School readiness for babies? Sounds a little extreme, but did you know an infant’s brain doubles in size during the first year? This window of learning opens wide in those first 12 months, and the easiest way to boost school readiness is to amplify bonding moments, joyful age-appropriate play, and rich multisensory activities that support those critical brain leaps.
Shared musical play is the perfect tool.
How Musical Play Supports School Readiness
Group or 1:1 music and movement activities are multisensory and call on all parts of the brain. It’s the multisensory aspect that kicks all learning domains (like social-emotional, language receptive and expressive, fine and gross motor, etc.) into high gear.
Specifically, shared musical play between parent/caregiver and child helps:
- Strengthen emotional bonds that create trust and the basis for all relationships (including teacher-child and peer-to-peer in school).
- Jumpstart language development through songs and rhymes.
- Develop the formation of neural networks doing multiple musical play “tasks” at once.
- Build listening skills through aural cues which help children focus and eventually follow directions.
- Support balance, coordination and posture by stimulating the vestibular system (through activities like rocking and swaying; we love “The Barn Lullaby” on the free Kindermusik App).
- Enrich all areas of development by developing a sense of steady beat. Steady beat (which can be encouraged though bouncing, clapping, and instrument play) is foundational to speech development, motor skill development, logical thinking skills, and even verbal organization.
- Promote early math skills through the patterns and sequencing in songs, chants, and dance steps (even when the grownup is holding them).
- Prepare pincer grasps and hand muscles (through developmentally-appropriate instruments and fingerplays) children need later on to write.
- Produce critical thinking and problem-solving skills through creativity (like showing baby to make a different sound with a shaker by tapping it on the floor versus shaking it in their hand).
Kindermusik Can Help
Kindermusik was developed on the firm belief that parents and caregivers are children’s first (and best) teacher. So, both private studios and spaces offering Kindermusik classes, and school settings using our audio-led curricula, lean heavily into at-home resources to help families reinforce the learning at home.
The best part about making shared musical play part of daily life early, is that when your child does transition into starting school, you can still use music and movement to ease tricky transitions and help you capitalize on all of the incredible academic, cognitive, and social advantages that it provides.
Learn more about how first-year musical play contributes to school readiness by joining a class near you or adding Kindermusik’s audio-led curricula to your childcare center or teaching space.
Originally authored by Theresa Case who is a Kindermusik Top Program Owner at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC.