Music is a huge factor when it comes to the development of the child. This will guide you into helping your kids understand and enjoy nursery rhymes through kidssongs. Music is present in our cultures such as military ceremonies, government ceremonies, celebrations, holidays, worship, movies, television, and theater. Parents have been known to take this culture to their homes by using it to soothe, calm distressed children, the parent to interact, engage, and to express joy and love to the child uses it. When parents understand the link between music and the child’s development they use the natural instinct brought about by music for the benefit of the child in terms of social skill development and child development.
The Link between the Brain and Music
The University of Southern California conducted a study in 2006 that showed that children who have experience with musictend to have faster brain development. This development relates to reading skills and the acquisition of language. This means that they speak and think in a more advanced level than the other children within their age group think. In fact, the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation affirms that children who play instruments are good at math and have high SAT scores.
Apart from this, music plays a big role in preparing the child for school life. This is in relation to overall literacy, motor language, emotional and social skills, and their intellect. This means that the child’s mind and body are coordinated. Through music, children get to learn meanings and sounds of words. This greatly influences their speech. When children listen to music and dance, their motor skills are improved and they are able to express themselves through this. In addition, they get to strengthen their memory when they remember the words and sounds to their favorite songs.
Moreover, music makes the listener happy. When your child listens to their favorite song, their mood is boosted. This, in turn, helps reduces the risk of developing issues such as depression in the near future. Their childhood development affects their adult life.
Singing Games for Children of All Ages
Children like using music to express themselves. When you play music for an infant, he or she will try to dance along by moving their limbs, bouncing, or swaying. This response shows that the child likes and is listening to the tune. If you interact with children who are in pre-school, you will realize that most of them create or make up songs subconsciously as they play with friends or alone. When they become older, they start appreciating group songs and become more open to learning to play instruments. As they age, they start affiliating themselves with specific bands, musicians, or music genres and through this, they begin to share their feelings and forge friendships. Below is a guide to help you bond with your child through singing games or kids songs depending on their age.
- Infants: They appreciate melody even before they understand the words used. Through this, they try to mouth the words and start to boost their motor skills. This improves their physical state. When they have sleeping issues, music can be used to soothe them. The songs used have the following characteristics: soft voice, short songs, and simple songs. You could sing to your infant as you interact with them through playing, bathing them, or dressing them.
- Toddlers: Kids at this stage appreciate moving and dancing to music. They love songs that have a lot of repetition. These catchy repetitive songs boost their memory. At this stage, the child begins to understand the words to the songs thus, their speech and vocabulary start expanding slowly. Kids at this stage appreciate silly songs. Thus, you could sing the toddler a kid’s song and insert a word that they consider silly. This will make them laugh especially if you use a familiar song and replace some of the words with silly ones. Kids at this stage will try to mimic the beats or rhythm of the songs by using objects to tap or clap.
- Preschoolers: Kids at this stage are excited about their voices. They are not necessarily singing to understand the song or the words. They are exploring their vocal strength. They appreciate the melody, beat, and rhythm. They like songs that talk about people, play activities, animals, and toys.
- Kids who are school age: These kids like to sing along to songs that deal with sequences, spelling or counting of events. At this stage, kids like listening to songs that speak to their values. They become opinionated at this stage and tend to express their feelings through the music. The kids start to express what they do not like and what they like.
- Teens: At this stage, kids like to sue their experience with music to form or maintain their friendships. They can isolate themselves from other children and adults through their music. Most of them will want to hang out with their friends and classmates when they leave school, to listen to music. Their interests in music are very strong at this point.
You can use the guide above to connect with your child as they develop to adults. It is important that you let children expand their music interests on their own. Do not try to implement your music interests onto them. This may hinder their development and make them more dependent on you. This will make it hard for them to think for themselves as they develop. They may fail to form opinions or voice their opinions. Nevertheless, make sure you monitor the music that your child is exposed to. Music is very powerful and can influence their mannerisms as adults or developing kids. Thus, you may want to make sure that they steer clear from songs with obscene language.
You could use music to teach your children the values and principles of life. This will help them remember advice and implement it correctly into various situations.