Music and Children

The best time to introduce music to your children is even before they are born. There is significant research showing that classical music improves a baby's brain development. It doesn't increase overall intelligence as some people like to believe, but it does help babies develop certain pathways in their brain that are related to spatial cognition. Now, it is not that a child will be an Einstein or a Beethoven if he or she is indoctrinated with classical music even in the womb. However, music will help develop the way a child thinks. Spatial reasoning is a persons ability to solve problems and puzzles. Children who listen to classical music while trying to solve a puzzle usually are able to do it faster than those who are not exposed to the music. Music lessons improve this cognitive ability even in older children. A child who has had piano lessons for even 6 months shows an increased ability to solve puzzles. Now any kind of music builds pathways in a baby's brain, research has not yet shown what kinds of pathways are created by forms of music other than classical, or if they are further develop spatial reasoning. Many parents assume that that their baby is unaffected by music. 1-3 month infants usually show no signs of recognizing various types of music, however, research has shown that even in their sleep, babies' brainwaves show recognition of different rhythms and pitches. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226082517.htm 


I have always reasoned that we as adults like certain kinds of music to create certain moods. We like perkier music during the day, and calm music at night. It is logical to assume our babies like the same. I liked to play Emma music before she was born. I used a Lullabelly belt and played my Ipod for her. I don't know whether or not it helped in her mental development, but hopefully she found comfort in hearing it. I also learned that babies show recognition to voices, stories, and music that they hear in the womb. I hope to have familiar sounds around her when she made her entrance into the world. 


Music is also vital for toddlers and older children. However the best age to learn a musical instrument is before late teens. Most anything is learned easier as a child, while the brain paths are still developing. Music is helpful to aid in how a child reasons and it is good to start teaching music to children as soon as possible. A lot of child development centers offer Kindermusik for children. It is a program to help teach children rhythm, harmony, melody, and other basic principles of music. If such a program is unreasonable, a mother can teach her child music, by getting soundtracks of fun nursery rhymes or folk songs and singing along with her child. She can intorduce noisemakers  rattles, or colored children's bells to her little ones and encourage them to keep rhythm or tune. 


I have enjoyed observing my daughter starting to notice music. If she is fussy in the car, often she will enjoy a music CD geared for children with children singing simple songs. The current favorite we listen to is one I listened to as a child called "Music Machine." It is about a machine that sings and plays whatever object is put into it. For instance if fruit is put in, it will sing and play songs about the fruit of the spirit. It is a lot of fun. 


Other children's music recommendations: