Music and Learning

Abstract

Naturally, children love music, respond to it and have the ability to feel the beats of music. Music has a great impact on a psychology. Due to these facts, music is important for early childhood development, and also for improving learning skills of a child. In this paper, we will discuss the main impact which the music and musical games can have on the learning capabilities of children. The paper will analyze how the innovations in technology integrated with music can facilitate the learning processes.

Childhood and Learning

Childhood is the most challenging period of life, in which every new activity provides an opportunity to learn and develop the cognitive abilities. It is the period in which the physical, mental and emotional foundations are built, and children learn to do various things. They learn how gestures can be used to communicate messages and represent actions. Right after the birth, an infant starts various movements and young children can perform and recognize general and basic actions including walking, swimming, or playing piano. Children not only enjoy different gestures and body movements but also develop problem solving skills through various cognitive processes that will be discussed in this paper. Naturally, music and movement connect to each other. Therefore, children respond to music through their dynamic movements. Infants are fundamentally sensitive to the dynamics of sounds. They normally respond and pay attention to loud music. As infants grow to toddlers, they are able to listen to different genres of music and respond actively to the familiar songs. As movement is a necessity for an infant or a toddler, in order to be active, music stimulates such movement. Therefore, it can be said that music has a great impact on learning capabilities (Gell, 1973).

Justification by Various Researches

Researchers have shown that music plays a vital role in developing the cognitive skills of the children (Bishop, et.al, 2001). It activates the biological system by stimulating the brain, emotions, and the body simultaneously. According to Wilson, (2007) if music is used in a constructive way, it can have positive effects on a child's learning capabilities (p. 12). Music holds various constituents for the developing mind of children and helps in the development of skills for speech, expression and movement. For example, the children who are involved in free play in the school playgrounds are more likely to have in depth understanding about cross cultural environments (Bishop, et.al, 2001). On the other hand, the children who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders are usually overwhelmed by sensory input. Music helps them to organize their experience and remain involved with the world around them.

According to Barnett, (1973) a child's early years are a crucial period for exposure to the arts. According to the findings of the latest research by Advanced Brain Technologies, (2012), at the time of birth, the brain development is partially unfinished. The growth of brain considerably depends upon the stimuli which a child receives during the early childhood, due to the fact that the ...