Greetings Families! A fellow Kindermusik educator in Charlotte, NC, gave me permission to include the following in a newsletter several years ago. I thought you would find this very interesting!
Understanding the Links between Music, Language, and Behavior During Early Childhood.
Hello Neighbors! While attending the International Kindermusik Conference in Washington D.C. this summer, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Adam Winsler, PhD., Dept of Psychology George Mason University, present a speech entitled Why Do We Sing "Bells Away" [or the Clean-up Song] Anyway? His answers are fascinating!
Language and music are two central cultural tools for early childhood. Singing is fun and stimulates many parts of the brain including the limbic system, a key area of emotions and socialization. Language and music together can guide behavior by breaking up the stimulus-response typically exhibited in lower animals and infants. Also, motions labeled within a song (bells away or toys away ) can seamlessly provide the child an opportunity to choose how to participate and therefore avoid power struggles. These music and language experiences sculpt the brain and develop "executive control" far more powerfully than many other types of experiences in early childhood. Dr Winsler highlighted 3 things that occur in Kindermusik classes that develop children's ability to regulate their own behavior including:
1. Active listening/vocal play.
2. Songs that link words to movements
3. Songs that systematically change behavior,using-body motions – modulating from slow/fast, up/down, and stop/go.
Have you seen your child delight in practicing these skills? There is a gradual shift in early childhood from external (parent) regulation, to self-regulation. Self-regulation is achieved mainly through internalization of language. Do you hear your child talking out loud to himself and or imaginary friends while playing? This is called private speech or self talk and is a very important part of language acquisition and the beginnings of internal thought. (Notice how different your child acts when just sitting and watching TV!) For our children, we should maximize opportunities encouraging them to talk to themselves so that good connections between language, plans, and behavior can be forged. (Gee- adults don't get this encouragement!) Researchers studying brain development, and early childhood specialists, are now proving with conviction what music teachers have known intuitively for a century: Music Makes the Difference!
– Maya S. Johnson
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