Why music is important
Music and songs can have a positive impact on children’s development – particularly on their listening, language and social skills. For deaf children, the rhythm, repetitions and pitch of music and songs can also help them develop more natural-sounding language.
How music helps children’s development
Most children love music and so it provides tremendous potential for learning and development. Research shows that listening to and making music activates multiple areas of the brain important for language development. It can also improve memory, vocal emotion, attention and understanding speech in noise:
- Music and songs help children learn about tones and rhythm – when babies are learning language they tune into pitch, tone and volume variations as these can convey a great deal of information even when we don’t understand the words of a message.
- Songs grab a child’s attention and provide an opportunity to acquire new words. Music also impacts on language and memory as it provides an opportunity to develop and extend a child’s vocabulary through repetition in meaningful ways.
- Music helps develop social relationships as it provides a time for togetherness; a time to bond and a time to connect with a group in a shared activity. Children learn about turn-taking, joining in and anticipation.
- Rhymes and songs are a great way of starting communication and sustaining attention. They can liven up daily repetitive routines such as clearing up and washing hands.
- Rhymes and song help to combine physical action and listening to help carve out neural pathways for learning.
Music helps deaf children develop natural language
For deaf children, alongside all of the other benefits we have just mentioned, music also provides excellent opportunities to help them develop more natural-sounding language.
Language is full of musical characteristics which give it expression and meaning, and make it interesting to the listener. Deaf children need additional opportunities to experience these elements in different ways to help them develop natural-sounding speech. Music and songs provide opportunities for your child to practise:
- Rhythm: we all speak rhythmically – without rhythm, our speech would be dull and monotone.
- Pitch: the rise and fall of our voice is important for expressing emotion and meaning.
- Sound discrimination: music can help your child learn to hear the differences between different sounds.
- Breath control: this is important for your child to develop a strong voice with good voice quality.
Music and songs can also encourage:
- Concentration: because songs are fun, whilst your child is enjoying the music and activity they will focus for longer periods of time
- Confidence: joining in with the actions and singing together will help develop confidence and a willingness to give things a go.
- Gross motor skills: the actions that accompany many songs and nursery rhymes can help your child’s co-ordination.
