Music and Learning: The link? How Music helps children learn?
June 30, 2022 2023-06-26 13:28Music and Learning: The link? How Music helps children learn?
Music and Learning: The link? How Music helps children learn?
Music is therapy for the soul. Not just for adults, but for the little souls as well. Music makes one joyous. Listening to music every day helps to soothe your nerves, keep you calm and relaxed, and helps to focus on your work better. We bet you remember the first-ever nursery rhyme your mother or teacher ever taught you! How about the jingle of the first-ever cartoon you’ve seen that kept you hooked to your television for years on end?Â
Why is it that we all love music so much? Because music lives in us all! Ever been through a really tough day where everything seemed to be going wrong and then you listened to your favourite song before turning in to bed and suddenly everything seems so much better and you are at peace with yourself and the world? Well, it is not just adults who can get stressed! Children too get stressed and listening to music can be relaxing, fun, and soothing for the little ones. It is especially so after a long day at studies or play.
But did you know music can be a whole lot more?
Music can actually aid in the learning process by helping to develop motor skills, linguistic skills, memory power, etc.
At different stages of child development, music helps in developing a definite set of skills.
For infants, listening to soft, quiet, melodious background music during sleep time will greatly help them sleep better.
On the other hand, listening to loud, over boisterous music will only overstimulate them and keep them up.
You could set up a nighttime routine by perhaps singing a short rhyme about, eating, brushing, changing into nightclothes even as you do these and drifting off to sleep!
"Newborns will learn to recognize a song’s melody even before they begin to understand the meaning of the words. So keep those nighttime songs simple and short!"
When it comes to toddlers, they too love listening to music. But of course, they are now older, so they may learn to sing songs along with you even as you teach them. This helps to improve their language, communication, and memory power. The more they like the song, the more they will keep singing it. This repetition of their favourite rhymes, songs and jingles will help enhance their memory power and they may even remember them for years on end!
The Delightful Experience
Toddlers will love clapping their hands to the music, dancing to the tunes, and tapping objects to reproduce the rhythms of the songs they just listened to. So filling their playroom with instruments like drum sets, keyboards, or tambourines. If they take to playing musical instruments, you can introduce them to the delightful world of music through drums, pianos, flute and keyboards. Children are always excited to learn something new and see if they like listening to music and play with these musical instruments. You could take it a step further and put up the music-themed decor in your little one’s room. It includes guitar, piano, or any other instrument wall decor. You could also display the artwork of people, animals, birds or insects laughing, singing, playing musical instruments and having a gala time. This way, your kid associates listening to music or playing musical instruments with having a good time.
"Playing musical instruments together or teaching them music at an early stage of their life is a great way to spend some quality time together as a family. So don’t be shy to laugh out loud, dance with your kid, jump, and run around as your child gets started on his new musical toy."
For children who are past the toddler stage and entered preschool age (by this we mean kids who are 4 to 5 years old), they love listening to music about things that are familiar to them. By this we mean, animals, birds, insects, people, toys, cartoons, play activities, and the various sounds they come across every day like vehicles on the road and the sounds they make, and other interesting day to day events like the chirping of birds, animal sounds, etc.
Children at this age, and even older children love expressing themselves through music. They may start to like songs that are associated with what they learn at school at this stage. From songs about the alphabet and numbers, they will take an instant liking to other singalong songs.
As your kid grows older and becomes a school going child, you can tell them about the rich history of the musical instrument that he has taken a liking to. You could even take them to a musical concert and show how beautifully expert musicians play the very same instrument that they are playing at home. And who knows? This may just be the beginning of your little one’s lifelong love affair with music and musical instruments!
