In our baby and toddler music classes, we almost always include a circle dance in every class. Together we’re a circle of support, love, and belonging.Those circle dances are great fun, but there’s serious purpose behind them too.
A circle is a symbol of community, and in it we all contribute equally. For your child, our circle dances give them a chance to see everyone, be part of our community, and to belong. There is no beginning or end to our circle, we all create our dance together.
This is especially important in a post-pandemic world. Lots of children missed out on crucial developmental opportunities to learn social skills. Coming to Kindermusik and participating in group dances is the perfect way to boost the acquisition of those socialization skills.
Besides the power of the emotional connections created in our circle dancing, we are also igniting the brain to work at its fullest capacity. Only through music and movement activities can the brain fully develop. As we plan our movements and dance as an ensemble the brain has to work hard to coordinate everything.
Socialization and interpersonal unity is often developed in musical ensembles and athletic teams. Circle dances combine the best of both worlds and integrate music AND movement, done collectively. Circle dances are found in many cultures around the globe and throughout human history. They build community and belonging both historically and contemporarily. Dancing in a circle benefits the mind, the body, and the community.
Times are busy. Commitments are tough. So, what makes a music class for toddlers the right choice for your family?
Research tells us learning that happens in the first three years of life is vital to early brain development. And we also know that when multiple areas of the brain are activated at once, the brain gets a complete workout. Enter Kindermusik…
A Better Organized Brain
What exactly does that mean and why is it important?
Daniel Levitin (a researcher into early childhood music experiences and the brain) found “Musical activity involves nearly every region of the brain that we know about.” Schlaug and other researchers (2010) claim that the benefits not only result in a better organized brain, but also produce long-lasting change even after the brain has reached its mature self.
A well-organized brain results in learning more easily and a higher level of skills. These benefits not only last for early childhood but lay the foundation for skills that will affect brain growth and formation well into adulthood.
Balance
Better balance comes through making sure the vestibular system is working accurately. The vestibular system is a small set of three semi-circular canals in the middle ear. It is the governor and chief of all sensory input, and allows us to stand, jump, balance on one foot, move in any way, and not be dizzy.
During a Kindermusik class, the vestibular system is connected to every activity, whether it be rocking, balancing on bilibos, or jumping like a rabbit.
Social Skills
Social skills are learned over time and with lots of practice. Reading cues, taking turns, and responding appropriately to other toddlers is an essential step in growing into a balanced adult.
In a group music class, toddlers dance and play instruments with their peers. They get their own instruments and learn to hand them back in a given timeframe. They wait for their turn during circle time. So, opportunities to refine how to interact with and respect others are always at the forefront.
Emotional Intelligence
Toddlers are (appropriately!) egocentric, but they can begin to learn what it means to be sorry, to think of others, and to recognize when others are hurting or sad and how to respond to that.
Kindermusik classes are a wonderful way for your toddler to begin learning those essential skills. Through the help of class interactions and parents or caregivers, they learn to build empathy, which is key to healthy social-emotional growth.
Language Skills
Increased language is one of the biggest benefits of Kindermusik classes for toddlers. At a stage where language is still developing, your toddler gets to hear different sounds, is exposed to a variety of musical styles, and plays with their voice in vocal play. All of these experiences allow your child to process and learn different nuances in sound, and the skills acquired translate to language where the differences between letters is so small.
Math Skills
Math and music share a lot of the same skills in a similar way to music and language. Children learn skills such as division (as they hear the division of beats between slow and fast notes), counting (as they count the number of instruments they have and learn to count in their books) and categorizing and sorting (as they put instruments back in their correct container).
They eventually learn to count forwards and backwards and other opposite concepts such as fast and slow, high and low, all of which play a huge role in school readiness.
Confidence
Routines within a music class for toddlers encourage self-esteem and confidence, but only at a pace that each child is comfortable. The emotional security of knowing what is coming next helps a child feel more secure.
