Parent

Music and Your Young Child's Brain

For parent participants in our Music and the Brain workshop, here are some helpful resources for parents of young children:

125 Brain Games for Babies: simple Games to Promote Early Brain Development by Jackie Silberg (Gryphon 2000)

125 Brain Games for Toddlers and Two: simple games to promote early brain development by Jackie Silberg (Gryphon 2000)

Cycle Seasons (Winter, Summer, Fall) CD’s

Some Brain Facts to remember:

· Infant massage can help both parent and child relax. Choose a time when you are both calm and ready to focus on each other. Encompassing touch—wrapping around arms and legs—is the most soothing. Gently move your hand from body center outward, giving attention to each finger and toe. Classes may be available through clinics, hospitals or Family Resource Center.

· Your touch and voice are your child’s most effective learning and bonding tool.

· Talk through your entire day with your child, naming activities and objects.

· Repetition, rhythm and rhyme prepare your child for learning and eventually reading. Plan play breaks, adding music and movement for even more fun.

· Movement and music add staying power to everything your child learns.

· Even before your child understands the words or pictures, he or she is learning to feel safe and secure, laying the foundation to take risks learning new things as they grow.

· Hold him or her and read, read, read—add rocking for a bonus for both of you.

· Enjoy!

You are awesome parents! Please take time to enjoy these hectic times with your child.

The B.R.A.I.N. Team (Brain Research Awareness Integration Network) of Eau Claire County

http://www.frcec.org/programs.htm

Connections of the Heart LLC

www.ourbrainbuddies.com

sandi@ourbrainbuddies.com

Posted Nov 19 2009, 01:18 PM by Sandi with no comments

Filed under: Infant Massage, Brain Development, Relationships, Play, Touch, Music

Music: A Parent's Tool For Children's Brain Development

Raising a child is incredibly complicated, regardless of their age. So many challenges, so few tools! Actually, you are already preparing your child’s brain for a healthy, happy life in ways you may never have considered. Music has a special place in brain development, managing emotions, learning to read and building relationships.

Emotions in the Brain:

The child's brain receives the world through the senses, recording each small selected piece, or memory, with a feeling tag. An enjoyable original experience increases the likelihood of recall due to the “fun” branding. When we’re happy, the brain is relaxed and open to the environment. When distressed, the Amydala in the midbrain attaches a warning to the memory. That threat becomes a “red flag” when the memory is recalled. Anxiety grabs the brain and shuts it down. Children may then react in surprising ways when things happen, making it difficult for parents to help or even understand. Music, patience and gentleness may soothe their discomfort even without understanding the actual cause.

Music for Stress Management

Music can help children deal with their emotions. Choosing the right type of music can change the child’s mood, as well as your own. Finding the right artist or type of music to match your child’s needs will require patience, practice and gentle support; but it is often rewarding for both you and your child.

For example, Classical Baroque music —calming works by Mozart, Bach, Brahms-- has 60 beats per minute, similar to a resting heartbeat. Even as a background, it can soothe a stressful situation, prepare children for bed, or relieve stress making it easier to think and solve problems. On the other hand, lively marches rev them up, when high energy is the goal. Having several choices available will help you deal with parenting challenges.

Music from the Beginning

Mother’s heartbeat makes rhythm a part of baby’s existence from the start. They naturally rock infants, either sitting in a chair or standing. This is a built-in reaction to baby’s need for comforting rhythm and repetition, even without music. Add a melody, and it becomes fun for both mother and child. Dancing with babies brings laughter and creates bonding. Toddlers like bobbing up and down while standing next to furniture, banging pots and pans, or using rhythm instruments. Preschoolers enjoy marching, and circle games. Noticing these behaviors gives parents a wonderful clue and perhaps an invitation to join the little ones in the fun. Go ahead! This is the child’s work, and it’s even more effective when the adults join in. Sitting on the floor making “music” together teaches them that they are important to you.

Left to right motion helps the two sides of the brain work together. We all get better results by using the whole brain. Repeatedly beginning on the left and moving to the right builds the habit they’ll need for reading. The combination of rhythm, rhyme, and repetition prepare your child for learning.

Rhythm, Rhyme and Repetition Lead to Learning

Have you noticed how children want the same stories read over and over again—never tiring of them? For a child to learn to use a word, they must hear it in context 200 times.[1] That explains a lot! Singing rhyming songs, repeating finger plays and even playing peek-a-boo helps them learn behaviors through repetition. Adding small muscle movement in finger plays, and involving the entire body in “Ring around the Rosy” anchors the learning in the cerebellum, or “little brain”. Giggles often erupt when they anticipate the next “motion” after they’ve played games again and again.

Music contributes foundations within the brain for reading which continually develop in tiny stages. The rhythm of talking, listening, and repeating words or movements help them learn language patterns. A steady beat, repeated phrases and note patterns create stronger connections in the brain, boosting language development.

Bedtime Bonding

Reading stories together at bedtime may be the very best way to boost children’s brain power while building wonderful relationships. Tracing printed words with fingers while reading aloud builds connections with meaning. Bedtime reading offers comforting touch, rhythm, possibly repetition and rhyme, and becomes a very important ritual to help calm them, preparing for rest and sleep. Consistent routine makes the process automatic.

As They Grow

Some researchers believe that brain functions involved in learning to play an instrument may prepare the brain to perform math tasks. It would make sense, since music is built in mathematical chunks with melody added. Practicing music and repeatedly playing exercises creates connections in their brain. This creates self discipline which serves children well as they grow, discover and develop their own strengths and abilities. Self esteem also grows with competence.

Relationships can be supported by playing music at home instead of TV. It can be more calming and encourage conversation. Attending concerts and plays together and having favorite music at home become delightful traditions. My heart warms whenever my children tell me about their favorite memories. Many of them seem to be wrapped in music. Christmas carols, birthday songs, singing and dancing around the living room together come up time and again. What could you do today to make memories and build your child’s brain?

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SIDEBARS: (332 words)

Toddlers

Say, sing and learn Nursery Rhymes, Finger Plays
Combine singing with touch and bedtime stories before bed
Repeat songs and stories over and over
Sing nonsense phrases- with music everything makes sense.
Make and play with instruments from everyday containers
Dance and move to music for fun and bonding
Start and stop activities to the music, teaching self control without preaching or scolding.