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Singing and music play a significant role in our culture, and this is only expected to become more and more widespread in the future. Music is increasingly found in many aspects of our lives, in everything from theatre and film, to church and in connection with holidays such as Christmas and birthdays.
At home, music can often become part of our family life and help bring the family together around something, or simply when you need to get the kids to fall asleep on a long car journey.
From birth, parents often use music to soothe their children, but also to gesture when they are happy or sad.
That’s why we’d like to tell you a little about how music can influence children’s development, improve their social skills, and how it can benefit children of all ages.
Music and the brain: Benefits of music
A study from the Southern University of California’s Brain and Creativity Institute shows that musical experiences in childhood can actually accelerate your child’s brain development.
Most often in connection 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 improve their ability to understand and learn mathematics in the future.
Academic performance is not the only benefit of learning to play and listen to music. Music activates all areas of children’s development and also improves and prepares them for school. Intellectually, socially, linguistically and in terms of reading skills, children who have had high exposure to music before starting school show improvements.
The reason for this is that music helps the brain and body work together. Exposing children to music at an early age helps them understand the sound and meaning of words. Dancing to music improves children’s motor skills, while they practise their “self-expression”. Studies show that, for both children and adults, music strengthens our ability to remember.
Everyone can probably agree that music brings us joy. Imagine a great summer day, cruising with your family or good friends while you’ve turned your car stereo all the way up — that’s happiness.
Music for children of all ages
Children of all ages express themselves through music; even very small children move in time with music. From the start of school, children begin 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 different children’s instruments. Older children begin to dance and sing along to their favourite songs and start idolising their favourite band. Back in the 00s, you could see this in teenagers’ bedrooms covered in posters of their biggest idols. Nowadays, most of this takes place on social media, but the idol worship is the same.
Often, music and idol worship are also used to form relationships between people, and this is especially evident in the younger years. Friend groups are created around a shared interest in the same type of music or the same band.
Infants and music
From a very early age, research shows that children can recognise the melody of a song long before they can understand the words. Soft background music can be calming for infants, especially when they need to settle down. On the other hand, loud background music can overstimulate infants because the sound level rises in the room in question. So you might be thinking: “What should I do then?” Sing simple songs about what you’re doing when you shower, get dressed, or cook, to give them an understanding of what you’re doing.
Infant music activities
The nursery Bright Horizons in Wellesley (USA) has carried out studies with infants where they do different music activities in different languages. To see whether the children understand the play without understanding the language, it turns out there is no difference in their learning regardless of which language is sung.
Preschoolers and music
Young children love dancing to music; the key to engaging toddlers with music is repetition of the same song or melody. This also helps children learn the specific words that appear in a given song. Silly songs often get a laugh from children, and even if you change one word in a song they already know, they will usually notice it. For example, try singing a well-known song like “Lille Peter Edderkop” and swap Peter for another name. You will most likely see your child react because they notice the song doesn’t sound like it usually does.
School-age children and music
Most younger school-age children are fascinated by children’s “sing-along” songs, which involve:
- the children having to spell, count or remember something while they sing. It is also at this age
- that the children themselves begin to express which songs they like best and which they don’t care for.
Teenagers and music
When you become a teenager, a lot happens that helps shape your personality. Music is a big part of this, because relationships are formed with people who like the same music as you do. A personality is also shaped around music, depending on whether you’re into rock, pop, hip hop, house or something completely different.
The passion for music also really begins here, especially if you have a strong interest in music. We all remember from our youth how different garage bands were formed, where more and more people started playing guitar, bass and drums in their parents’ garage to feel like their idol.
No negative aspects of listening to music have been found yet, and as humans we are able to enjoy music throughout our lives. Even though a large dose of Mozart doesn’t necessarily make us smarter, it’s still nice to listen to. That said, music gives us new language and social skills and enriches our lives with entertaining and cultural experiences.
