Future perspectives

The concluding chapter of the handbook reflects on the contents of each of its contributory sections and the themes that emerge across chapters. Key themes embrace the potential for young children to develop both in and through music, outlining the ways our underlying multi-sited neurological processing of embodied musical sound is shaped and developed by social and cultural contexts. Authors also provide critical international perspectives of what counts as music and children’s musicality—noting that these are in a symbiotic relationship to the theoretical position adopted by the researcher(s), with each perspective offering distinctive insights into the phenomena. We also note how inherent biases in the existing research literature offer opportunities for future, deeper inter- and intra-disciplinary insights, including greater acknowledgment and understandings of the music practices in the majority world.