movement and the brain Archives - Minds On Music

Music and Movement Benefits: The Power of the Vestibular System

“The vestibular system controls the sense of movement and balance. From birth to about 15 months, the vestibular system is very active as the child gains a sense of gravity and knowledge of the physical environment through movement. Rocking, swaying, and movement which rotates the head stimulates the vestibular system, stimulating the brain for new learning.” – Smart Moves, by Carla Hannaford.

Activating learning through movement

The vestibular system is the “vestibule” or “entryway” for learning into the brain. By stimulating the vestibular system, we are helping your child’s brain get ready to learn. By intentionally stimulating the vestibular system during your baby’s early years, your child becomes even more aware of the physical environment through movement. Research shows that vestibular stimulation is not only tied to “alertness” but also to a child’s language development.

A parent’s insights can give a child an academic advantage

Understanding how children learn in the early years and what activates that learning is vital to understanding how children will learn and progress through school later on, according to developmental psychologist Dr. Katherine Towney. This is precisely the reason that Kindermusik educators are so fond of sharing the benefits and the reasons for what we do in class. We believe that parents are children’s first and best teacher, and the more you know and understand about your child, the better learner you can help him/her become.

Why we move, rock, dance, and sway in a Kindermusik class

Here’s a brief of overview of just how we activate the vestibular system – and a child’s learning – in our Kindermusik classes:
Babies: Using and labeling movements like twisting, swaying, turning, and rocking.
Toddlers: Helping the children learn to move confidently and creatively on their own – with mom, dad, grandma, or nanny near by, of course.
Preschoolers: Introducing a whole new vocabulary of movement and joyfully exploring all of those new words and ways to learn.
Big Kids: Keeping the movement in our feet and whole bodies inspires the children as they are also learning to read, write, and compose music.

Music & Movement Benefits: Why We Rock, Bounce, Jump & Dance

Kindermusik is as much about movement as it is about music. Ask any educator or parent – there’s no need to go to the gym on Kindermusik day! That’s because we know that children learn best by doing – it’s called experiential learning. And now a new study highlighted in Science Daily demonstrates just how powerful the doing-learning-remembering connection really is. There really is such a thing as “motor memory!”
Multiple research studies prove what Kindermusik has capitalized on for a long time – movement is KEY to learning. In fact, the movement we do in our Kindermusik classes is essential for the children in many ways.

The powerful, but happy, combination of movement and music develops:

The Vestibular System.

A well-developed vestibular system provides emotional security, good muscle tone, develops auditory language processing, and visual-spatial processing. All this while you’re having fun dancing!

Neural Pathways.

Moving in a variety of ways gives your child a chance to ‘see the world’ from many perspectives, thus strengthening neural pathways, which carry messages from your child’s mind, guiding her senses and motor skills.

Fine Motor Skills.

During the first part of life, we’re learning to walk, so gross motor activities dominate the child’s movement. Now she can focus on activities that encourage the development of fine muscles, so she can increase skills that require finger and hand movements such as putting together a simple puzzle, painting with a paintbrush, turning a page of a book or stringing beads.

Physical Confidence.

Body awareness is important in the development of the child’s physical confidence. This developmental goal may be met by engaging in movement activities which focus on body part movement, whole body movement in one place, and whole body movement while traveling in space.

Creativity and Imagination.

Listening and responding to music and movement activities helps develop pretend play skills while also helping your child assimilate music and movement concepts such as fast, slow, loud, quiet, bumpy, smooth, straight and curvy.

Thinking Skills.

While in motion, the brain acts like a flight simulator, constantly inventing, moving mental models to project onto a changing world. This is an extraordinary mentally complex operation which builds thinking skills.

Movement is truly the key to the kind of learning that sticks and to the kind of joyful interaction that leads to a lifelong love of music and a lifetime of benefiting from the rich foundation of an early childhood music and movement program like Kindermusik.

Come move, sing, dance, play, and learn with us! Try a FREE Kindermusik class today and see how music will move you… and your child.

Movement and the Brain

Multisensory Learning - Creative Arts Matter in Early Childhood Education

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

In toddler 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!

Find a Kindermusik Class near you!

Compiled by Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.