Why is music so important for child development?
Happy Staff • December 14, 2023
Music and songs are wonderful and essential parts of students' everyday routine. Music is used during morning greeting time, free play, clean up, lunch, and dismissal time. Music and songs play a large role in helping students learn English. Also students are able to practice speaking English through singing songs. They learn how to correctly use words, and increase their vocabulary. At Hisaya International Preschool, we use a popular song called "Clean Up!" by Super Simple Songs to signal the end of free play and encourage our students to clean up their toys. Once we play this song, toys start flying into their storage bins!
In the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare's Guidelines for Early Childhood Education Services, musical expression is one of its listed "(2) Goals and Contents Related to Education" under "Expressions". The objective of "Expressions" is "to nurture children's creativity and ability to express emotions". In order to achieve this goal, three purposes have been established.
- Provide ample opportunities for the five senses to experience different sensations
- Encourage expression of emotions and thoughts
- Broaden sensibility and imagination through everyday life and play
In order to achieve these aims, educators and people related to early childhood education have the responsibility to create opportunities for children to "have fun through moving their bodies to music and rhythm", "sing songs and play playground games using their hands and/or whole body".
Maria Montessori, the founder of the Montessori pedagogy, stated that ages 2-6 is a critical time period to help shape children's sense of music and rhythm. Through interacting with music during these years, children are able to develop basic music skills such as singing along with the rhythm or matching pitch. Learning basic music skills also positively affects how other skills develop as well, such as mathematical or linguistic.
At Hisaya International Preschool, we use Montessori inspired methods and government guidelines to choose music that suits the needs and aids the development of our students. Our hope is that through frequent interactions with music and songs, our students can accelerate their development and also develop a love of music from a young age.
