#laughandsing

"Musical behaviour like dancing, singing, and playing musical instruments encourages high levels of interpersonal coordination, and have been associated with increased group cohesion and social bonding between group members. Specifically, individuals who walk, sing, or tap together are then more helpful, compliant or cooperative in later interactions with one another. The purpose our study was to determine when in childhood this effect starts to influence social behaviour. In our first experiment, it was revealed that 14-month-old infants were more likely to help out an adult stranger after having been bounced to music in synchrony (as opposed to out-of-synchrony) with that person’s movements. We are now investigating whether 10- and 12- month old infants also develop a social preference for someone after moving with that individual in synchrony to music. To see some example videos and sounds from the experiment, click here."

I’ve been a musician for most of my life. I started piano lessons at age 9 but began developing a love for singing as early as age 4, when I started in the church preschool choir in Miami. Somewhere there’s a photo of me and Monica Nichols fighting to hold the microphone a few years later at a Music Makers performance. I never realized how much those early years of singing helped to develop my ear until I had my own child and started to research the links between child development and early music education.

Every week or so I like to search for early music education research related to the development of toddlers and babies. My most recent find is from the NAEYC, the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The six page article is available in PDF online, and you can read more here: http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201003/ParlakianWeb0310.pdf.

Today I led a group of 4 year olds in a story and sing along at the Sarasota Children's Garden. They were adorable in their pirate and fairy outfits! We danced, played instruments, and sang songs from our Musikgarten curriculum. I weaved the stories together with a silly story I made up about the birthday girl going to the Neverland escorted by Peter Pan.