During the first year or so of life, gross-motor activities dominate a child’s repertoire of movement, with the major objective being the mastery of walking. As the child grows older, however, she can being to focus on activities – such as instrument exploration and finger plays – that encourage the development of small muscles… the same muscles needed to hold a pencil or play the piano someday!
Ideas for parents:
Two simple ways that you can help those small muscles develop include 1) making a basket of child-safe instruments available for your child to play with and 2) recalling some of those simple songs and chants from childhood, like “Eensy Weensy Spider” or “Twinkle, Twinkle” and singing them with your child as you do the motions together.
Any teacher at a Title I school can confirm that children do not start school on a level playing field. Some children walk into Kindergarten already reading on a third-grade level; whereas, other students walk into that same classroom without any knowledge of a single Pre-Primer sight word. While language and speech delays can occur in any socio-economic environment for various reasons, not surprisingly, a new three-year study from Great Britain shows that at-risk students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are twice as likely to experience speech and language development delays.
Some at-risk students more “at risk” than others
The research
further reveals that not all at-risk students experience the same level of language development delays. Children from ethnic minority backgrounds show a greater likelihood for delays compared to non-minority peers, and boys more so than girls.
The research findings “have huge implications for practice, and suggest children’s needs are being missed,” said lead researcher Professor Geoff Lindsay in a press release. “There is a higher likelihood of children in some schools in socially deprived areas having problems learning language or developing speech,” he added. “This reflects the lack of opportunity within these communities. Early intervention can help to overcome that. Putting resources into those schools is important.”
Elementary curriculum uses music to reach at-risk students
Created by Kindermusik International, ABC Music & Me uses the proven cognitive benefits of music to boost the school readiness skills, including language and early literacy development, of at-risk students. When used as an elementary curriculum, at-risk students experience gains in phonological and phonemic awareness and vocabulary acquisition. For at-risk students, we understand that the learning must extend to the home environment to achieve maximum results. So, we include materials—in English and Spanish—to increase parent involvement in education.
To learn more about using ABC Music & Me as an elementary curriculum with at-risk students, including English Language Learners, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com. We can also show you how ABC Music & Me aligns with Title I Funding.
Photo Credit: National Association for Music Education
Thanks to the National Association for Music Education’s celebration of March is National Music in Our Schools Month, we’ve been reminded of these three facts, proving the indispensable child development benefits of music:
Academic. Among SAT takers, the College Board found that students with 4+ years of music education scored 23 points above average in math, and 31 points above average in writing. See Table 18 here.
Literacy. Combined research from 30 studies show that music education, integrated with reading, performance, movement, and traditional academic disciplines, excelerates early literacy.
Social. From Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and practicing musician: “The development of language over time tends to enhance parts of the brain that help process music. Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.”
A big thank you to all of our educators who continue to make the world a better place for children. And to the children who make the world a better place for us adults! Follow @NAfME and #MIOSM for National Music in Our Schools Month updates.
Anne Green Gilbert, author of “Teaching the Three-Rs: Through Movement Experiences” talks about how brain development is directly linked to movement. For example, holding your baby in different positions actually helps develop new neural connections in the brain. In Kindermusik classes, we use musical concepts like “high” and “low” in our dances and chants to encourage changes of position, inspire creativity, and support brain development. Here’s a little about movement and the brain is incorporated for each of our Kindermusik age groups:
BABIES
Move, move, and move some more! In Village, our music class for babies, we move our little ones to learn, so they can learn to move and sooooo much more! What a brilliant beginning . . .
TODDLERS
Intoddler music classes, we combine independent and interactive movement between parent and child. Both fine and gross motor are explored.
PRESCHOOLERS
Ah! Now the fruits of your playful labor in our babies’ music classes and toddlers’ music classes are exposed and expanded as your children begin to own their movements both large and small!
BIG KIDS
Just wait until you see what your home play has created. Your child will be functioning on a much higher level reasoning plane, dealing with abstract notations, rhythms, and teamwork challenges – all skills that require coordination of movement. These are also skills that your child will have for a lifetime – in school, at play, and later in the workplace.
