Music and your baby
Childhood is an exciting, fun and challenging period of life, with every new experience an opportunity to learn and grow. It’s the most critical time for building the physical, mental and emotional foundations that will support us for the rest of our lives.
As parents, we should strive to give our children the tools to build a successful life – and one of the best choices you can make for your children is giving them the gift of music. From day one, we should encourage our kids to listen to and make music. They can start by listening to their favorite songs and accompanying the music with simple instruments made from household products; they can then advance to playing more complex musical instruments and perhaps even take formal lessons.
Music and your child’s skill development
In addition to improving creativity, learning music cultivates many skills that will continue to be useful to your child throughout her life. Researchers have found a significant relationship between music instruction and positive performances in reading comprehension, spelling, math, listening skills, primary mental abilities (verbal, perceptual, numeric, spatial) and motor skills. So how does music help?
- Concentration
Learning a musical instrument will help your child develop concentration, as it’ll mean she needs to focus on a particular activity over extended periods of time. Developing concentration in this way also benefits her academically, helping her learn to focus her attention on what she’s studying at school.
- Co-ordination
Just like with babies building with bricks, toddlers doing puzzles or older kids playing sports, practicing musical instruments improves hand-eye co-ordination.
- Patience
and perseverance Young children tend to have poor impulse control – but in order to learn a musical instrument your child must develop patience. Perseverance factors in too – and it’ll help her later in life when she must tackle other more difficult challenges.
- Self-confidence
The act of learning and playing an instrument, the encouragement of a teacher and the enthusiasm of a proud parent, builds a sense of pride and confidence. Moreover, children who practice self-expression and creativity often become better communicators later in life.
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Music is great for children of all ages – studies show it can help build intellectual and emotional skills, facilitate learning and strengthen other academic areas, such as reading and math
Why music still matters
With the rise of the Internet and the proliferation of high-tech jobs that require computer skills, there seems to be less interest in music and arts education. However, several studies by experts in the field are demonstrating that studying the arts – particularly music – is still vital for skill development.
Several studies by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Brown University, have explored the effects of art and music education on young children’s learning. The conclusions of these studies support the theory that music instruction can help build intellectual and emotional skills, facilitate learning and strengthen other academic areas, such as reading and math. Also, these studies indicate that music can positively affect children and adults of all ages.
The conclusions of these Brown University studies are consistent with other research on music and its effect on child development. A study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California showed that when 3 and 4-year-old children were given simple piano lessons over a six-month period, they performed 34% better than other children in IQ tests. Researchers concluded that music training effectively ‘jumpstarted’ the brain when it came to spatial-temporal reasoning – computer lessons, on the other hand, may not encourage children to think ahead or visualize, as they must when playing a piece of music.
Several studies indicate that the reading level of students with one year of music study was nearly one grade higher than their peers without such music training. Children with two years of music experience had scores equivalent to two years ahead of their reading age, and these statistics improved with music experience. The relaxing effects of music may be key: music seems to make children more relaxed and receptive to learning.
Choosing music for children
When they’re around 3 years old, most children begin to take a real interest in music activities of all kinds. It is a good time for parents and teachers to begin mixing music with games that require body movement, such as clapping, waving, jumping and dancing. Sing-along games are ideal for initiating movement and bringing children together in enjoyable group activities.
Children aged 4 and 5 are more consistent music-makers and are more aware of the messages in song lyrics. At this age, kids are more likely to sit and listen to short music recordings or performances. Appropriate music-related activities include lessons in music appreciation and playing instruments.
Children age 6 to 10 can start learning that music has structure. Rhymes, repetition and experimenting with different sounds also can be used for speech and reading development. This is the ideal time to actively teach a child a musical instrument or expose them to choral groups. Research has indicated that children at this age will start showing the positive effects of music training in their academic performance.