Music and intelligence

We all know that babies are learning a phenomenal amount in the early years.   They learn a whole language, for a start.

In his article Music and Intelligence in the Early Years, Dr John Feierabend graphically illustrates just how important early learning is.  Most neurological pathways are built within the first two years of life, and atrophy if they are not maintained.

We talk and read with children to help them learn our language, and Feierabend believes we also need to be singing, rhyming and dancing with them, to help them learn to be musical.

We cannot wait for the school years.  As the child learns to communicate, talk and walk, they also need quality music education.

It is unrealistic to wait until a child is seven and then throw them into lessons on an instrument, without any preparation.  If they cannot keep the beat, sing tunefully and appreciate the beauty of music, their playing will only ever be mechanical and sub-standard.  A baby needs to grow up knowing music.  As Feierabend so often says, a musical child is tuneful, beatful and artful.  These are the prerequisites for a rich musical life.

Even though music improves many other aspects of a child's learning, musical intelligence is a goal in its own right, and one well worth pursuing. It's a great article.

Tuning in - you have to learn how

Listening - it's easy, isn't it? Well, only if you have learned what to ignore.

Babies learn language by paying attention to other people who are speaking. To do this, they need to tune into speech sounds and tune out the everyday background noises. This is not easy in our noisy world! Think of a busy supermarket, loud older siblings, a busy preschool or a telly blaring in the background at home.

When my children were very little Mum showed me the book Babytalk. It has lots of ideas for helping your child to develop language. One of the main suggestions is to spend at least a little time each day with your child, in a quiet place away from too much background noise, and simply talk with them.

I know, it's another thing on your "to do" list. But it can easily be incorporated into your day. I used to chat to my baby while I prepared his food, talking about what I was doing. I also used to do a running commentary when I took him out in the pram. Admittedly, people used to walk past and think I was losing it...

It's good just to be aware of the effect that background noise is having on your child. It can be quite a problem later on. Some school-aged kids are so used to tuning out to all the background noise in their life, that they habitually tune out when their teacher talks.

Well, anyway, this is a music blog, so let me relate these ideas to early childhood music. Music classes help children develop and fine-tune their listening skills. Kodaly teachers include lots of activities where children are asked to respond to a musical event with their bodies or voices. Some examples are:

• Noticing the difference between sound and silence (starting and stopping)
• Waiting for a special sound or place in the music
• Hearing the different tone quality of various instruments
• Learning to tell the difference between high and low pitch
• Responding to fast and slow music
• Responding to different parts in the music (eg verses and chorus or AB structure)
• Noticing different elements in the music

There are a lot of things you can do to help your child learn to listen well. Some ideas are:

• Spend one-on-one quiet time with your child.
• Read a book to them or sing a song.
• Go for a bush walk or go into the garden and notice the different sounds.
• Lie down with your child and listen to the noises around your house.
• Turn the telly and the radio off for a bit and savour the quiet.

Top Toys for Music - Carousel

A carousel is a great starting point to introduce songs to small children, and gives them a sense of control as well. It is easy for a small child to bang the top of the carousel and make it spin. Then you can sing about whichever character lands in front of you.

Some carousels have characters such as people or ponies or teddies. Perhaps they are different colours. If so, then you can sing about that (eg, "green, green, green, green, teddy's wearing green today...")

My carousel has four different animals on it. The child presses the top, and I sing a song or say a rhyme about whichever animal stops at the front. There is a horse ("gee up horsey, don't you stop"), a cow ("What can a cow do but moo, moo, moo?) a pig ("this little piggie") and a sheep ("Baa baa white sheep" since it's white).

Another way to play is to simply make the noise of the animal. Encouraging young children to make animal noises helps with their annunciation (that is, it helps them to learn to make the sounds necessary to say words).

If all the characters are the same, you can always resort to "Round and round and round it goes, spinning and turning..."

The carousel pictured is by Tolo. I picked up mine at Learn4Fun which has shops in Tuggerah and Hornsby.