Music is life. It is the beating of a bird’s wings, the beating of our heart, the sound and the rhythm of our own breath.
Ever sit out on a summer night and listen to the crickets’ songs or sit and enjoy the morning bird symphony as they sing to the rising sun? All of this is music. Even the sounds of a baby’s cries and squeals of delight is music to many of us. There is a saying that “the sounds of children playing is beautiful music, but if your life condition is low, you cannot hear it.”
Music is important for all of us, but for children, it helps with their development in so many different ways. There is a correlation between music making and the deepest workings of the human brain. Research has linked active music making with increased language discrimination and development, math ability, improved school grades, better-adjusted social behavior, and improvements in spatial-temporal reasoning, a cornerstone for problem solving.
Singing songs and reciting poems and rhymes with children helps children develop literacy skills. Keeping a steady beat develops language. Young children innately relate to words, sounds, rhythms, tones, and pitches long before they talk, sing or dance.
Music encourages the ability to listen and thus to concentrate. Songs encourage speech and auditory discrimination. Through music, children learn to hear tempos, dynamics, and melodies. Listening for loud and soft, up and down, fast and slow encourages auditory development in the brain.
Music is nonjudgmental. There is no right or wrong, it just is what it is. Listening to different types of music nurtures self-esteem and encourages creativity, self-confidence, and curiosity. Young children benefit by developing higher forms of thinking when they learn music.
Overall, music relieves stress. We use it to relax us, excite us and to have something that we can identify ourselves with. The more music your children have in their lives, the better they will speak and read. Buy or rent instruments. It’s easy to get a cheap music gift. Sign your child and yourself! up for music lessons or make sure that music is a part of your child’s curriculum at school. Music is a gift that will last a lifetime.