Rhyme, music and singing play an important role in our culture and development through different development stages in our lives – especially the early learning stages of life. Being both consciously and subconsciously present in many aspects of our everyday life, music influences and accelerates learning, cognitive and social development without us even realising!
From the first stages of our lives that we can remember, music has always played a big part. Parents instinctively use music to both calm and soothe their children and also to express love, engage and interact with them before they are able to speak.
A 2016 study at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute found that musical experiences in childhood can actually accelerate brain development, particularly in reading and language acquisition. Music is a fantastic platform for not only enhancing academic achievement but also ignites all areas of child development – intellectual, social and emotional, and overall literacy.
Children recognize the melody of a song long before they understand the words and will try to mimic sounds and start moving to the music as soon as they are physically able to do so. There are many benefits to starting early with songs and rhymes and studies have shown that children who enjoy music, rhymes and singing on a regular basis are often those who learn how to speak first. They recognise sounds and string them together in order to form basic words and associations.
When singing nursery rhymes, it is a good idea to sing slowly and clearly to enhance the opportunity for children to recognise the sounds and learn different words through sounds and association. There are a great range of nursery rhymes and sing-a-long songs aimed at different ages available at the Songs for Teaching website which promote learning through music so be sure to check them out!
Music also helps children to express themselves, building on their character, confidence and self-esteem because it creates an urge for them to move and dance freely without thinking and just enjoy themselves with peers. The sense of repetition and rhythm helps to develop the memory of a child as well as building their dialect. After all, who would remember the 26 letters of the alphabet without the famous ABC song?!
Music enables children to learn new words and expand their vocabulary, giving them more words to express themselves resulting in an increase in confidence and creativity.
What is the most important reason to sing and rhyme with your child?
It gives them an early love and passion for language which will form a solid foundation that will help children to value learning. So take a little time every day to sing and rhyme with your child no matter what age – it’s never too early or too late to introduce music into your child’s lifestyle and the benefits will be with them forever!
Here at Early Learning Furniture, we understand the prominence of music within the early years’ development stages and we provide the equipment needed to create a stimulating and exciting musical environment for children.
Our Music Trolley comes with 12 differing sized trays perfect for those diversely shaped instruments!
The trolley has a vibrant blue frame with red and yellow shelves and also has recessed slots and an additional shelf for even further storage.
Our Musical Instruments Trolleys are a fun and creative way of both transporting and storing musical instruments. The 3 colourful, jumbo sized trays and the different sized recessed slots make for easy and perfectly organized storage and the wheels provide for easy transport!
Our Whiteboard with Music Staves comes with pre-printed markings – music staves, 50mm squares or 75mm lines, and is perfect for classrooms and schools!
They are wall mounted with concealed fixings and have aluminium frames with rounded corners. There is also a Whiteboard accessory pack which contains everything you need for using your whiteboard.
We are experts in early years’ education resources including classroom furniture, school dining furniture and school play equipment. For more information about our products, please contact us or call us on 01733 511121.
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