No Learning without Movement

No learning without movement!  That's a strong but true statement.  It's why physical activity is vital and why music is so important to a child's development and growth.

Rhythm, a basic element of music, has been a part of a child's life while still in the womb.  Mother's natural movements and rhythms are familiar to baby.  These continue after birth in similar ways as baby is cared for - rocked, spoken and sung to, walked and danced with.  With these experiences baby forms the patterns of movement, perception, and organization of information on which she  builds relationships to herself, to others and to the world. Facilitating movement during infancy greatly enhances baby's physical, emotional and intellectual abilities. 


Movement benefits the whole self--it promotes physical fitness, self-esteem, self-confidence and learning, just as lots of physical activity and healthy eating serve as the perfect antidote for early childhood obesity.


Movement is the major component of music class.  There's large movement activities, small movement activities, timed movement, shared movement--just all kinds of movement that develop competence in rhythm while making the connections so important to learning.  Riding bicycles on your back, tiptoeing fingers, patting the tummy, flying a scarf - the list goes on and on as far as your imagination can dream it up.


That's the best part of music class.  Refreshing your ideas on movement, starting to move again like a little child and sharing that with your child builds a happy childhood filled with fun memories of togetherness while stimulating learning.

  

Singing

Singing is something most people have an opinion about.  They prefer a certain style of singing, they listen to a favorite singer…and they have thoughts about their own singing voice.  “I’m not a very good singer,” is what most parents who come to music class with their very young children tell me.

Singing on pitch is one of the most basic aspects of music competency.  Most music educators agree that singing on pitch is a skill that everyone can learn, and that “fooling around” with one’s voice is part of the learning.  The thought is that with enough experience, trial and error, so to speak, anyone can discover their singing voice.

In music class, we encourage all sorts of vocalizing.  We are pretend sirens swooping from high to low.  We imitate animal sounds.  We sing simple melodies with one, single word (doo or la) and we imitate the sounds that babies make.

If given the opportunity, babies develop their singing voice in much the same way that they develop speech…practice, practice, practice.

A caregiver can encourage vocal development by engaging in lots of resting tone play - that is, fool around vocally on the home pitch of a song. Sing the resting tone quietly in each of the baby's ears, or sing the resting tone while you 'brrrrrr' your lips or sing the baby's name or anything else that would be fun.

Try to communicate back to baby using the same kinds of sounds he is making. By communicating to baby in the same mode or "language" of the moment, you acknowledge and validate your child's creations and extend the duration of play.

 Playing with sounds at an early age supports vocal development by increasing the frequency and variety of vocal expression. A parent can encourage a child’s singing voice by responding to vocal sound play, just like responding to early efforts at speech. Understanding the developmental importance - for both music and language - of a baby's so-called "babble" makes it possible to perceive it in a different way, to value it, and to want to encourage it for its own sake.

And surprisingly,  caregivers benefit too.  No longer do adults feel as uncomfortable about their singing voices.  No longer do I hear parents say, “I’m not a very good singer.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/08/singing-children-development-language-skills