Free Essay Example: Music's Influence on Infant Development

Scientific research has established that listening to music during childhood accelerates brain development (Klingberg, Hans, and Helena 2). It quickly develops a minor's emotional and overall literacy by learning bout sounds as well as the meaning of words. It also helps in their mental development by strengthening their memory skills. Thus exposure to music can be instrumental in a child's mental development. Music is an essential asset of child development. It is useful in igniting all areas of child development and the skills that they need for school readiness inclusive of intellectual, socio-emotional, language, motor, and general literacy. In other ways, it helps the body and the mind work together. When children are exposed to music in their early development years, they are helped to learn the sounds as well as the meaning of words.

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Infants

Parents and caregivers are advised to provide infants with quiet background music as the infant sleeps (Baker, & Mackinlay, 147-160). It is also advisable that an adult should sing simple short songs when engaging with them in daily activities like during bath time, dressing, or when feeding them. Singing helps in the development of an infant as they instinctively try to mimic sounds they hear around them.

Toddlers and school-going children

This age grade needs music that encourages the use of words and memorization. A parent (or caregiver) can use humor and theatrical props to capture their full. Parents are encouraged to sing songs that they learn in school or at home. For school-going children, it prefer to stick to the songs they are taught at school. For this age range, it is advisable to incorporate sing-alongs that involve counting numbers and spelling words in a sequential manner. This encourages their cognitive and memory skills. This age group is very responsive to music that has play elements. It is advisable that when engaging with a toddler or a school-going child using music, parents may use educational cartoons or musical plays that teach children life skills.

Practical examples

Lullaby songs are often to soothe the child into sleep. They boost their brain development and boost their emotional and social skills. These songs are sung during bedtime. Different aspects of music are incorporated to help provide a quiet environment needed for the child to sleep. The pitch and low intonation help make the song soothing. The child's sensory nerves relax due to the rhythm flow of the song. Parents don't need the voice of an angel to put their kids to bed. A song like, "Twinkle, twinkle little star" has stood the test of time. What makes it famous is the truth it speaks. Children look up to the sky trying to understand the stars. The song is sung in the night when looking out through a window admiring the celestial spheres Toddlers and school children respond to music when they are actively involved in it. Toddlers are enthusiastic and possess a lot of energy for play.

A song such as "Baa, Baa, and black sheep" is an excellent example to use for kids of this age. The songs share simple motion and dances. Moreover, the use of silly sounds like that made of a sheep makes it memorable. The song is one of the most familiar among many toddlers. For young ones, their parent's lap seen to be a great place for both movements. Moreover, parents can introduce mimics and props to make the song memorable.

The rhyme in the song makes it even easier to master. The toddler can be encouraged to help bang out a rhythm during musical plays. Extended tapping invites the child for more play. Musical plays boost their social skills and knowledge towards cognitive skills (Schlaug et al., 219). They are teaching songs that incorporate fun. Theatricals are common among musical plays. Moreover, humor is an important factor. This puts a smile to the toddler boosting their enthusiasm levels.

Teaching "twinkle, twinkle little stars" involves a lot of rhyming using sequential words that share the same vowels. As a teaching aid, it can be complemented by the use of visual aids like charts. Or the parent and child can draw star shapes as they sing the song. This activity boosts the child's intellectual capabilities, especially when as part of the exercise, the child is challenged to draw shapes that are not star-shaped.

In my opinion, "Baa baa black sheep" is a good learning song for children. The song teaches them language skills. It uses various intonations and mimicking. Using mimicking is reported as one of the best ways to enhance a child's memory. Children love animals and that is why "Baa baa black sheep" never grows old. It works on all children. It helps them relate to the content of the song.

Singing lullabies requires the use of low voice intonation and constant repetition. Children's hearing senses are very strong. Parents could improvise by including objects around a child in the "twinkle, twinkle" song that is shiny to describe a star. For example, "twinkle bright like a diamond in the sky". A parent could also incorporate the definition of things or animals on the ground (e.g. a bonfire or firefly). Repetition could make a child lose

interest. In "baa, baa black sheep" the adult can introduce other animal sounds. For instance, adding "woof! Woof!" for a dog. The child can learn about other animals apart from the sheep.

In phonetics, vocables like "ba", "dee", and "la" give a child tonality without the distraction of words, absent of rhythm. They are in the process of learning how to construct words for themselves. They tend to come up with the easiest words to pronounce. They will become increasingly language ready. It is important to add more words to the movements they are in the habit of making. A parent should encourage the development of rhythm by tapping of feet, drumming, and musical objects as the child sing. This will secure their full engagement.

Conclusions

Children learn from imitating their parents and other adults in their life like teachers. Music is an important tool for adults to help children develop intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Music has a strong influence on the development of young children. Incorporating music into everyday learning activities makes the child develop mentally as they can remember the lessons they learned because they remember the songs associated with the lessons. Standard activities such as learning personal hygiene, dressing, and eating etiquette by incorporating music.

Works Cited

Baker, Felicity, and Elizabeth Mackinlay. "Sing, soothe and sleep A lullaby education program for first-time mothers." British Journal of music education 23.2 (2006): 147-160.

Klingberg, Torkel, Hans Forssberg, and Helena Westerberg. "Increased brain activity in frontal and parietal cortex underlies the development of visuospatial working memory capacity during childhood." Journal of cognitive neuroscience 14.1 (2002): 1-10.

Schlaug, Gottfried, et al. "Effects of music training on the child's brain and cognitive development." ANNALS-NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 1060 (2005): 219.