Recognizing Pitch Helps Language Skills

At Kindermusik, we know music has positive effects on early childhood development and language acquisition.  And when there’s new research to prove it, we get more excited!

Language Development in Children

Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk

New research, reported this week in Science Daily suggests that babies who are able to recognize pitch could also detect language rules, even better than adults. Scientists found that “when it comes to extracting complex rules from spoken language, a three-month-old outperforms adult learners”.

By monitoring babies’ brain responses, scientists were able to determine that infants detected discrepancies with language rules just by hearing changes in syllables or pitch.

“These findings not only help understand how children manage to learn language so quickly during early development, but also point to a strong link between very basic auditory skills and sophisticated rule learning abilities.”

So, next time you’re at Kindermusik class with your little one, think about all the different changes in pitch and tone your child is exposed to – this is actively supporting your child’s language development skills.

The Joy of Music

Music is unique to humans, and as basic as language to human development and existence.  It is through music that a child gains insight into herself, into others, and into life itself.  Perhaps most importantly, music is part of what enables a child to better develop and sustain her creativity and imagination.  Because a day does not pass without hearing or participating in some kind of music, it is to a child’s advantage to understand music as thoroughly as she can.  As a result, she will learn to appreciate, listen to, and partake in music all the rest of her life (adapted from Gordon, 1990).

Ideas for parents:

It can be very simple to surround your child with music – the greater the variety, the better! 

• Singing simple songs together can get the morning off to a great start.
• Child-safe instruments and some recorded music can provide happy times of self-entertainment or together time.
• Quiet, soothing music before naps and bedtime establishes a wonderfully reassuring sleep time routine.
• A dance around the kitchen can soothe the supper-time “fussies.”
• A cuddle and a lullaby at the end of the day adds the sweetest and happiest of memorable moments.

A little Brain Power!!

We know music has many benefits, especially for the way kids learn and how a child’s brain develops. So we get excited about supportive research like this study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience:

Even A Few Years Of Music Training Benefits The Brain.

A team of researchers at Northwestern University, including the well-known Nina Kraus, share findings on the benefits of early childhood music education.

“…Childhood music instructionhas strong linguistic benefits and improves performance on everyday listening tasks. Since we live in an inherently noisy world, the better we are at focusing on sound and perceiving different sounds, the better. This can be particularly important for children with learning disorders or those for whom English is a second language.”

Through this study and other research, here are some known benefits of music training:

Improves hearing

Bolsters brain function

Strengthens reading skills

Increases math abilities

Improves social development

Helps people become better team players

Supports self-esteem

Our mission at Kindermusik, to instill a lifelong love of music and a foundation for learning in children, completely aligns with this research. We are especially thrilled about the quote from Nina Kraus, supporting the concept that even little exposure to music as can go a long way…

“Based on what we already know about the ways that music helps shape the brain, the study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning,” said Kraus.

Pattern Awareness

Pattern awareness is crucial to learning and memory. Just as in reading stories, singing and rhythmic speech expose participants directly to the patterns of language, including rhythm, speech sounds, syntax, and rhyme.

Tips for parents:

Patterns are all around – outdoors, indoors, in colors, how we arrange items on the counter or table, and even on the clothes we wear. With patterns surrounding us, it’s easy to play “pick up” pattern games with your child. First, point to the pattern. Have your child identify the individual parts. Then work together to point out how it all goes together. If there are objects that can be moved, you can even challenge your child to create some patterns of his own.