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5 cognitive benefits of a bilingual curriculum

According to research, learning to speak English as a second language—or another foreign language—impacts the cognitive development in children. Of course, experiencing a bilingual curriculum can help prepare a child for a global workforce as adults. Plus, the younger a child learns a second language the more likely they are to speak like a native speaker.
In our ESL curriculum development for ABC English & Me, we combined our more than 35 years of experience with music and learning with the latest research on English Language Learning. Here are just a few of the benefits revealed in the research.

5 effects of a bilingual curriculum on child brain development

Children who learn another language, including ELL students, score better on standardized tests, especially in math, reading, and vocabulary.
Children who speak more than one language can easily switch between two or more systems of speech, writing, and structure.
Bilingual and multilingual children exhibit stronger memories than monolinguals.
Learning another language boosts the language capabilities of the first language.
Bilingual children score higher on nonverbal problem-solving tests when compared to children who only speak one language.

New Vice President at Kindermusik lights a spark

Kelly Green, Vice President and General Manager, Schools Division

Spark. It’s what happens in the classroom. Those a-ha moments in early childhood education when children make a fresh discovery, master a new skill, or read words for the first time. That spark of early learning ignites a quest for more knowledge.

Teachers of daycare, preschool, or Head Start curriculum light a “spark” each day in the classroom. So, it’s no wonder Kelly Green chose “spark” as her one word to represent both the start of the new school year and her new role at Kindermusik International.
As Kindermusik’s new Vice President and General Manager of Business to Business and Business to Institution Sales in the US and Canada, Kelly brings more than 19 years of experience in early childhood education. Prior to Kindermusik, Kelly worked at Hatch Early Childhood as the Vice President of Sales and Business Development.
“I am excited to bring my knowledge and passion for the field of early childhood education to Kindermusik,” explains Kelly. “The research clearly shows how music can be used as a powerful learning tool when used as part of a childcare, Head Start, or a Common Core curriculum. I look forward to sharing the power of the Kindermusik classroom experience with public schools and community-based organizations serving young children.”
Welcome to the Kindermusik International community, Kelly! We know you will help light many new sparks of early learning.

Follow Kelly on Twitter (@KinderKGreen) as she shares her passion for the power of early education.

Music and cognitive development in children

We love music—everything about it. Of course, we love how music and learning go together in Kindermusik classrooms and in homes around the world when parents support cognitive development in children through musical activities. We also love how that certain lullaby or silly nonsense song can calm both a child and a parent during one of those moments. Perhaps one of our favorite things we love about music is its ability to support healthy child brain development.

What our brains look like when we listen to music

When we listen to and engage in musical activities, our brains light up. Now, new research gives us pictures of what our brains look like when we listen to music. Researchers from Finland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, used brain imaging and computer modeling to see just want happens to our brains when we listen to music. Led by Dr. Vinoo Alluri, the research team recorded the brain responses of adult participants while they listened to a variety of music, including Vivaldi, Miles Davis, and The Beatles. During the process, they also tracked the musical components, such as timbre, rhythm, and tonality.
The team discovered that listening to music activates the auditory, motor, and limbic regions of the brain as well as the regions of the brain used for self-referential appraisal and aesthetic judgments. Interestingly, our brains respond differently between vocal and instrumental music. When listening to music with lyrics, the brain shifts the processing of musical features towards the right auditory cortex to better process the lyrics.
“The new method provides a powerful means to predict brain responses to music, speech, and soundscapes across a variety of contexts,” explained Dr. Vinoo Alluri in a press release.

Musical variety supports child brain development

Throughout the Kindermusik experience, we deliberately introduce children to a wide variety of musical genres to give them a greater understanding of what is possible through music. One month we may explore the precision of classical music. The next month you and your child may experience the value of improvisation and emotional expression while we play around with jazz. Together we may also move and play along with drumming songs from Africa and South America or dance around to music from New Zealand, China, or France.
Exposure to a variety of sounds and rhythms is critical to cognitive development in children. Varied exposure leads to language proficiency, spatial reasoning, and temporal reasoning. It also increases understanding of moods, emotions, and other cultures. Read more about the four surprising ways your child benefits from a variety of music.

Better yet, find a local educator and come experience it for yourself. Try a free class today!