Plus, children who are shy are given the space to grow in confidence within timeframe. For example, they can slowly venture out to get their instruments for an activity and then return them again. Or they can sing along in a group with the comfort of their special grownup nearby.
You Can Benefit Together.
The best part about a Kindermusik class is that the adults benefit as much as the little ones. You’ll discover community with other parents and caregivers, learn musical tips to help better communicate with your child, and so much more.
If you’re looking to boost brain development in a joyful environment, a group music class might be the perfect way to keep your child (and you!) engaged with learning that sticks.
In 2012 an archaeological site in Europe unearthed the oldest musical instrument artifacts ever found: flutes carved from bird bone and mammoth ivory. These instruments date back ~42,000 years. That means that when our Paleolithic ancestors were engaged in the life-saving activities of hunting and gathering they were also prioritizing the making of music.
A 2013 review of musical research describes how when playing music in a group individuals have contact with others, engage in social cognition, develop empathy, communicate, and coordinate their actions. Music actually impacts the brain circuits involved in empathy, trust, and cooperation. Perhaps this explains why music has developed and thrived in every culture of the world.
The key here seems to be shared music making, not merely listening to recorded music. It’s the act of connection that occurs when people gather together to experience and create music. It’s why every world religion employs music in its services. It’s why musicians tour and do live concerts. It’s why political rallies include performances by popular musicians. When you share music together your brain releases oxytocin and chemically bonds you to those around you.
Oxytocin is the same chemical released during breastfeeding. It’s the same neuropeptide associated with physical touch. It is a proven hormone that increases bonding and trust between people. Remember the feeling of love and affection wash over you as your breastfed your little one? Or when you gazed into their eyes as you rocked them and sang a lullaby? That was oxytocin bathing your brain, connecting you and your little one.
THAT is what we do here at Kindermusik. It is an intentional shared musical experience between you and your child that optimizes brain development in them and heightened emotional pleasure in both of you. For our older students, the sharing time with you at the end of class is limited. So it’s even more important that you engage in at-home music making.
THAT is the purpose behind our Rainbow Connection efforts these next two weeks. We provide tools for you to take the Kindermusik experience that you’ve invested in and bring it into your home. We want you to get the full benefits of our program and make shared musical experience a natural, daily part of your family culture. Because it will make your family even more bonded, and make your children even more cooperative, and bring you all emotional well being.
Music builds connection.
Music builds brains.
Music builds culture.
Music builds cohesion.
Music builds cooperation.
And, as we have learned from our Neanderthal ancestors, as they have passed down in our very DNA, music breeds life.
So dig into your at-home materials with renewed interest and enthusiasm and intention. Develop your own family musical rituals with purpose. And keep coming back to Kindermusik. Keep this development and bonding going through Summermusik and into the next year.
Can’t wait to see your beautifully colored Rainbow Connection papers as you bring them back next week!
Parents who seek information about what is best to do for their child—parents like you!—are relieved when an idea can be described as definitively true. It’s even better when that idea involves something that is easy and fun for children and caregivers to do together.
That’s what describes this idea coming out of years of study in Australia:
“…[I]nformal encounters with music at home are critical for young children’s development – with benefits above and beyond those of shared reading. And quite beautifully, the best results are seen when music making is a shared experience between parent and child.”
This statement is highlighted in a December 2017 article about the ongoing research efforts of Professor Margaret Barrett of the University of Australia, Queensland. Barrett began receiving grants to study the different effects of various types of musical exposure on young children in 2001. By 2013, she had honed in on a study called “Being and Becoming Musical.” At that point, Professor Graham Welch, Established Chair of Music Education at the University College London’s Institute of Education, joined her and her team. Data drawn from 3,100 families who participated in the study led the team to this conclusion: “shared music-making at the age of 2–3 years correlates positively with increased school readiness, pro-social skills, and literacy and numeracy outcomes at age 4–5.” That’s some powerful evidence in favor of music!
WHAT DO SHARED MUSICAL EXPERIENCES LOOK LIKE?
