Fostering Creativity in Children’s learning
Development of children both intellectually and psychologically is a systematic cycle that requires the collaboration between different social and environmental factors. Music is one such influence to the development of a child’s brain. By making an analysis of different academic materials, it will be easier to determine the true effects of music and arts to child’s development. The study will make it possible to understand the impacts of such approaches to a child’s academic and creativity and hence determine their effectiveness towards enhancing proper brain development.
According to Shore and Strasser (2006), music influences how children think during their development periods. The research that was conducted by the two individuals illustrate that children who are exposed to different kinds of music develop a creative mind that is reflected in their future years (Gordon, 2003). First, the concept of associating the musical content with reality and replicating the beats into other issues is a clear indication of a child’s development. Music is known to affect the neuro-connections in the brain and this triggers attentiveness, creativity and alertness, some of the most important elements of learning.
A child’s brain forms musical patterns even in the absence of music. This is because music rhymes up activities and integrates a flow of activities, exactly what the child needs for proper growth. In this context, when music is thus introduced into these patterns, it triggers discovery of other important elements and transfers cognitive and creative elements to other parts of the brain (Saracho, 2006). This however requires that the time for introducing the music to be well planned in order to match the brain patterns associated with creativity and alertness.
The first sense to develop ion an individual is hearing. Hearing must have several coordinative sequences in order to be reflected in actions. What children hears is reflected either as an exaggeration in actions or as a reflection to the exact contents in the sounds so heard. For the sense to develop comprehensively, an advanced step must be taken (Harris, 2009). This then requires that care-providers overlook the functions of lullabies and child songs. Complex music should be introduced to the children as they develop rather than sticking on the simpler and child-oriented songs that are meant to either sooth or make a child happy.
Complex songs are said to perform a lot of functions within a child’s head. Firstly, a complex form comes with different languages and tone compositions. The change in styles also makes the songs to sound unique and original. This is what is required to foster growth. To start with, children have been known to adopt various languages in their early life by merely being introduced to such languages in their early stages. When a child hears different languages, they develop an urge to grasp more of this new phenomenon and they end up developing bilingual or even multilingual skills.
In complex music, the approach is the same. The different tunes and styles enhance the creativity of a child (Runfola, 2005). The brain gets different styles and arranges them in a manner that causes the creativity lobes to be more active in order to grasp all the concepts that are brought forward. Language sophistication makes the brain to be alert of new things to come and this influences the child to have a sophisticated mind in order to grasp all the new elements that are bound top come. With the brain improving, so does the associated creativity and other associated skills like diction, pronunciation and comprehension.
With these literary skills, a child’s development is fostered and the resultant effect is having a brighter kid in future. Although some genres like the lullabies and some other child songs help in development, the challenge to the brain is generally low. Some complex music like baroque had beats that rhymed with the heart beats, from these rhymes it is easier to develop a connection between the song and the body activities. In addition, these songs required accompaniments.
Song accompaniments are some of the beat learning tools for a child. This is because they requires the coordination of all parts of the body and keeps the brain super active. When a child is introduces d into musical instruments lessons, they develop a certain imaginative and coordinative behavior that is very important and effective during their future lives (Anning, & Edwards, 2006). Music can be integrated with other curriculum activities in order to develop an al-round capability within a child. Firstly, music can be integrated with mathematics in order to develop some basic concepts of mathematics. The beats in music require proper counting and following up of all the syllables, and tones within a song.
Many of the concepts behind music is that, it integrates very many cognitive and educative concepts. Music has many functions and elements. Firstly, it soothes the brain and hence prepares the mind to make decisive and creative reasoning. It makes the brain alert in order top acquire the expected information from the song. This then means that music influences the manner in which children interpret the information given to the, either in their childhood stage or in years to come.
Music has been used in many countries across the globe to foster the development of a child. Greece, for example is one such country that is known to have used music for many years to the developing children in order to enhance the cognitive and academic capabilities in a child. The studies which were conducted associated music major student with very high academic potentials, especially if they had been introduced to music at an early age (Shonkoff, & Phillips, 2000). From the above concepts, it is clear that music is one of the best formulas towards fostering growth and development in a child. The children, who are known to have been introduced to music at an early age, have been known to develop important academic talents especially in creativity, comprehension and coordination.
