Teaching Your Child to Learn Through Music
Music is a powerful tool that parents and educators can use to help children excel academically, socially, and psychologically.
If your preschooler is struggling to learn to tie his shoes, try creating a little song to help him remember the steps.
If your third grader is frustrated and failing at those pesky multiplication tables, singing the math facts will work every time.
Music is an effective way to help with memorization.
Here is a closer look at how music can help your child succeed.
How Music Helps Children Learn
First, music opens the door to better language and literacy skills. By memorizing simple nursery songs, your child is exposed to new words. Songs create repetition and reinforce new words that your child is learning on a daily basis. While children might not realize it while humming their favorite silly tune, they are also learning to use complete sentences and expand their common vernacular with adjectives and adverbs.
Second, music helps little ones learn important social skills. Through interactive songs, students can learn how to have self-control until it is their designated opportunity to perform. Furthermore, it fosters youngling’s sense of cooperation with others, something that they’ll undoubtedly have to be comfortable with all throughout their years.
Another important area of development is motor skills, and music can help with that too! As children dance or do coordinated movements that go along with the rhythm, they are increasing their gross motor skills and gaining important bodily control. Fine motor skills are also at play when kids experiment with instruments. Whether your son is holding drumsticks or your daughter is moving her fingers along the keys of a piano, these simple movements are building necessary dexterity for normal developmental milestones.
Make Music Work for Your Child
Now that you know the many ways that music can benefit your child, it’s time to start putting that knowledge into practice. We recommend starting by introducing your little ones to basic instruments that are affordable, fun and easy to pick up on. For example, musical recorders like the ones found here are comfortable to hold, have plenty of instructional music manuals geared towards them, and will allow you to measure your child’s interest level without any unnecessarily splurges.
Make music something fun, enjoyable and a medium through which kids can express their creativity and individuality. Why not put on some classic melodies and urge your younglings to dance and act out the lyrics? Encourage your child to make up unique songs about subjects of interest. For example, if he or she is studying plants in school, the two of you can create a tune about how the life cycle of a flower. Your little one might begin with a simple beat about a little seed and write an entire chorus about how the seed grows into a flower full of pollen to feed the bees. For inspiration, check out these science songs for kids.
Music can also be surprisingly effective when helping with behavior issues at home or in the classroom. When you are ready for your little one to calm down and sit for a few minutes quietly, try putting on a peaceful lullaby or a ballad. If you want to encourage academic activity, put on some classical music in the background that is stimulating without becoming a distraction.
Whether you are singing about multiplication facts or just exploring the sounds of famous composers, music is a great way to make learning fun for your children. With a little creativity, you can use music to help your child excel in all areas of early childhood and beyond.
Photo Credit: Daniel Paxton
