When you and your loved one were expecting, there was most likely some relative or friend who told you to play classical music to your baby in the womb or as a newborn. Now your little one is a toddler and ready to go to a child care center! Is there still an argument that says music helps your child’s development? In short, yes there is!
Music Helps Your Child’s Brain Development
As your little one continues to grow physically, his brain also keeps growing. Your child’s brain is like a sponge that soaks up information and uses that information to build connections. Music can stimulate your child’s brain and encourage development in areas of the brain that are connected to reading and math. Music can also help your child learn more quickly and improve his memory, since music stimulates different pathways in the brain than other educational tools.
When you introduce music and movement to your child, your child takes those experiences and develops them into skills like spatial awareness, reasoning, and creativity or innovation as an adult. Music develops the areas of the brain closest to language and reasoning. Introducing music to your child at a young age can also kickstart his cognitive and creative development! You may want to consider incorporating music into your plan to help your child be ready for kindergarten and elementary school.
Long-Term Benefits of Music for Children
Studies show that in 2012, high school students who sang or played an instrument scored an average of anywhere between 20 and 30 points higher on each subject on the SAT. If you child falls in love with music at a young age and picks up an instrument in elementary school, he can develop a stronger sense of discipline than the average school age child. Mastering a musical instrument can require hours of diligent practice. Your child will learn patience and discipline as he discovers that “slow and steady wins the race” really does work!
Introducing Children to Music at Child Care Centers
As you are looking for quality child care centers, you make want to look for child care programs that have a music and movement program to stimulate your child’s learning. At Children Central Child Care and Learning Center, our child care staff uses the Kids’ MusicRound® Music and Movement Program.
Our KMR music and movement program is part of our curriculum for our Toddler through Pre-Kindergarten Programs, and it is also optional in our Infant Room. Watch your child grow and develop at Children Central Child Care and Learning Center with tools like Kids’ MusicRound® and more! To learn more about Kids’ MusicRound®, click here.
At Children Central Child Care and Learning Center, we are prepared to help your child develop the skills necessary to succeed in school and in life. Using music to boost creativity and your child’s brain development is just one aspect of our approach. Our programs make learning fun for your child as we prepare him for elementary school. We also work on socialization and developing your child’s critical thinking. Learn more about our successful programs like Pre-Kindergarten Program, After-School Program, Infants and Toddlers, and our Twaddlers and Preschoolers Programs.
In your article, you stated that music can stimulate your child’s brain and encourage development in areas of the brain that are connected to reading and math. Do most daycare centers have any time that is set apart for learning or listen to music? My wife has been trying to teach our youngest child about certain things and he only seems to pay attention when music is playing. Finding a daycare center that values music might be a good option.
We appreciate your comments. No, most child care centers / preschool programs do not offer music as a formal program. Children Central has teamed up with the popular Kids’ Music Round program to provide music as part of our academic curriculum, so that the children get to play instruments, sing, dance and gain a good appreciation of music each week. Music is in addition to the academics and socialization skills children learn as part of a daily structured play program. The curriculum we use at the school is confirmed to follow the PA. early learning standards, which means it is confirmed that we are teaching the children what all the research says they should be learning at every age level. This is confirmed for families knowing that their children attend a Keystone STARS 4 rated preschool program, the highest rating an early learning program can achieve in PA.