Minds On Music – The Kindermusik Blog
For three generations, Kindermusik has helped millions of children around the world build a strong foundation for a lifetime of learning.
Researchers, scientists, and teachers have long recognized the link between music and early math skills, but did you know the benefits are longterm, and extend to heightened performance on standardized tests and problem-solving abilities later in school?
Continue reading “How Music + Movement Fuels Early Math Skills”
“Exceptional spatial ability at age 13 predicts creative and scholarly achievements more than 30 years later, according to results from a Vanderbilt University longitudinal study, published today in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.” (from Early spatial reasoning predicts later creativity and innovation, especially in STEM fields)
So where does spatial ability begin? The development of spatial awareness actually begins in infancy as babies start to understand spatial relationships through concepts such as up/down, inside/outside, over, under, and all around. Discovering their hands and feet is also part of the developmental process.
Next comes a greater sense of body awareness for toddlers as they gain an understanding of spatial orientation between self and other objects. Preschoolers begin to understand the concept of landmarks and gaining a sense of direction. The learning keeps building and expanding as big kids then also begin to develop a sense of personal space, control of their bodies, and a greater understanding of positional words and directions.
This is why all of the music listening, labeling, moving, direction following, and use of props that’s done in Kindermusik music classes is so powerful. And now we have the research to support what we’ve known all along… that there is a connection between early experiences in music and movement and creative and scholarly achievements later on. Music and learning definitely go hand-in-hand!
For families, find a class near you. Some virtual classes also available!
For teachers, check out our musical play kits.
– Contributed by Theresa Case, owner of an award-winning Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC
In a nutshell, spatial awareness is the understanding of objects (including your own body) in relationship to the surrounding space. For children, that starts with discovering hands and feet, grows to moving safely on a playground, and leads to judging distances while driving or solving math problems. It’s a huge skillset that affects so many critical aspects of positive whole-child development.
So how do you know if little ones are on or off-track with these skills?
Continue reading “Why Spatial Awareness Is Critical to Whole-Child Development”
During movement activities, children learn to organize the available space in relation to themselves and in relationship to objects and other individuals… this is how they develop body control, spatial awareness, and confidence in the power and ability of their own bodies. (Linda Carol Edwards, The Creative Arts)
TIP: Turn on some dancing music and dance around the room together. Add a prop like a scarf, a ball, or a hoop for more movement and body control fun and learning.
– compiled by Theresa Case, M.Ed., whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide
You’ve probably heard the old proverb: “Variety is the spice of life.” When it comes to music, musical variety is definitely the spice of life! When you expose your children to music from around the world, you expose them to different cultures, countries, ideas, and experiences, along with these developmental benefits:
Greater language proficiency
Just as you read a variety of books to expand your child’s vocabulary, exposure to a wide variety of music and sounds expands your child’s “ear vocabulary.” High quality musical recordings and real instruments help your child “fine tune” her ear to recognize and imitate the sounds that make up words and language.
Spatial awareness
When a child listens to music, her mind perceives the sound in multi-dimensional ways. The sound is loud or soft, fast or slow, it moves up and down, or left to right. Eventually, she’ll use that “awareness of space” to work with her body when she walks through the living room and tries not to hit the coffee table. Much later, this same awareness is necessary skill for learning how to get around things, jump, run, and move in zig-zag ways.
Temporal reasoning
You see this skill in action when a preschooler tells a story. He starts with his own experience and then moves to some imagined place with a princess or a superhero then goes back to something real again. Music does the same thing. It goes back and forth between established places (the chorus) and to new places that take you somewhere else (the verse). The ability to go back and forth from something established to something imagined comes from temporal reasoning, a skill used in music writing, storytelling, and problem solving.
Emotional intelligence
With exposure to a greater variety of musical styles-like jazz, folk, or classical, this increased exposure to music increases a child’s awareness, and understanding of different moods and emotions.
Cognitive skills
Research shows that music contributes to the development of a child’s ability to reason, his sense of patterning, and his memory skills.
Try this at home… Your child is naturally musical. Hearing you sing and listening to recordings are like food for her musical appetite. Sing with child at least three times a day. Consider these song sessions musical breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (By the way, “lunch” can be interpreted loosely. Just plan the routine of singing together at a time that works for your schedule – when your child wakes up, in the car, doing dishes, at naptime, fixing supper, etc.!) Once you start, you will find that there is a song for everything. If you can’t remember what that song is, make one up!
Posted by Theresa Case whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.
