The development of musical skills in the early years of life plays a key role in the development of cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills. Considering the lack of valid and reliable instruments to measure musical skills in children between 12 and 36 months, the need to develop and validate a questionnaire (MuSkiTo - Musical Skills for Toddlers) was proposed. The aim of this communication is to share the preliminary results of the validation process of this instrument. The instrument has been designed around the main musical processes: instrumental and vocal interpretation, improvisation-creation, listening and movement. Several revisions have been made by experts. A pilot test was carried out in one educational centre with children aged between 15 and 24 months. After making the necessary adjustments, the test was carried out in the participating educational centres, with 15 subjects who had taken the test a month earlier. The response items corresponded to a Likert scale, with between 6-7 questions for each block. The movement development block was divided into a first block called 'Rhythmic' (six questions) and another called 'Expressive' (six questions). The questionnaire is currently being validated, but the results obtained from its use demonstrate the need for tools such as this to try to tap into children's innate musical skills and abilities, the development of which can be crucial to their motor, socio-emotional and cognitive development. The test is not so much aimed at the development of purely musical skills as at the discovery of these skills, making it possible to discover the musical abilities of young children in the first cycle early childhood education (1-3 years).

Acknowledgement:
This study has been funded by the MOVIMUSI Project (PID2022-141095NB-I00), financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish Government.

Keywords: Musical skills, Improvisation, Interpretation, Musical processes.