

Therefore, children have small singing and speech ranges, that are higher than adult voices. We should have our young students start with songs in a narrow range, D—A.

2. Young Children Do Not Have a Fully Functional Vocal Ligament.

A fully functional vocal ligament does not develop until between the ages of 10 and 13 years. The vocal ligament binds the muscles together that cause registration events and, thus, children do not have the registration events we associate with singing. Since the bands are fairly short, they are limited to how much they can stretch, which results in a small pitch range for singing. However, vertical laryngeal movement is observable when the child tries to phonate at a pitch that is too high or too low to produce with the larynx in a resting state.

On a practical level, this means that the teacher should monitor for any signs of stress in singing. Common signs of stress are a forced sound, raising and sticking out the chin, or pulling the chin into the chest.

3. Children Do Not Have a Physiologically Natural Vocal Vibrato

Since children’s voices lack a developed vocal ligament prior to pugerty, that means they cannot produce healthy vibrato. They lack the physiology to create it. (This doesn’t stop children from generating a forced vibrato). On the other hand, vibrato in an adult voice is the indicator of a healthy voice, since lack of vibrato indicates that there is excessive vocal tension in the vocal bands.


Therefore, the following is recommended: if you can sing with your grown-up voice in a light adjustment and your children are able to match you, then that is the best. However, if you do need to go to a straight tone to help the children sing in tune, that is fine as long as you don’t do it for an extended period of time.

4. The Healthy Child Voice Physiologically Cannot Sound Like an Adult Voice and Vice Versa.

A healthy child voice should sound focused but not forced with the singing voice and the speech voice sound much more the same than in adults.


The timbre of the child voice should be even along the range of pitches the child can sing with no vibrato, no excessive dynamic changes, and no overt physical stress. They need frequent breaks.

5. Children Do Not Have Fully Developed Respiratory Systems

Children will need to breath much more often as the respiratory system does not become adult-like until around the age of 11. Short phrases in singing are good, long phrases are bad.

6. Children are Susceptible to Vocal Problems

65% of K-12 students involved in music suffer form neuromusculoskeletal problems that could be attributed to music performance. What does this mean to music educators?

First, the songs children sing at concerts must be physically appropriate as well as aesthetically pleasing. Songs written for adult voices should not be used.

Second, monitor for signs of vocal distress.

Three, reassess use of prerecorded accompaniments. Many are over orchestrated, forcing kids to over-compensate to be heard.

* "Pediatric Vocal Development and Voice Science: Implications for Teaching Singing.” Valerie Trollinger. General Music Today (Online) 20 no3 1 Spr 2007