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The Benefits of Music on Child Development
By Jovanka Ciares & Paul Borgese

Childhood is an exciting, fun and challenging period of life. Every new experience is an opportunity to learn and grow. It is the most critical time for building the physical, mental and emotional foundations that will support us for the rest of our lives.

As parents and loved ones, we should strive to give our children the tools to build a successful life, and one of the best choices you can make for your children is giving them the gift of music. We should encourage our children as early as possible to listen to and make music. Children can start by listening to their favorite songs and accompanying the music with simple instruments made from household products. They can then advance to playing more complex musical instruments and perhaps even take formal lessons.

Music & Skill Development

In addition to improving creativity, learning music cultivates many skills that will continue to be useful to your children throughout their lives. The following are some of the skills that listening to music and taking music lessons help develop in children:

Concentration. Learning a musical instrument will help your child develop concentration, as they must focus on a particular activity over extended periods of time. Developing concentration in this way also will help them when they must focus their attention on other subjects at school.

Coordination. Practicing musical instruments improves hand-eye coordination. Children develop important motor skills when playing music just as they do when playing different sports.

Relaxation. More and more, music therapy is being used to complement more traditional forms of medicine. Researchers acknowledge that certain types of music can aid relaxation by lowering heart rates and blood pressure.

Patience. In order to learn a musical instrument, children must develop patience and perseverance, which will help them later in life when they must tackle other more difficult challenges.

Self-Confidence. The act of learning and playing an instrument, the encouragement of a teacher and the enthusiasm of a proud parent, will build in a child a sense of pride and confidence. Moreover, children who practice self-expression and creativity often become better communicators later in life.

Researchers also have found a significant relationship between music instruction and positive performances in many areas: reading comprehension, spelling, mathematics, listening skills, primary mental abilities (verbal, perceptual, numeric, spatial) and motor skills.

Paul Borgese is an author and singer/songwriter, having produced three children’s books, including “When Fish Go Peopling,” and a Parents’ Choice Award-Winning CD, “Even the Monkeys Fall Out of the Trees,” which you can check out at www.PaulBorgese.com.