Neuromusical Evidence
Hello and welcome to Boogie Mites! If you haven’t already heard of us, we are an early years music provider. It is our mission to provide early years practitioners and families the knowledge, resources, and confidence to harness the brain boosting fun of music making each and every day. So, what do we mean by ‘brain boosting’? We have put years of research into the effects of music on the brain of early years children and along the way have created some strong partnerships such as with the world renowned neuromusical educator and researcher, Dr Anita Collins. Below you can find a few key findings:
The first significant studies on adults found that music created brain activity all over the brain whereas most activities only produced flickers of activity in one or two areas. Neuroscientists wanted to study this further and between 2000-2010 they conducted bigger studies that showed that musicians brains worked faster, more accurately and efficiently than non-musicians.
Post 2010 the findings have only become more and more robust. One study with randomised participant selection found that those taking part in regular music practise had significantly higher language skills and also a better ability to plan, strategise, solve problems, manage emotion, behave empathetically and be kinder to their peers. So, it’s clear that music has incredible effects on the brains of adults but is this replicated for those in early years (aged 0-5)?
Studies with 3-4 year olds show us that for the brain to process the component parts of language a huge number of messages need to fire around the brain and they use the same circuit of neural pathways that are developed through regular music practice in early years. The findings of a research study by Dr Nina Kraus at Northwestern University, Illinois has found biological evidence linking music, rhythmic abilities and language skills – specifically linking the ability to keep a beat to the neural encoding of speech sounds.
These findings provide evidence that supports music activities in early years as a powerful tool for boosting development, including as an intervention for closing the attainment gap. It’s important to start children’s musical journey through life as early as possible meaning that they gain the full spectrum of benefits associated. Children in their early years do not need to read notation or play classical instruments to harness the benefits, they can develop melodic and rhythmic awareness through playing with pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm and keep the beat with moving, singing, shaking, tapping and banging activities. We recommend incorporating these activities into your children’s daily routines to receive the most from them.
If you are interested to hear more join our upcoming online training workshop. Boogie Mites will be co-presenting a training workshop with Dr Anita Collins in June which we’d love you to attend, or obtain the recording. You can find out more here:
https://www.boogiemites.co.uk/shop/neuromusical-evidence-and-early-years-music-workshop/
We hope that we have provided some interesting insights into the power of music for boosting your child’s development. Our Core Music programme online training packs include full training course and neuroscience training videos presented by Dr Anita Collins, find out more on our blog launching them here: https://www.boogiemites.co.uk/new-self-paced-packages/
If you’d like to know more about Boogie Mites please visit our website www.boogiemites.co.uk or get in contact with us via sue@boogiemites.co.uk .
The information in this article is provided by Boogie Mites and does not represent Morton Michel.