Music for child development

Music plays an important role in the life of our society. If you take a closer look, almost all aspects of our life are saturated with the sounds of music: theater, television, films, holidays, government events. We use players and speakers to fill our daily activities with music: jogging, traveling by car and public transport, performing everyday tasks. With music we confess our love, with music we communicate with children and friends, with music we express joy and sadness and even tell others about ourselves.

We are not always passive listeners: who has not sang in the shower or with a guitar at least once, who has not tried to play something on the piano or drums? And many of us have a childhood in a music school and even a performance experience behind us.

Indeed, our first encounters with music begin deep in childhood, from the first mother’s lullabies, and with age, relations with her become more complicated, favorite and unloved music appears, music evoking pleasant and unpleasant memories, music for different environments and moods.

In 2016, the University of Southern California’s Institute for the Study of the Brain and Creativity found a link between musical education of children and the development of their brains, especially areas responsible for the formation of oral speech and reading skills. Comparison of the brains of musicians and those who did not make music shows a number of differences in the structure and functioning of the most complex organ of the human body. For example, it has been shown that musicians are better at coping with tasks for memory and thinking, and their hearing is better developed. Brain activity measurements show more efficient interhemispheric interaction, and that musicians have more active areas for motor skills and spatial reasoning.

For joint music lessons, you do not need to be a professional musician or vocalist at all, just a benevolent and slightly hooligan mood is enough. Sometimes you don’t even need to set aside special time for classes, connecting them with everyday tasks. We have prepared a small list of ideas for musical moments at home:

* Come up with (or find) and learn a short song for daily activities: eating, brushing your teeth, going to bed. You can start humming it so that the baby is prepared for the time to go to bed or, for example, does not forget to wash his hands after a walk.

* Songs in the genre “What I see is what I sing” is a game that perfectly develops the child’s speech and hearing. Use simple melodies and just sing what you are doing now: “We are building a house, a high house, a high house, and a strong house! We put a red block on the roof and sing the song ourselves. Having become a little older, the kid will begin to connect to your songs, come up with funny rhymes and use favorite familiar melodies in their own way. Needless to say, how does such an activity affect the development of speech, speed of thinking and creativity of the baby?

* In the process of gathering in the garden, cooking and chores, you can turn on energetic music and come up with various dances to it. You can come up with a dance of loading clothes into the washing machine, washing apples or a dance of soaping your head.

* Playing rhythms does not require possession of complex musical instruments – you can tap tunes on spoons or other kitchen utensils, or purchase a children’s xylophone or unusual percussion instruments: glucophone, kalimba, maracas, tambourine, etc. Come up with a simple rhythm and ask the baby to repeat it using the same tool, repeat the rhythm invented by the baby. The options for the rules of this game are incredible.

Music is an integral part of our culture. She accompanies a person all his life, allowing him to experience difficult moments and share joy with loved ones, find friends with the same interests and tune in to a working mood. Music has a positive effect on children by developing their speech and thinking, influencing the development of their creativity and the ability to emotional self-regulation. That is why all teachers recommend actively including music lessons and just listening to music in the child’s life. In addition, joint family music lessons help improve relations between households and improve the mood of all family members.