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Latest News
- 15th November 2011 - Launch of Innovative SEN Music and Movement Programme
- 03rd April 2012 - Government Publishes new EYFS Strategy
- 27th April 2012 - Join the discussion about the new EYFS
- 10th May 2012 - Boogie Mites Lecture EYPS Programme at Christchurch Canterbury University
What evidences is there to show the benefits of music in a child’s development?
The importance of introducing music to children has been highlighted through research that has revealed the numerous benefits that music plays in a child's development. Here is a snapshot of the research that we have found that reveals:
Music facilitates speech development through singing simple songs your child will learn how language is constructed.
"Putting words to music breaks them down into syllables, emphasises key consonants and slows down the sounds of speech"
Sally Goddard blithe, Director of the Institute for Nero- Physiological Psychology, Chester
"Babies seem to learn best when songs are experienced through their bodies. Movement and music greatly enhance acquisition of language."
Jessica Pitt, Pre-school Music Association
Music cultivates social skills and develops self confidence Music provides a way for your child to explore different emotions and moods that they can identify with, but are unable to articulate.
"Children who take part in music develop higher levels of social cohesion and understandings of themselves and others, and the emotional aspect of musical activities seems to be beneficial for developing social skills, like empathy."
Dr Alexandra, Lamont, Lecturer in the Psychology of Music at the University of Keele.
Music enhances the intellectual development of your child
Music can be considered as a pre-language and through introducing your child to music at an early stage can be useful in "exercising the brain for certain higher cognitive functions".
(Professor Gordon Shaw, Concepts in Neuroscience, Vol 2, No.2, P.229-258)
"(music) helps improve children's ability to reason abstractly, by strengthening neural firing patterns of the brain that are relevant to both musical and spatial cognition."
Dr Frances Rauscher, University of Wisconsin.
Music helps children to learning maths - A study of primary school children in Los Angeles found that music lessons can significantly improve a child's maths skills.
"When children learn rhythm, they are learning ratios, fractions and proportions."
Professor Gordon Shaw, University of California, Irvine.