Coordination is enhanced if the children are encouraged to participate in practical lessons (New, & Cochran, 2008). Either in clapping or in playing the instruments, practical music makes the children to be alert and makes the brain to register some important concepts that are vital in coordination. in round songs for example, student’s are required to follow a musical pattern that starts from one end and smoothly flows throughout the crowd. Knowing the right time to chip into the song depends on the creativity, coordination and counting skills since the beats determines the exact time to get into the song.
From the ideas given by Shore and Strasser (2006), I can attest to the theory that music is good for the development of the child’s brain. The reason for this approach is based on the functions of the brain in relation to the senses in a human body. Some of the most important senses in learning are sight and hearing. Hearing develops as one of the first senses. This is because, as the child develops, it lacks an understanding of sight interpretation. In most cases, a child does not recognize the essence and the use of the things which he/or she sees. The child therefore depends on sounds to recognize some important events like happiness and anger depending on the tone and the rhythm with which the sound is presented.
Music is used even at the child’s earliest stage to sooth a child to sleep, stop to cry or as a distraction in child-upbringing. This is exactly what the child associates with. If this concept is introduced during the later stages of a child’s development, then the same effects are bound to be experienced. Instead of using the lullabies to make the child sleep, music can be used to build a bank of vocabularies, phrases, tunes and even some other important literary elements (Anning, & Edwards, 2006). With these functions in place, complex music can then be used to increase the creativity and coordination within a child. For this reason, although music alone cannot increase the academic achievements in a child’s future life, it can of great help when preparing a child to start taking formal classes.
Instruments and practical approaches are of great help in coordination (Mayesky, 2009). The brain has many functions and it is usually prepared to undertake vary many activities. The best time to develop the receptors of these activities is not during the child’s later life, but rather during the initial stage when the child’s brain is developing. When the brain starts to receive complex information to comprehend and execute, it develops larger and more active sites within it to deal with such complexities. This therefore creates some active sites in the brain that are to tackle such similar complexities in future. This means that music is very effective in developing the coordination and other academically-related issues. Creating an active brain starts during a child’s development period. When the child’s brain is left idle during its childhood period, it develops at a slower rate.
This is because the brain has fewer things to execute and only uses instincts to determine what factors may follow that may require execution. This means that the child receives slowed growth and this may influence the future academic and cognitive capabilities. Although there is other equally effective methods of enhancing development like play and peer influence, music is unique in its way of influencing brain development. The brain develops in manners that touches each point and influences the manner in which points within the body communicate and integrates. Music uses the temporary knowledge to make –out the differences between difference styles, beats and tunes. The special temporal knowledge helps in working out puzzles and other hard structures. Since the children are in a position to differentiate the different messages within the songs, they use the same knowledge to interpret other complex issues.
There are some issues that are used in the development of talents within the developing children. Music bubbling and tagging on, are some of the most effective means of enhancing coordination. This is because the children learn how to associate their musical experiences with other life issues. Tagging on involves toddler’s behavior of following the songs they hear at the end of the beat and at the end of the songs. This following of bits makes the child to coordinate more on the song and this coordination increases perceptive skills that are very important in establishing other equally important skills that are very important in development.
According to National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, music enhances social and cognitive skills. One of its major influences is in enhancing interactions between individuals and especially in children. Children have many responses to musical notes and tunes. Just like in the early stages, childcare providers use music for the enhancement of the response behaviors in children. A connection between these childcare providers and the children influences the connection between the children and their parents. Infants therefore are very much influenced by the music that they hear during their development stages (Shavinina, 2003). On the part of cognitive development, toddlers and other children are influenced by the music that they hear. The brain development of the children are said to develop mostly during their early ages. In fact, it has been said that the brain develops by 80% when the child is small. For this reason, influencing its growth through increased stimulation and triggering it with music makes the development greater and well prepared for the later years.