It’s true… a good Kindermusik beginning never ends!
Compiled by Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.
This all-encompassing interview from the 2009 Wisconsin Book Festival, “Wendell Berry Talks About Life,” was the perfect thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning.
Whether you’re familiar or unfamiliar with Wendell Berry, hearing his story and convictions towards the slow food movement, environmental justice, healthy local communities, returning war veterans in the age of technology, mindfulness, and the U.S. government’s agricultural influence since World War II helped center our thoughts at the week’s end. Berry reminds us that BIG QUESTIONS do not always have BIG ANSWERS. Humans will only survive if we live the mysteries, and work on a local level to improve and simplify our communities.
Admittedly, one of the most poignant points Berry makes is this: Q: “As an essayist and cultural critic who has written a fair amount about community, what is your view of newly emerging digital communities? Are they credible forms of community?” A: “We’re just flooded with language, which means that we’ve got to be careful about language. You can speak of ‘digital communities’ if you want to. All I ask is that you recognize that you’re using a metaphor. A real community is the people and the place and everything else that’s in it.”
…a sobering reminder that reading is half of our responsibility towards stewardship, and more importantly, towards personal wellbeing. Inspiration from blogs, social media, and television is indispensable, but action should be the result. What will you do today to make the world a better place?
As children, many of today’s preschool teachers probably picked up a Spanish word or two while watching Sesame Street. (Anyone else remember Luis looking for agua?)
Now, with people of Hispanic descent making up the fastest growing segment of the population in the United States, those same educators teaching a daycare or preschool curriculum probably can put those words to good use in the classroom. However, effectively teaching English Language Learners in preschool takes more than speaking one or two words in Spanish.
Hispanic ELL students in preschool
(Source: Hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
Longitudinal studies show the lasting effects of a quality preschool curriculum on at-risk students, including increasing the likelihood of graduating high school and attending college. While these studies primarily focus on at-risk children in general, many of today’s at-risk students are English Language Leaners. In fact, 21 percent of all children under the age of 5 are Hispanic (although not all are English Language Learners). A recent policy brief published by NIERR (National Institute for Early Education Research) asks whether or not today’s preschool curriculum is preparing Hispanic children in particular to succeed in school. The report outlines recommendations for decision makers to consider when evaluating or establishing a preschool curriculum or program.
4 recommendations for states to consider for Hispanic English Language Learners in public preschool, according to NIEER
Evaluate preschool education policies with Hispanic children in mind. If ELL status is not a factor considered for targeted program eligibility, a consideration should be given to making it so.
As future programs expand, conducting comparative analyses of targeted programs and PreK for all children may prove useful. Universal programs can cost less per child and resolve problems of eligibility.
States should ensure programs have some support for ELL children in their home language. Research shows that preschool curriculum that also supports the language used at home improves cognitive, linguistic, and social outcomes.
It should be a high priority at the state and federal levels to develop better reporting systems to ensure quality data for stronger research on Hispanic children and early education policies.
You can read the full policy brief here: “Is Public Pre-K Preparing Hispanic Children to Succeed in School?”
Use music to teach ELLs early literacy and language development
Every child speaks music! ABC Music & Me uses music to teach early literacy and language development and school readiness skills to young children and engage families in their children’s education. The research-based curriculum can be especially beneficial for English Language Learners. In every unit of ABC Music & Me, children hear stories read aloud and sing songs that include new vocabulary words. Words essential to the unit’s theme are included on picture cards along with recommended instruction for ELL students, expanding the possibilities for vocabulary acquisition. Plus, ABC Music & Me aligns with Title III requirements and our “English Language Learners Strategies Guide” provides unit-by-unit, lesson-by-lesson tips.
According to the NIEER report, Hispanic families continue to encounter barriers to sending their children to preschool, including lack of parental education and language barriers. However, we build parental involvement right into our preschool curriculum, because we know that a parent is a child’s first and best teacher. ABC Music & Me includes materials in English and Spanish, including robust literacy activities, to increase parent involvement and support the common language spoken in the home.
