Introduction:

Child motor and emotional development is essential to social sciences, since a variety of methods may be applied to strengthen physical capacities and social skills. Music could be a significant motivational method to improve motor and emotional aspects.

Objective:

Determine the influence of music on the motor and emotional development of 8-10 year-old children.

Methods:

Forty children were selected by intentional non-probabilistic sampling to form a control group (C), and 41 were selected to form an experimental group (E) (age range: 8-10 years). Psychomotor and emotional responses were similar in the two independent groups. A psychomotor and emotional intervention program was implemented in the academic year 2017-2018. The program was basically the same for the two groups, except that in the experimental group emphasis was placed on motivational musical stimuli.

Results:

The Friedman test found significant differences between the two independent groups in the pretest and the post-test (p= 0.000), with negative categories prevailing in the pretest and positive categories in the post-test. Both independent groups underwent significant improvement in the study variables, with a predominance of the "Very satisfactory" and "Satisfactory" categories. The experimental group, however, exhibited better average ranges in the positive categories of "Very satisfactory" (E= 22.60; C= 18.40) and "Satisfactory" (E= 23.65; C= 17.35), and lower average ranges in the negative categories "Scarcely satisfactory" (E= 14.16; C= 26.40) and "Not satisfactory" (E= 17.70; C= 23.30), though the "Scarcely satisfactory" category did show significant differences (r= 0.001) in favor of the experimental group.

Conclusions:

Evidence is provided of the potential of music as a teaching-learning method, since the experimental group obtained better psychomotor and emotional results than the control group.

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