According to Rauscher (2003), music enhances cognitive development. One of the major issues involved with this fact is its influence to special-temporal ability. Music enhances the special-temporal tasks like making important decisions on challenging tasks like mathematics and other puzzles. This capability is mostly enhanced by including some musical concepts like learning styles and accompaniments. The accompaniments make coordination to be very easy and this concept has been known to greatly influence the brain’s development.
According to the study, many children have been known to respond in a very fast manner to the musical experiences. Cognitive response and special-temporal abilities were realized within a child within a very short time and this means that there were very many positive influences of music in a child’s development period.
Keith (2011) also asserts that there are many benefits associated with teaching music to developing children. Firstly, the research connects medical explanation with the child’s development. The neurological aspects that are associated with music have been found to effectively enhance the mathematical ability of students. This is through listening and participating in musical issues. For this reason, music is a very good and effective approach towards a child’s development in creativity and cognitive skills.
According to a research published by the Oxford University Press (2006), there was enough evidence to show that music influenced the developments in children. The research attests to the fact that introducing children to music at an early age influenced their cognitive and coordination skills. These children were found to improve the child’s creativity in terms of melody, rhythm and differentiation of musical tunes.
Fisch (2004) also attests to the fact that music affects the development of the children and especially in creativity and cognitive behaviors. Firstly, the music that is played on television and other media houses is absorbed by the children more due to the television influence. This music comes in different styles, genres and tunes. This brings out complexities in the types of music being experienced by the children the differences in these musical compositions creates a creative brain that tries to conceptualize each style of music being played on television and other media houses. The complexities that are present in these different music styles enhance creativity, coordination and improve special-temporal abilities.
Overall (2007), claims in that music and especially Mozart was found to have increased influences to spatial temporal skills. Basing the arguments on some predetermined tests on rats, the findings illustrate that listening to music by developing children enhances their skills and makes them to be better placed than their peer in future education levels.
Another research by Gordon (2003), also attest to the medical fact that the music aptitude develops more in younger children than in older ones. Due to this fact, when young children are exposed to music at this age, their bodies develop at the same rate and this influences the rate of cognitive development.
In conclusion, the issue of using music to enhance the development of creativity among children is an effective way that has been used for many years to foster growth and development. From the many researches that have been conducted, it is certain that listening and participating in musically-related activities can influence the imaginative, cognitive and spatial temporal tasks that are relevant for growth.
References
Anning, A., & Edwards, A. (2006). Promoting children's learning from birth to five: Developing the new early year’s professional. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International.
Fisch, S. M. (2004). Children's learning from educational television: Sesame Street and beyond. Mahwah, NJ: Taylor & Francis.
Gordon, E. (2003). A music learning theory for newborn and young children. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications, Inc.
Harris, M. (2009). Music and the young mind: enhancing brain development and engaging learning. Plymouth, UK: R&L Education.
Keith, K. L. (2011). Music and Learning. Retrieved from http://childparenting.about.com/cs/k6education/a/mozarteffect.htm
Mayesky, M. (2009). Creative Activities for Young Children. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. (2011). Music: A Natural Connection to Children's Growth and Development. Retrieved from http://www.childcareaware.org/en/subscriptions/dailyparent/volume.php?id=46
New, R. S. & Cochran, M. (2008). Early Childhood Education: The countries. New York, NY: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Overall, Lyn. (2007). Supporting children's learning: a guide for teaching assistants. London, UK: SAGE.
Oxford University Press (2006, September 20). First Evidence That Musical Training Affects Brain Development In Young Children. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/09/060920093024.htm
Rauscher, F.H. (2003). Can Music Instruction Affect Children's Cognitive Development? ERIC Digest. Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-3/cognitive.html
Runfola, M. (2005). The Development and practical application of music learning theory. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications, Inc.
Saracho, O. N. (2006). Handbook of research on the education of young children. Mahwah, NJ: Taylor & Francis
Shavinina, L. V. (2003). The international handbook on innovation. London, UK: Elsevier.
Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: the science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academies Press