For more information about using ABC Music & Me with English Language Learners or other young children as a preschool or toddler curriculum, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.
Recently, treehugger.com published an article by mother Meaghan O’Neill called “How I Forced My 5 Year Old to Become an Environmentalist, or, an Interview with Philippe Cousteau.”
This article is worth reading for a few reasons. First, we can all probably understand Meaghan’s guilt towards being her family’s own environmental role model– ordering take out, driving daily, and buying too many toys. But more importantly, Meaghan’s active role in the environmental community has created some amazing opportunities for her family to meet leading environmental authors, scientists, and speakers. Not only does Meaghan work with her son at home to instill environmental values– telling him to protect “his island” where they live, pick up trash on the beach and learn about the many species sharing their habitat– she continues to grow herself by attending attending national environmental conferences and staying engaged in the forefront of the movement. Meaghan was lucky enough to arrange for her son to talk to Philippe Cousteau, founder of Earth Echo International, a non-profit dedicated to empowering youth on water issues. Cousteau’s newest book, Make a Splash, a children’s guide to helping oceans, rivers, and wetlands by taking action– going outside, exploring, researching, and being “political” by reminding their parents, teachers, and friends about water issues. It focuses on execution of these ideals by helping them keep a log of their project plan and activities.
We agree with Meaghan that hiding children from the world’s harsh truths is not beneficial; rather, parents should focus on explaining these issues early on in terms their children can understand. Make a Splash examines oil spills, climate change, and extinction without being cutesy or too “gloom and doom.” If you like the book, you can also check out the video game, “Rescue Reef,” Philippe developed.
Being an environmentalist is a dynamic, changing role. Learning is an environmentalist’s chief responsibility– then teaching. As parents, we should check our own instinct to teach teach teach, making sure that the information is new and improved by the ever-changing scope of scientific research.
Drumroll, please! After receiving an unbelievable 2,114 valid entries, we are so pleased to announce the winner of the first We Love Kindermusik Contest as The {super adorable} Schwerzler Family of the Kindermusik Cathy Siebert, LLC Studio, also a winner!
Kate Schwerzler’s randomly selected, winning entry was:
We love Kindermusik because it is instilling the love of music in our child at a young age! He is learning beat, friendship, songs and more. We see him at home playing with instruments and loving everything there is to love about music!
Studio-owner, Cathy Siebert, has known Kate {the Mom of the family} since she was in 2nd grade and took piano lessons in Cincinnati, Ohio, back in the early nineties. She says, “It’s been fun seeing her grow up. I happened to reconnect with her on Facebook and enjoyed “seeing” her get married, become pregnant and meeting Lukas. Lukas began taking Kindermusik in January and we are so happy to have the family in our program!”
Winning the We Love Kindermusik contest was particularly exciting this year because Cathy Siebert is celebrating her 25th year of being a Kindermusik educator!
On why she loves Kindermusik, Cathy said, “I have enjoyed being a part of so many family’s lives for so many years. One former Kindermusik graduate is a Rhodes scholar (in music composition), another just returned from the Peace Corps, one is an art educator and two former students just graduated with degrees in Music Education! Working with a child until they match pitch or seeing their compositions in Young Child still makes teaching Kindermusik a joy!”
Mom, Kate, was very excited to win and REALLY loves Kindermusik now! 😉 She thinks her sweet boy will love Kindermusik @Home and she can’t wait to see how much he learns!
Congratulations to the SchwerzlerFamily and the Kindermusik Cathy Siebert, LLC studio!
The Schwerzler’s won:
A new iPad
A full year access to Kindermusik@Home, our digital learning platform
$500 to charity of choice
*The charity the Schwerzler chose to receive this donation is the Valley View Foundation. It is a fantastic nature preserve attached to Pattison Elementary School, where Mom Kate works (and uses the nature preserve in many of her students’ lessons)! The donation is in honor of principal, Mr. Gregg Curless. He is retiring this year and he has a great love of nature (and music!).
The Kindermusik Cathy Siebert, LLC Studio won:
A new iPad
$500 of digital home materials credits
We want to thank you ALL for taking the time to spread the Kindermusik love this year.
