In 1983, Howard Gardner, a well-known American psychologist, published “Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences”. He proposed in that said book that the term “intelligence” has three distinct uses. One of which is that it is a “property of all human beings” (All of us possess these 8 or 9 intelligences). One of these multiple intelligences is music.
It cannot be denied that music changes everyone’s mood. Listening to music makes some calm and relaxed. Some listen to music when they are studying so they can focus on what they are reading.
There are these athletes who listen to music as it serves as their additional fuel in doing physical activities. But these are acts of adults. How can toddlers appreciate music?
In our setting, we have courses on Education focusing on early child development. They are trained to handle professionally these toddlers. Yet, in light of the current situation as the global health disaster affected every aspect of the society, parents, themselves, can teach their child basically in listening to music.
So, it should be an interactive activity by listening together with music. By simply repeating to our toddlers the rhythm and lyrics of a nursery rhyme, they can adapt it as they tend to repeat what adults do.
When should Toddler start music lessons, and why?
According to Alison Gopnik, Ph.D., he stated that:
“learning begins literally from the time babies are born and there’s even some evidence there’s learning inside of the womb. So, when babies are born, for instance, they discriminate between the sounds of the language that they’ve heard and sounds of another language. So, they’re already seeing, hearing, making sense of what’s going on around them.”
—When do babies begin to learn?
By his words, toddlers are capable of learning already since when they were infants, they were able to learn.
However, research shows that in these toddler years of a child, is the most critical period in terms of learning and development. Their attention is divided. Most toddlers sleep; some play interactively.
Thus, in order to start music lessons, we have to integrate playtime with music. Luckily, parents at home can teach their child by simply listening to nursery rhymes available to be streamed on the internet.
Apparently, children aged 1 to 2 years are able to appreciate music as they can move and sway as they listen to it.
How do I teach my 2-year-old music?
As the author mentioned before, children aged 1 to 2 are able to move and sway to the music that they can hear. They can as well speak at least 50 words or more, depending on certain circumstances. Hence, they can easily jive with the lyrics and rhythm of a music.
One way to teach them is when they are already familiar with the rhythm.
First, you should try to start doing a little choreography. With that, they can incorporate bodily movements into the music. Aside from listening, it can help when there are other parts of the body involved in this activity.
Second, you have to get some instruments and introduce it to them. With that, they don’t just listen to the music. They get to learn on how to play music as well, and they are enjoying it.
Third, you have to repeat it to them. Repetition helps them to memorize the song, the bodily activities and the instruments you have introduced to them.
Toddlers will not learn that quickly if you plan to introduce these activities to them one-time. So, plan a routine activity so that they could get easily remember these songs by listening into it frequently.
How do I teach my 3-year-old music?
When a toddler reaches 3 years old, they can speak to as may as 200 words already. At this stage, these toddlers can formulate on their own three to four words sentence. Adults can at least understand what these toddlers say. With this, it is much easy for parents to teach their 3-year-old child.
Since they are now familiar with words, they can easily jive with the lyrics and rhythm of a music. Parents have to focus on their singing ability and playing simple music instruments. They have to teach their child to listen to a variety of nursery rhymes.
Parents can integrate their storytelling into music storytelling. Singing the lyrics also helps. We cannot expect our toddlers to sing every word of the song.
It is important that the parents sing along with their children for them to easily remember the rhythm and lyrics of a music. Research shows that by singing these nursery rhymes has a positive effect on a child’s reading and fluency.
Parents can integrate dancing and movement activities as well to the rhythm of the music. Consequently, our toddlers won’t get bored. Aside from the ease of remembering lyrics by integrating movements, our children’s metabolism becomes fast and could help them develop their body in good shape.
What may be the applicable music for kids, and why?
It is a good form of brain exercise to let our toddlers listen to music. It develops their memorization ability as well as it may help develop early childhood moods.
Our toddlers’ activities in relation with music develops their physical being. These activities start from wiggling of their hands, frequent bouncing as part of movements, to humming with the lyrics itself.
Children aged 1-5 years old are considered as toddlers and to develop their musical engagement, they must listen to early childhood development music such as nursery rhymes and lullabies.
The importance of nursery rhymes and lullabies in the development of a child is that it improves their communication and emotional connections with their parents.
Nursery rhymes can help our toddlers boost their vocabulary because of its engaging rhythmic pattern, and a pleasing and repetitive words. In this activity, our toddlers can easily remember and repeat.
They can as well develop familiarity with numbers as some nursery rhymes have numerical lyrics. This can assist our toddlers with their familiarization and foundation with numbers.
Lullabies, on the other hand, are proven by many scientific studies to lull our toddlers to fall asleep. With the parent singing and humming, gentle rocks, and eye-contact, our toddler feels secure and safe, making them relaxed and easier to fall asleep.
As nursery rhymes activates our toddlers’ activities, lullabies make them shift to a relaxed and calm state.
Can a 3-year-old learn piano? How and why?
Wolffgang Amadeus Mozart started playing piano at the age of 4 and at the age of 5. At that age, he already began composing music for his friend’s graduation. Mozart is an exceptional child. He is a musical genius.
Can a 3-year-old child learn piano? It depends on the circumstances. Usually, the best age to start learning to play piano is between the child’s ages 6 to 9. However, there are children who begin discovering and playing piano at the age of 5.
There are several factors to be considered as to when can our toddlers is ready to learn playing piano. These are the apparent physical factors including the size of their hands, dexterity, coordination, and independence of their fingers. Moreover, there are other things such as our child’s ability to be focused and memorize.
We can determine that our child is ready to learn when they have developed their motor skills. These may be finger placements and synergisms, considering that the piano keys have to be pressed to produce a sound and they have to change the placing of their fingers in pressing another piano key to shift notes.
Moreover, if our child can already distinguish between their left and right hand, this may be the moment for him to start his piano lessons. In playing piano, it involves the use of our two hands.
Nonetheless, we do not expect them to play and sound like Mozart and Beethoven, but at least, with the use of their two hands, they can produce sounds with different notes.
In addition, if our child can already count then, it is one factor to consider whether he or she should begin already because in learning to play piano, one must have proper tempo. A child who knows how to count can learn music tempo.
Final Thoughts
Musical intelligence is one of the multiple intelligences theorized by the American psychologist, Howard Gardner. It is a skill with respect to the composition, performance and appreciation of music and its elements such as lyrics, rhythm and patterns.
We know Mozart and Beethoven as geniuses in the art of music. Mozart learned to play piano at the early age of three, and Beethoven, who is known to be a deaf composer, likewise learned at an early age. Their classical compositions left a huge contribution in music.
In this modern era, where music can now be easily searched and played via internet streaming, it is of big help to get our toddlers to listen to it.
Children nowadays, are easy learners as the facilities can be easily accessed. One toddler can watch “Cocomelon” in their parent’s cellphone and listen to the pleasing music while watching its engaging graphics which are child friendly.
As Louis Armstrong said, “Music itself is life.” Imagine the world without music- dull. We have to learn to appreciate music as early as possible to help mitigate our stress, improve our physical aura, and smile. Positivity in our character is contagious and music is one of its big factor.