Dennie Wolf, in partnership with Carnegie Hall Institute, offers a wonderful explanation of the importance of music for early learners:
“The more we learn, the clearer it becomes that live music can play a powerful role in this development from the very start.
Early childhood—from birth to age five—is a remarkable period in human development. At one year old, a baby’s brain is 70 percent of its adult size; at three years, it has reached 85 percent and is already crisscrossed by the connections that provide for human thought and communication. Live music—and the human interaction that accompanies it—is one of the most intense, multi-sensory, and physically involving activities in which young children and their caregivers can engage together.
Making music—especially if it includes tapping, clapping, bouncing, and dancing—can develop fine and large motor control. Even simple games, songs, and back-and-forth play, build brain and body coordination. If older children play an instrument, these kinds of growth continue. All this builds important connections across the many regions of the brain needed to carry out the complex actions and interactions humans require in order to thrive.
Music also builds intimacy. Young children build some of the most important relationships in their lives as infants and toddlers. If they are lucky enough to have caring and responsive caregivers, they develop a sense of security, the feeling that they will be followed, cared for, and protected, even as they explore new activities, take risks, make mistakes, and recover. Music can support these intimate exchanges. For example, when caregivers sing lullabies, they use pitch, rhythm, and lyrics to soothe, teach language, communicate hope and affection, and provide security as a child goes from wakefulness to sleep, or light to dark.”