Here are some great contest entries we’d like to share!
Kindermusik has changed our lives and along with music came many lifelong friendships for me and my children. I am such a true believer in music shaping a child’s brain, Kindermusik is one of those things…I could not imagine our life without.
We love Kindermusik because it’s “our thing,” special time together for me and my daughter. I recommend Kindermusik to everyone I know with young children. It is the best money spent because the lessons last forever!
We love Kindermusik because of how inclusive their classrooms are! My daughter is 3 years old and is autistic. The teachers at Kindermusik have gone above and beyond to make sure that we were comfortable in the class and always email us to see what they can do to help our daughter feel more included. My daughter has gone from being non verbal to singing and participating in class, which is a huge change compared to when we started a year ago with Kindermusik. We are forever grateful to have found such an accepting program that truly values every child that walks in the door. Thank you Kindermusik for making my daughter smile every week!
Kindermusik has many valuable aspects – music, play, socialization, child and parent interaction, singing and make believe. It is a happy time in the week that is fun for the whole family.
I love Kindermusik because it’s a wonderful way to allow my daughter to interact with other kids in a fun, safe, and educational environment. I love to watch her blossom.
My son, Tyler (2), and I started taking kindermusik classes last winter, when he was just a year old. Tyler, who was born with Down syndrome, has grown and learned so much over the last year because of this class. At first, he’d just sit and watch all the other children, while swaying to the music. As time has gone by, he’s become much more engaged and interactive with other children, which has been amazing, as his parent, to watch. Other moms now joke with me that he could be running the class. He loves to scoot into the middle of the circle and he watches everything Ms. Peggy does, often mimic-ing her. He loves all the instruments and he loves music so much. He’s also using a tremendous amount of sign language signs throughout the class, so his communication is so much better. I’ve witnesses so much growth since we’ve started these classes. The socialization alone, with other children who are both typically developing and who have special needs, has been invaluable.
Kindermusik is a chance for my son to learn and explore through movement and music. It awakens his senses, teaches him life valuable skills, and provides bonding time for the two of us. He is so happy when he is in Kindermusik class!
When I went to a trial of Kindermusik I thought I was going to a singing class. It is so much more. Children learn to share, listen, express themselves and they don’t even know they are learning. They have so much fun and for my daughter, it increased her confidence 10 fold. Thank you Kindermusik.
Make no mistake. Toddlers wear their hearts on their sleeves. No one expresses pure emotion quite like an 18 month old. From the sheer delight of enjoying the sticky goodness of an ice cream cone to the depths of despair when it’s time to leave the playground, toddlers give Oscar-worthy performances daily.
Child development research shows that parents, preschool teachers, and other caregivers can support the early language and early literacy development of young children by labeling those emotions and encouraging young children to use their words. Now, a new longitudinal study published in the journal Child Development indicates that toddlers with stronger early language skills show less anger as preschoolers.
Early language development helps preschoolers manage anger
Researchers studied 120 children starting at 18 months old until they turned 4 years old. Through home and lab visits, the research team measured children’s language development and their ability to cope with tasks that might lead to frustration, such as waiting to open a present. The team found that children with more advanced early language development skills at 18 months old and whose language abilities increased more quickly than other children expressed less anger at age 4. In addition to waiting patiently to open a present at age 3, the children with more language skills calmly sought their mother’s support while they waited. By age 4, those same children were better able to occupy themselves by talking out loud during the wait.
“Better language skills may help children verbalize rather than use emotions to convey needs and use their imaginations to occupy themselves while enduring a frustrating wait,” explained Pamela M. Cole, PhD, lead researcher, in a press release.
Early language development through music
Created by Kindermusik International, ABC Music & Me uses music to support young children’s early literacy and language development, including vocabulary acquisition. The ABC Music & Me early literacy curriculum is full of vocabulary-building opportunities. The Picture Vocabulary Cards in our preschool curriculum support unit-by-unit vocabulary, comprehension, memory, and pre-literacy skills. Plus, our stories, songs, and activities introduce students to hundreds of words and their meanings. In addition, we provide materials to increase parent involvement in early childhood education by connecting the learning from the classroom into the home.
