The Benefits of Music on Child Development

Childhood is an exciting, fun and challenging period of life. Every new experience is an opportunity to learn and grow. It is the most critical time for building the physical, mental and emotional foundations that will support us for the rest of our lives.

As parents and loved ones, we should strive to give our children the tools to build a successful life, and one of the best choices you can make for your children is giving them the gift of music. We should encourage our children as early as possible to listen to and make music. Children can start by listening to their favorite songs and accompanying the music with simple instruments. They can then advance to playing more complex musical instruments and perhaps even take formal lessons.

Music and Skill Development

In addition to improving creativity, learning music cultivates many skills that will continue to be useful to your children throughout their lives. The following are some of the skills that listening to music and taking music lessons help develop in children:

• Concentration
  Learning a musical instrument will help your child develop concentration, as they must focus on a particular activity over extended periods of time. Developing concentration in this way also will help them hen they must focus their attention on other subjects at school.
  
  
• Coordination
  Practicing musical instruments improves hand-eye coordination. Children develop important motor skills when playing music just as they do when playing different sports.
  
  
• Relaxation
  More and more, music therapy is being used to complement more traditional forms of medicine. Researchers acknowledge that certain types of music can aid relaxation by lowering heart rates and blood pressure.
  
  
• Patience
  and Perseverance In order to learn a musical instrument, children must develop patience and perseverance, which will help them later in life when they must tackle other more difficult challenges.
  
  
• Self-Confidence
  The act of learning and playing an instrument, the encouragement of a teacher and the enthusiasm of a proud parent, will build in a child a sense of pride and confidence. Moreover, children who practice self-expression and creativity often become better communicators later in life.

Researchers also have found a significant relationship between music instruction and positive performances in such areas as: reading comprehension, spelling, athematics, listening skills, primary mental abilities (verbal, perceptual, numeric, spatial) and motor skills.

Selecting Music for Children

When they are around three years old, most children begin to take a real interest in music activities of all kinds. It is a good time for parents and teachers to begin mixing music with games that require body movement, such as clapping, waving, jumping and dancing. Sing-along games are ideal for initiating movement and bringing children together in enjoyable group activities.

Children age four and five are more consistent music-makers and also are more aware of the messages in song lyrics. Children at this age are ready to sit attentively for a short performance or to listen to a short recording. Complementing the education given at school with music that teaches important lessons is recommended for this age group. Appropriate activities also include lessons in music appreciation, playing instruments and learning to write lyrics to simple melodies.

Children age six to ten can start learning that music has structure. Rhymes, repetition and experimenting with different sounds also can be used for speech and reading development. This is the ideal time to actively teach a child a musical instrument or expose them to choral groups. Research has indicated that children at this age will start showing the positive effects of music training in their academic performance.

Conclusion

Music has proven to provide many more benefits to children and adults than simple entertainment. It has even proven to help patients recover from diseases or surgery more quickly and with less pain. Much research currently is being undertaken to learn the effects of music on the mind and body, yet we now know from findings of several of the most prestigious researchers in the field that it can have very positive effects on child development.