Here's a pop quiz. What do the following have in common?
The Wiggles
Raffi
Laurie Berkner
Ralph Covert
They Might Be Giants
If you guessed a special place in the hearts and CD players of millions of preschoolers, you're right. And we're guessing that you probably have someone under age 5 listening to music in your home.
Like most preschoolers, your child probably already loves music and has favorite songs. This may have happened with little encouragement from you beyond simply playing music on long car trips. But did you know that your preschooler is now at an ideal age to expand his or her musical horizons and abilities?
Kids who grow up hearing music, singing songs, and moving to the beat are enjoying what experts call "a rich sensory environment." That's just a fancy way of saying they're exposed to a wide variety of tastes, smells, textures, colors, and sounds. And researchers believe this forges more pathways between the cells in their brains.
Musical experiences are an important way to help create these pathways, also called neural connections. And while listening to music is certainly key to creating them, it's when kids actively participate in music that they make the strongest connections.
Research shows that kids who are actively involved in music (who play it or sing it regularly):
do better in reading and math when they start school
are better able to focus and control their bodies
play better with others and have higher self-esteem
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