5 ways Kindermusik prepares PARENTS for Kindergarten

Of course, Kindermusik helps prepare young children for school success. (You can read just 9 of the ways our music classes for babies, toddlers, big kids, and families lay the groundwork for success in elementary school.) But, Kindermusik also prepares parents for Kindergarten. Here’s how:

5 ways Kindermusik prepares parents for Kindergarten, including parental involvement in early childhood education

You get real-life experience with your child learning independently in a classroom setting. Kindermusik grows with your child. As your child progresses from infant to toddler to preschooler to big kid Kindermusik classes, your little one (and you!) slowly transition from being together in the classroom all of the time to the parents coming in at the end of class.
You learn how to connect the classroom learning to your everyday lives. In class, Educators share the developmental benefits behind the activities so you learn both the "hows" and the "whys." Plus, Kindermusik@Home gives parents activities for kids, including the music and eBooks from class so the learning happens throughout the week. In later years, when your child comes home from Kindergarten with homework, your family already naturally integrates the learning in fun and engaging ways throughout the week.
Parent involvement in early childhood education becomes second-nature. You are your child’s first and best teacher. As your child grows, more teachers will enter your child’s life, but you maintain the top spot. You will understand from personal experience the positive and unique impact of parental involvement in early childhood education.
All of those animal noises and sounds you make in Kindermusik and at home with your child will make you a highly requested Mystery Reader in Kindergarten. It’s true. Dr. Seuss, Piggie & Gerald, and other favorite children’s books just sound better when the one reading the story can make the silly sounds! So, go ahead, practice your elephant trumpet!
The social skills and confidence your child gains in Kindermusik will make the transition to Kindergarten easier for your little one—and for you. We can’t promise you won’t shed a tear or two, but your child will be more comfortable in a classroom setting, exhibit stronger inhibitory control abilities, and more easily make new friends.

Come see for yourself how Kindermusik prepares you and your child for Kindergarten. Try a free class today!

FOL Fridays: Cultivating Empathy

Empathy between children and the world is a main developmental objective for preschool children. They don’t differentiate between themselves and others. Cultivating relationships with animals, both real and imagined, is one of the best ways to foster empathy during childhood. Children want to run like deer, slither along like snakes, be clever as a fox, and quick like a rabbit (adapted from Sobel, David. 1999)

Ideas for parents: Looking for activities for 3 year olds – or older or younger siblings? Try playing a simple game of Animal Charades with the whole family. You can have lots of fun moving and making sounds like some of your favorite animals, and in this fun way, help your child

develop a greater capacity for empathy. And of course, we can’t help but mention that group activities for kids that support parent involvement in early childhood education, such as Kindermusik, are one of the best ways for music and learning about empathy to go hand-in-hand.

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

2 new brain studies look at music and learning in a group

ABC Music & Me early literacy curriculum

What do you get when you cross group activities for kids with music and learning? That’s just one of the questions a research team led by Dr. Nina Kraus seeks to answer in two new brain studies funded by the NAMM Foundation. Unlike past research that compares children taking private music lessons to those not enrolled, one unique aspect of Kraus’s latest music and learning research is that it focuses on children learning in a group as part of a school curriculum.

“The NAMM Foundation is honored to support Dr. Kraus in these studies, which we believe will push the boundaries of knowledge about the effects and impact of music learning,” said Mary Luehrsen, executive director of the NAMM Foundation in a press release. “Over time, these and other studies will continue to substantiate that music education is essential to learning for every child.”

The Music and Learning Brain Studies led by Dr. Kraus

“The Harmony Project: Biological Benefits of Musical Training in At-Risk Children.” The initial phase of the research study found that children between the ages of 6 and 9 years old who took music lessons could better differentiate speech sounds, which directly relates to language and literacy skills. In the next phase, the team expects to find that children with musical training have an enhanced auditory cognitive function, which can also directly correlate to increased literacy skills.
“The Impact of In-School Music Classes: Rhythm, Language and the Brain.” In collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools, Kraus and her team want to better understand how musical training impacts cognitive, linguistic, and perceptual skills and associated brain development.

And the answer is…

So back to the first question (with an added bonus!): What do you get when you cross group activities for kids with music and learning AND parent involvement in early childhood education? Well, Kindermusik, of course! From Kindermusik classes in more than 70 countries around the world to ABC Music & Me programs used as part of an elementary school, PreK, or Head Start curriculum, we use

music as the vehicle for learning. Plus, we include materials that connect the classroom learning with the everyday lives and routines of children to increase family involvement in education.

To find a Kindermusik educator in your area, visit the Class Locator.

To learn more about ABC Music & Me as part of a PreK, Head Start, or elementary school curriculum, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

Kindermusik benefits parents too!

What’s in a Kindermusik class… for parents??? Well, for starters, there’s music, singing, instruments, dancing, and together time with your child – the very kinds of music education activities your child will love too. The real secret is that you can enjoy letting out your inner child and everyone else will only be thinking what a wonderful and interactive parent you are!