For more information about using the ABC Music & Me early literacy curriculum in your classroom, school, or daycare, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.
Kindermusik was fortunate to contribute a guest blog post on the Reading Rainbow blog. As our missions align in inspiring children through reading and music, we are grateful for this opportunity and are excited to share it with our community!
Special Guest Post: Kindermusik – Steady Beat: It’s more than just music!
You’ve been there. You’re driving in the car and you find yourself unconsciously nodding your head or drumming the steering wheel to the beat of the music you hear. Thanks to the steady beat of our hearts, we are naturally wired for responding to a steady beat. Even infants are born with the ability to keep a steady beat – their own internal beat, particularly after 9 months of hearing Mom’s heartbeat or her singing while in utero! However, the ability to consciously recognize and demonstrate steady beat takes practice, and can lead to far greater moments in child development.
Why steady beat matters in music, child development, and reading
The most basic property of music is steady beat: the underlying, unchanging, repeating pulse. If you’ve ever come to a Kindermusik studio class for toddlers, babies, big kids, or families, you’ll notice that we include a steady beat activity every week, in every age group from newborn to 7. It might involve instruments, reciting nursery rhymes, singing, dancing, lap bounces, rocking, or even tiptoeing.
There’s a reason for that.
We know that the capacity to identify and maintain a steady beat can be used for more than singing or playing an instrument.
For babies
Exposure to steady beat (hearing it, feeling it, “seeing it”, and being moved to it) is natural for babies, but very important for a their developing sense of steady beat and the world around them. An internalized awareness of beat and rhythm helps a baby to coordinate movements.
For 18 months through 3 years old
At this age, children are learning to control and coordinate their body’s movements. The ability to keep a steady beat helps them to walk with a smooth gait, leading to running, jumping, and dancing with confidence.
For preschoolers and early school-aged children
Steady beat competency is central to the development of movement organization, such as marching in time, dribbling and shooting a basketball, using scissors, and writing smoothly.
An understanding of the concept of a steady beat helps a child speak and read with a smooth cadence, thereby enhancing communication abilities and reading comprehension.
After all, the same sense of steady beat experienced in music can be experienced when reading. Ever try reading a Little Blue Truck book without a sense of rhythm or steady beat? “Beep, Beep, Beep went the little blue truck!” just wouldn’t be the same without it! It’s no wonder that research shows children who can keep a steady beat score higher on reading assessments. They also rate higher on math tests and show stronger behavioral skills.
4 steady beat activities for families
As a child’s first and best teacher, parents and primary caregivers can set their child on a path to “go anywhere and be anything!” Try these activities together to reinforce a sense of steady beat and support a child’s emerging literacy skills:
1. MOVE: Turn on music and pretend to be a marching band. March, stomp or jump to the music. Dance with them around the room to the steady beat of the music.
2. Play Instruments: Use children’s instruments or make your own. Practice keeping a steady beat along with the music. Homemade drums (like a pot + wooden spoon) and instruments are great additions to your pretend marching band or family dance party!
3. Read and Sing Nursery Rhymes: Clap or tap along as you recite your child’s favorite rhymes.
4. Have a Steady Beat Treasure Hunt: Search for things that make a steady beat. The clock? Dripping water? Microwave timer? How many can you find?
Want to boost steady beat skills in a group music and movement class? Find one near you. You can also check out our rhythms sticks—a great instrument for practicing steady beat! For teachers, check out how you can infuse these steady beat activities into your day through one of our audio-led curriculum kits.
Reading Rainbow wants to thank Kindermusik for contributing to their guest blog on early literature and music. We appreciate their support in our mission to inspire a love of reading in children and connect them to the world they live in through quality literature so they can “Go anywhere. Be anything.“
During the first year or so of life, gross-motor activities dominate a child’s repertoire of movement, with the major objective being the mastery of walking.
Meaghan was lucky enough to arrange for her son to talk to 
