At first glance, music and language are quite different. As listeners we we can easily tell the difference between a beautiful piece of orchestral music and a political speech. But that’s because as adults, we’ve developed a wide array of knowledge which allows us to differentiate these two domains. For babies, this knowledge is still developing.
You also don’t have to reflect for too long to realize that there are also many similarities between MUSIC and LANGUAGE …
They both require rhythm, otherwise they don’t make any sense. They’re also both built from smaller units – syllables and musical beats. And the process of mastering them is remarkably similar, including precise movements and repetition.
But what about children who aren’t talking yet? Can music-based activities give children a boost in the steps it takes to learn language?
Christina Zhao*, a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Washington sought to answer this question with Patricia Kuhl, an expert in early childhood learning. They set out to study whether early musical experience can help infants learn speech.
What they discovered was that babies who participated in a music-based program had stronger brain responses to both music and speech sounds, compared with babies in the control group. This shows that musical experience, as early as nine month of age, improved infants’ ability to process both musical and speech rhythms.
These skills are important building blocks for learning to speak.
In our weekly classes, we see the extraordinary way in which music facilitates language development …
Samantha Coogan at our Constantia branch told us a story about a wonderful purple surprise in one of her classes …
A little boy approaching 3 years old was attending her class. This beautiful little chap was struggling with speech and was seeing a Speech Therapist. He wasn’t speaking and would communicate with hand gestures.
The theme for that term was “Colorful Me”, where Samantha was using our music program to explore the primary and secondary colors. After 5 classes, this little boy suddenly said the word “PURPLE”.
Samantha and his granny were so overjoyed to hear him say that two syllable word, which came as such a surprise from a non-verbal child … they could hardly believe their ears!
What a wonderful PURPLE surprise! It seemed that all the language was sitting in his brain … and the music just brought it out!
To join a class in CONSTANTIA contact Samantha@wriggleandrhyme.co.za or complete the form under the “JOIN A CLASS” menu option.
We also have classes in MELKBOSSTRAND, RONDEBOSCH, CLAREMONT, MEADOWRIDGE and FISH HOEK. Loads more info under “OUR CLASSES” menu …
* More info on Christina’s study here –
https://theconversation.com/africa/search?utf8=✓&q=christina+zhao