MUSIC & BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
Advancements in brain research are revealing many interesting ways in which active music participation can help to strengthen neural connections and develop important areas in the brain, especially in early childhood when the brain is rapidly developing from experience.
MUSIC & LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Many songs support emergent language and literacy development through exposing children to the basic structure and sequence of sounds involved in language, including phonological awareness and alliteration and supporting children’s developing narrative skills, breath awareness, vocabulary, and active listening skills.
MUSIC & SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Music activities can foster children’s self-regulation, social competence, self-confidence and the ability to work with others in a group through providing young children with leadership opportunities, practice with turn-taking and behavioral control, and allowing for self-expression.
MUSIC & COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Songs and rhythmic chants in varied meters can familiarize children with concepts of proportions, patterning, and counting, supporting their emerging math skills. Music and movement activities can also support children’s developing representational abilities and concept knowledge, and provide opportunities to explore cause-and-effect.
MUSIC & EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS
Executive functions are cognitive skills that help children organize their thinking and behavior, helping them to solve problems, figure things out, and achieve a goal. Music activities can support executive skill development, including inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Read more on the Music Together blog.
MUSIC & HEALTH & HEALING
Recent research using music in the fields of medicine and psychology highlight the potential “healing” power of music through the ways in which music can promote relaxation, reduce anxiety and depression, and lift one’s spirits.
MUSIC & PARENTING
Adult-child music interactions can support positive parenting practices and parent-child interactions, particularly in the earliest years when a child relies on his or her adult attachment figure to learn about the surrounding world, gain self-regulatory skills, and begin language development. Learn more.