Language development through music and movement

Music calms and stimulates

How does a mother calm her baby when she is crying or unable to fall asleep? She sings and gently rocks it in her arms. This wonderful example shows how closely language, movement and music are connected. Language is an elementary form of expression in children. It develops over many years into a complete spoken language with correct grammar, an extensive vocabulary and excellent language comprehension. There is a long way to go, with parents supporting their children in a playful way with music and movement. Nurseries and kindergartens also base many of their educational pillars on music. Not without reason.

Children are immediately drawn to music. Babies can already hear their mother’s language and voices from the environment while they are still in the womb. Many expectant mothers place music boxes on their tummy to introduce their child to a soothing tune before birth. As soon as the child is born, a mother intuitively sings and rocks the baby when it needs to be comforted. Later, a combination of music and movement is an ideal companion for a child’s language, motor and cognitive development. It also promotes the social behavior of a child. Music, language and movement are simply part of a child’s upbringing as a unit.
Also Read: Introducing Music to Children

How does music help children learn to speak?

As soon as music starts playing, children start to move. They sing, dance and laugh. They know no prejudices and quickly get involved with new things. Through music, children learn to develop a feeling for language. Through the rhythm in songs, but also in verses and poems, they develop a certain speech melody. They find it easier to set priorities in a movement and recognize a measure. Through the intonation and the sound, they recognize simple sentence contents, although they do not yet understand some of the words – similar to when you do not understand the local language on vacation and yet recognize what the other person wants from you.

Children love playing with instruments. They improvise and experiment with tonewoods, drums and tambourines. Children can often be observed and listened to as they constantly sing new melodies of their own with lyrics they have invented themselves and how they move along with them. They imitate everything they hear. Any sounds from their everyday life are included, but also imitation sounds of animals or vehicles, etc. Music stimulates the creativity of every child and stimulates the imagination in the most amazing way.

Parents quickly develop a feeling for dealing with their children and music. They recognize that their children’s language is strengthened through music and movement. Even babies follow the hands of their parents attentively while they perform a finger game. Small children imitate the facial expressions and gestures of their parents while singing or dancing and try to reproduce the text verbally. As soon as the parents hold their child in their arms and sing “Brother, come dance with me…” they start to sneer, laugh and sing along in their very own language.

Musical early education

Parents should incorporate music into their everyday life and thereby encourage their children’s language development. The poem before eating is just as practical as the song before falling asleep, singing on long car journeys or finger and knee rider games. Small dances for fun in between should simply be part of everyday life. If you want to specifically support your child on this topic, you can take advantage of numerous offers from music schools or adult education centers with courses for early music education. More about early music education

Everyone else can easily encourage their child’s language development at home without major courses and music lessons. Claims like: “I can’t sing at all” or “I don’t have the accompaniment, I don’t even know which songs are suitable!” are no excuses. The trade offers a large number of tastefully illustrated song books or books with finger plays. If you can’t read sheet music or are unsure, you can easily and inexpensively buy CDs of children’s songs etc. or borrow them free of charge from children’s libraries. In addition, the Internet has an inexhaustible pool of songs, rhymes and musical games for parents and children.

[Please note: Our items cannot replace the advice of a doctor. If you have health problems, please always consult a doctor you trust!]

Don’t turn the music up too loud. Because noise pollution from music is a common point of contention between neighbors!