Inappropriate assessment of children's voices may be responsible for the high incidence in many societies of adults who label themselves ‘non-singers’. Research into the evolution of human behaviour supports the adoption of a new model of vocal development which illustrates the relationship between the instinctive and the acquired. In setting aside the potentially damaging criteria of age-related Piagetian stages, it may become possible to explain the extraordinary success of voice teachers who have transformed adult non-singers into competent performers through accessing ‘the child within’.

This paper is based on a presentation given to the Early Childhood Commission of the International Society for Music Education seminar ‘Respecting the Child in Early Childhood Music Education’ held at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa in July 1998.