But it really goes much deeper than that. Kindermusik educators are quite fond of explaining that Kindermusik classes are just as much for the parent as they are for the child during this critical window of early childhood development. While there are many benefits of Kindermusik enrollment for you and your child, one significant area is the social-emotional impact for the parents.

The social outlet

Kindermusik classes give you a vital social outlet, a place where you can make new friends and keep up with old friends too!

The support network

Kindermusik is a place where you can belong and be supported by other parents going through the same things with their children as you are with yours.

The emotional connections

Kindermusik classes are where emotional connections between you and your child are strengthened, and where what you learn and enjoy in class will spill over into even more bonding and memories together at home.

The window into your child

One of the unique features of Kindermusik is that you will glean tidbits and insights into that precious little

person that is your child. We use music as the vehicle to enhance every aspect of early childhood development, and to give you a peek into the wonders of the whys and hows of who your child is and what he is becoming.

The best choice

Knowing you have chosen one of the very best possible experiences for your child by enrolling her in Kindermusik makes you feel great – in class each week and at home all week long!

See for yourself why so many parents love Kindermusik – for their children and for themselves! Try a free class today.

– Written by Theresa Case who has an award-winning Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in beautiful Upstate South Carolina

How Kindermusik Classes Encourage Healthy Social-Emotional Development in Your Child

One of the often overlooked benefits of early music education and particularly a program like Kindermusik is that the music experience itself – both in class and at home – actually promotes healthy social-emotional development, a vital part of early childhood development. A class like Kindermusik gives families a place to just be together, and that together time with music becomes the basis for the kinds of things that contribute to happy, healthy, confident children.

The early years

In the early years, strong emotional ties are fostered as mom or dad cuddle, sway, or bounce their little one while humming a lullaby, rocking to a favorite song, or dancing around the room. Loving intentional touch during massage time releases those “feel-good” hormones in the brain responsible for feelings of safety and security. And a Kindermusik-inspired lullaby ritual before naptime or bedtime becomes a cherished time that strengthens the loving bonds between parent and child.

The toddler years

Later on, the time spent enjoying music together becomes a way to spend quality time, to enter into the child’s world through imagination and play, and to express through music sometimes what words cannot. It’s during these sometimes turbulent years of toddler-hood that children most need those special reassurances of their parents’ love, interest, and care.

The preschool years

As a child moves into the preschool and early school years, the security of the emotional bond with a parent paves the way for developing healthy relationships with peers and teachers. A child is ready and able to expand on the social skills that were first developed in the early years, skills that lead to confident and happy interactions with others.

Nothing more powerful than music

When it comes to your child’s social-emotional development from newborn to 7 years, there’s nothing more that will impact him more than experiencing the benefits of music, and no better choice for delivering those benefits than Kindermusik.

Try a free Kindermusik class today and see how Kindermusik can make all the difference for your child!

– Contributed by Theresa Case whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios is proudly among the top 1% in the world.

4 best practices for teaching young English Language Learners

Early language development begins long before children say recognizable words. Linguist Patricia Kuhl notes that a six-to-eight month old baby can discriminate any sound in any language. In early language development, children naturally learn phonetically by interacting with other people. In contrast, learning another language in later years, such as in high school or at university, often includes many hours of learning through grammar, syntax, and conjugating verbs. Je suis. Tu es. Il est.
As our world becomes increasingly global, more and more parents and education professionals see the benefits of beginning foreign language education at younger ages. In fact, the French Education Minister suggested in 2011 that children begin learning English in nursery school when they are three years old.
When we developed ABC English & Me, we merged our decades of early childhood music education experience with the latest research on teaching young children another language.

Research-based best practices for young English Language Learners

The “Natural Approach.” In this teaching practice, the important underlying principle is an emphasis on language “acquisition” as opposed to language “processing.” The Natural Approach encourages children to speak and think in the second or foreign language. This takes precedence over analytical processing of formal language structure and syntax.
Total Physical Response. A young learner responds to language learning through body movements, which helps comprehension and fluency.
English language stories. When stories are read expressively to young English Language Learners, the association of foreign words nourishes both language development and listening skills in the new language. The foreign sounds of spoken and sung English, through repetition, become recognizable at first and subsequently comprehended.
Early childhood music. Finger plays, traditional nursery rhymes and songs reinforce phonemic awareness and the systematic relationship of letters of the alphabet and the sounds connected to each letter. Plus, musical instruction and experience help the brain improve its ability to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds, referred to as auditory processing. This auditory processing is critical to developing phonemic awareness, a necessary aspect of foreign language acquisition. Children who hear English words, even without grasping their meaning, will develop an ear for the language, especially if it is heard musically.

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