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Music plays an important role in early childhood development. Infants recognize the melody of a song before they understand the words and toddlers love swaying to upbeat music. When incorporated into daily routines and lesson plans, music can bring about many benefits to young children in various areas. It is not just classical music that we are talking about here. Children songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, nursery rhymes such as “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, and fingerplays like “Where is Thumbkin?” also benefit a child’s development in various ways. The many benefits of music will be discussed below:
Brain development and memory skills
Research has shown that musical activities stimulate the brain and improve the child’s cognitive functioning. This in turn helps to strengthen the child’s memory. During a child’s early years, many new pathways in his brain are being formed. It is thus critical for a child to be exposed to music as early as possible.
Creativity and self-expression
Creative self-expression is an important aspect of a child’s growth. Playing an instrument, as well as singing and dancing along to music, help to foster a child’s creativity. Children also tend to make up their own original songs and create dance moves. Through musical activities, they are free to express themselves and have fun. This in turn helps children to develop more confidence and a better sense of well-being.
Social skills and bonding opportunity
Music can bring people together. When children engage in group musical activities with others, they get to hone their social skills and develop friendships.
Enhanced sensory development
Stimulation of a child’s five senses aid in his sensory development. A child needs exposure to a variety of tastes, textures, as well as different types of sounds. Listening to music develops a child’s auditory perception, which is the brain’s ability to discriminate between sounds and make sense of what it hears through the ears. This will enable him to acquire good listening skills.
The above-mentioned benefits are related to music in general; however, those discussed below pertain specifically to songs with words:
Enhanced literacy skills
Exposure to songs enhances a baby’s ability to decode sounds and pick up words. Just like reading, singing songs help to boost the language skills and expand the vocabulary of young children. This is mainly due to the repetitive pattern that occur in children’s songs and rhymes. Repetition helps children to become familiar with new words as well as language structure. They are also introduced to literary devices, such as alliteration (Peter’s piglet pranced around) and onomatopoeia (oink oink), which in turn develops their phonological awareness.
Better Numeracy
Children songs, such as “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” and “Ten in a Bed”, help children to understand the concept of numbers and counting. This will give them a head start when it comes to mathematics.
Improved physical coordination and motor skills
Children can use percussion instruments, such as a tambourine or a maraca, as a form of accompaniment to a piece of music or a song. This not only helps them to develop a sense of rhythm, it also trains them to manipulate the instruments with their hands (hit the tambourine or shake the maraca) according to the beat. Hence, they will be able to coordinate their actions better with what they hear.
In addition, fingerplay songs are beneficial for motor skills development, since they involve actions that go along with the lyrics. For very young children, fingerplays that involve simple actions (e.g. clapping, raising of arms) will help them to develop their gross motor skills.
As they grow older, fingerplays that require more intricate movements of fingers can be introduced, such as “Where is Thumbkin?”. This will help to strengthen their fine motor skills. When children learn how to hold a pencil and write, having good fine motor skills is very crucial. Furthermore, when children practise doing the actions with both hands, it helps to develop their bilateral (left-right) coordination. Their hand-eye coordination as well as body awareness will also improve.
Improved speech
Singing songs help children to practise how to articulate words clearly. Their mouth and tongue muscles are developed during the process of singing and enunciating. This will enable them to develop clear speech.
Improved concentration
When doing actions to a song, children need to focus on what they hear (“if you are happy and you know it, clap your hands”) and do the actions (clap their hands) accordingly. Frequent exposure to action songs and fingerplays will help children to develop good concentration as well as the ability to follow instructions.
The benefits of letting young children listen to music and sing songs are plentiful. As parents, we can create a music-friendly environment at home to nurture their interests in music. In schools, teachers can use songs within daily routines, for example, Hello Song and Clean-up Song. These will help children to develop holistically to become better listeners, speakers, readers and writers.