Music plays an essential role in our culture, which is only expected to become more widespread in the future. Music is found in many aspects of our lives, from theater and film to church services and holidays like Christmas and birthdays.

At home, music often becomes a part of our family life, bringing families together or helping children fall asleep on long car rides.

From birth, parents often use music to soothe their children, but also to communicate when they are happy or upset.

Therefore, we want to tell you a little about how music can affect children's development, improve their social skills, and benefit children of all ages.

Music and the Brain: Benefits of Music

A study from the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California shows that musical experiences in childhood can actually accelerate your child's brain development.

Most often, this is associated with children's language and reading skills. Another study from the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation shows that children who learn to play a musical instrument early on improve their ability to understand and learn mathematics in the future.

Academic achievement is not the only benefit of learning to play and listen to music. Music stimulates all areas of children's development and enhances their readiness for school. Both intellectually, socially, linguistically, and in terms of their reading skills, children who have had high exposure to music before starting school show improvement.

The reason for this lies in how music helps the brain and body work together. By exposing children to music at an early age, it helps them understand the sound and meaning of words. Dancing to music improves children's motor skills while they practice their self-expression. Studies show that music strengthens our ability to remember, for both children and adults.

Everyone can also recognize that music brings joy to us humans. Imagine a beautiful summer day, cruising with your family or good friends while blasting your car stereo - that's happiness

Music for children of all ages

Children of all ages express themselves through music; even very young children move in time with music. From the beginning of school, children start to make up their own songs, without even being aware of it.

Children from 3rd to 7th grade learn to sing together in groups and are introduced to various children's instruments. Older children start to dance and sing along to their favorite songs and begin to idolize their favorite bands. Back in the 2000s, this could be seen with teenagers' rooms plastered with posters of their idols. Nowadays, most of this happens on social media, but the idol worship itself remains the same.

Music and idol worship are often used to form relationships between people, especially in the younger years. Friend groups are formed over a common interest in the same type of music or the same band.

Infants and Music

From infancy, studies show that children can recognize the melody of a song long before they can understand words. Soft background music can be soothing for infants, especially when they need to settle down. However, loud background music can overstimulate infants because the noise level increases in the room. So you might be wondering, "What should I do?" Sing simple songs about what you're doing when you bathe, dress, or cook to give them an understanding of what you're doing.

Infant Music Activities

Bright Horizons nursery in Wellesley (USA) has conducted studies with infants where they engage in various music activities in different languages. To see if the children understand the game without understanding the language, it is observed that there is no difference in their learning regardless of the language sung.

Preschoolers and Music

Young children love to dance to music, and the key to engaging preschoolers with music is repetition of the same song or melody. This also helps children learn the specific words that appear in a particular song. Silly songs often elicit laughter from children, and even if you change a word in a song they already know, they will often notice. For example, try singing a well-known song like "Incy Wincy Spider" and replace the name with another. Here you will most likely see your child react because they notice that the song doesn't sound as usual.

School-Aged Children and Music Most young school-aged children are fascinated by children's sing-along songs that involve spelling, counting, or remembering something while singing. It is also at this age that children themselves begin to express which songs they like best and which they don't like.

Teenagers and Music

When becoming a teenager, a lot happens that shapes one's personality. Music is a big part of this because relationships are formed with people who like the same music as oneself. A personality is also created around the music, depending on whether one is into rock, pop, hip-hop, house, or something else.

The cultivation of music also begins in earnest here, especially if one has a great interest in music. We all remember back in our youth when various garage bands were formed, where more and more people started playing guitar, bass, and drums in their parents' garage to feel like their idol.

So far, no negative aspects have been found in listening to music, and as humans, we are able to enjoy music throughout our lives. Although a large dose of Mozart may not necessarily make us smarter, it's nice to listen to. That said, music gives us new linguistic and social skills and enriches our lives with entertaining and cultural experiences