Boost creativity, intelligence and cognition with Music

Today, many parents or aspiring parents are familiar with the technique of incorporating music into a toddler’s upbringing. It has become accepted that music can play a vital role in giving the young ones’ brains a creative, intelligent boost. The most common ways this is done are by playing music to the child on a regular basis, or teaching them how to play music on their own, which has its own amazing set of benefits (the hand-eye coordination and the counterbalancing of one hand’s motions with the other when playing an instrument do wonders for a developing mind, whether toddler or teenager).

And then there is music that you didn’t even know was there – like the sing song tone of a mother’s voice, or a softy hummed lullaby.

In fact, talking to a baby in a sing song voice, in baby language (known as infant directed speech), helps the baby to attach the soothing tune and tone to a mother and her love.

Children process music, melody and sound patterns right from the beginning

From birth up till the age of 3, the brain is 2.5 more active than the adult brain. It is constantly learning, with an unquenchable curiosity for all the things their senses and the environment around them are exposing them to. Learning and absorbing of new information is happening every hour of every day, and there is no better time to give your baby’s brain a strong mental, emotional and logical foundation on which it will function for the rest of their precious lives.

How Music does its Magic

Music is the arrangement of structures consisting of sounds and beats following a distinct, layered pattern. If we took even a relatively simple song, broke it down into its separate components and asked you to listen to them individually and form, let alone remember, the tune, it would be a pretty hard task. But put them together (a song), and voila, not only can you remember everything about the melody with ease, but it can even get stuck in your head! This is not because the mind is somehow muting complexity, but because of the order and pattern found in music, it can process the separate components subconsciously and easily form a coherent, recognizable whole. This entire process, especially in young, developing minds, is a brilliant, tested way to vastly improve memory and cognitive skills.

As we talked about earlier, Myelination is programmed to majorly occur during this period, wherein neural connections and key neurological infrastructure are being formed. It is important to feed the brain and the nervous system with stimulation, love and learning experiences during this period so as to help the baby’s brain develop a strong, robust foundation.

  

Let their little worlds rock!

Their minds are at a point where every pleasure, no matter how small, is eventful. A melody that a baby enjoys, stays in her/his mind, and whenever she/he hears it, happiness ensues. Fill your child’s life with such experiences and you’re guaranteed to raise a cheerful, upbeat little firecracker!