Why is Music and Movement vital for Children?
Music engages the brain
while stimulating neural pathways associated with such higher forms of intelligence as abstract thinking, empathy, and mathematics.
Music makes good listeners
Music is perfectly designed for training children's listening skills. Good listening skills and school achievement go hand in hand.
Music is a creative experience
which involves expression of feelings. Children often do not have the words to express themselves and need positive ways to release their emotions.
Music is an aural art
and young children are aural learners. Since ears are fully mature before birth, infants begin learning from the sounds of their environment before birth.
Music is a language
and children are oriented toward learning language.
Music is a social activity
which involves family and community participation. Children love to sing and dance at home, school, and at church.
Music evokes movement
and children delight in and require movement for their development and growth.
Music helps memory
Music's melodic and rhythmic patterns provide exercise for the brain and help develop memory. Could you imagine a child trying to learn the ABC's without the ABC song?
Music transmits culture
and is an avenue by which beloved songs, rhymes, and dances can be passed down from one generation to another.
Hear from the experts
"Resiliency — to bounce back after a disturbing event — is not something we are born with; it must be learned, and sometimes that takes many years. There is no vehicle more joyful and playful for providing such training than early childhood music and movement."
Dee Joy Coulter, Ed.D.
Neuroscience Educator
"Music brings people together. Through music, children take an inner experience and move it into a shared creative experience. Group music-making releases energy which can be channeled in creative, productive directions. Children learn about themselves and others by playing music together and by listening to each other — tapping into hidden courage that can be played out by singing together or discovering the inner resources to listen quietly to another child's playing."
Judi Bosco
Board Certified Music Therapist
"A rich voice opens the ear and gives energy to the nervous system. Not only does it help children process and memorize the message, but it also increases their desire to listen more, learn more, and know more. A good voice fills the cognitive and emotional brain."
Paul Maudale
Founder and Director
The Listening Centre
"Speech and music have a number of shared processing systems. Musical experiences which enhance processing can therefore impact on the perception of language which in turn impacts on learning to read."
Susan Hallam
Institute of Education
University of London
Noted author and neuroscience educator Jane Healy speaks about children whose parents have chosen more "academic" pursuits for their children:
"Studies show that 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds in heavily "academic" classes tend to become less creative and more anxious - without gaining significant advantages over their peers."
Jane M. Healy
Your Child's Growing Mind
"Resiliency — to bounce back after a disturbing event — is not something we are born with; it must be learned, and sometimes that takes many years. There is no vehicle more joyful and playful for providing such training than early childhood music and movement."
Dee Joy Coulter, Ed.D.
Neuroscience Educator