The research team included many examples of the types of musical activities parents and children did together. Beyond citing the evidence necessary in a research report, this gives parents some great ideas! Here is a sampling:
Parents and children made up simple songs to sing together during routines, such as bath time or meal time.
Parents put simple tunes to the words they used to describe what they were doing with children while doing those things—whether it was building with blocks, walking in nature, or dressing to go somewhere. So, rather than simply commenting on how good the warm sun feels, parents might sing about it to a familiar tune like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”: Shiny, shiny sun so high, shiny, shiny in the sky. Thanks for warming us today. You make it nice for us to play. Shiny, shiny sun so high, shiny, shiny in the sky.
Parents and children made up movements and danced together while listening to music.
Parents and children figured out how to make instruments like rattles and drums using things around the house, then played them together.
One particularly interesting finding stemmed from the fact that the research team was careful to include parents who ranged from “not at all musical” to “play a musical instrument” in the study. No matter what the parents’ musical background or comfort with making music, the shared musical experiences with their children had positive outcomes.
So don’t let any discomfort you might have get in the way of enjoying musical experiences with your child! Music brings joy. Period.
WHAT ELSE WAS INTERESTING ABOUT THE STUDY?
Dr. Barrett and her team became especially fascinated with the idea that purposeful shared musical experiences had a bonus effect…on the parents! She saw clear signs of something she is calling “musical parenting.” She theorizes that music leads to great opportunities for parent-child bonding. She believes it can help to “foster stronger family relationships.” So stay tuned for more research coming out of the Barrett team providing statistical support for this belief!
Meanwhile, don’t let any time pass before making shared musical experiences as important in your family life as reading aloud hopefully already is. You’re already engaging in this way through Kindermusik classes, but don’t forget your Kindermusik Online at-home materials. And enroll now in our Summermusik classes or pick out your Fall class, and keep that music happening year-round.
Simultaneous action, development, or occurrence. The state of operating or developing according to the same time scale as something else. “Some individuals do not remain in synchrony with the twenty-four-hour day”
–Google Dictionary
(For the similarly named song by The Police, click here.)
In human development terms, synchrony is the dance that happens between babies and caregivers, right around three months of age. In highly technical terms, it’s what makes adults go completely ga-ga when a baby smiles at them—suddenly, we get huge smiles on our faces and we start talking like we forgot all those grammar lessons from fourth grade.
Come into a Sing and Play Kindermusik class and observe the way moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas interact with their babies. Synchrony abounds. It is part of why Kindermusik is about developing the whole child, in this case, social skills.
Kathleen S. Berger, in her human development book, Invitation to the Life Span (2014), writes:
“One study found that those mothers who took longer to bathe, feed, and diaper their infants were also most responsive. Apparently, some parents combine caregiving with emotional play, which takes longer but also allows more synchrony” (pg. 141).
Interestingly the adults are the ones who imitate the babies, not the other way around. This explains why newborn babies don’t elicit the same response from us. They get plenty of oooh’s and aaaah’s, but no peek-a-boo games.
What happens when we don’t react this way, when we don’t give the kids this attention? Ed Tronick, the chief researcher on the still-face technique, shows us (fair warning, it might be really hard not to reach through the computer and give the child some love, but rest assured it doesn’t last long, and ends well):
So, obviously, this is something that comes naturally to us as caregivers, whether or not we’re enrolled in a Kindermusik class. But Kindermusik has given me is a large array of songs that I can sing to help slow me down during those routines and to engage in this responsiveness cycle with my children. I can spontaneously burst into a rendition of “Bubbles,” while I’m bathing them, “I See You,” when doing a peek-a-boo game, or “Little Red Wagon,” when I’m bouncing one of them on my lap waiting for the oil to get changed. And, gratefully, these are songs that I can actually tolerate listening to while we’re driving (unlike Other-CD’s-That-Must-Not-Be-Named).
And, as I have said before, I especially love coming to class and having that time with them there. While I strive for it daily with my kids, it is the one place where I can come and just be truly present with them—no laundry to worry about, homework to get done, or kitchen floors to mop.
