Active Listening

What is it?

Babies come into the world with brains hard-wired for listening. A fetus in the third trimester can already hear its mother’s heartbeat and other environmental sounds, including music.

During the first year of life, infants develop their listening skills further, responding increasingly to music, language, and tone.

Listening is a major avenue for learning: hearing and recognizing the voices of different familiar people; recognizing the connection of certain sounds (e.g., lullabies vs. active songs) to certain activities (sleep vs. play); or simply knowing that a parent’s voice or footsteps signal that food, a dry diaper, or comfort is coming.

Listening seems like such a simple thing, hardly something that takes training—but how many 

times have you thought I know he can hear me, but he’s just not listening! In cases like these, the word listening (in contrast to hearing) is really being used to mean paying attention, focusing, understanding, or “getting it”. This kind of listening, called active listening, is a skill that does, in fact, take practice and even instruction.

But here’s the rub—it’s also a skill that is essential to school success. The way most schools are set up, up to 75% of the time your child will spend in a classroom will be spent learning through listening!

Here’s where music comes in. Researchers believe that music instruction helps children build active listening skills.

By “tuning in” to music and other specific sounds carefully, one at a time, and with full attention, children hone their listening skills. Through songs and chants, children develop an ear for the patterns of sounds in words, phrases, and sentences. And as children listen to and sing words set to music, they become familiar with other sounds, rhymes, rhythms, and patterns in language. 

How It Works in Class

• Listen. You and your toddler stop, focus, and listen to the sound, for example, of a baby elephant. 
• Connect. Your child hears the teacher’s directions, hears your voice repeating the words, and learns to focus on the sounds entering his or her ears and connect them to the concepts you describe: Listen to the sound of a baby elephant.
• Imitate. You and your child will use vocal play to playfully repeat the sounds you hear. 
• Discuss. Together, the class may discuss what they heard, what it sounded like, and how 
• the sounds were different. 

What You Can Do at Home

• Sounds Around the Home. Listen actively to the sounds around your home: a clock ticking, the creaks of floorboards, a garbage truck outside…. Imitate and discuss the sounds.
• Be a Good Listener. Model active listening by being very attentive to what your child says, whether words, short sentences, or just sounds.
• Stop the Music. Use the songs on your Kindermusik CDs for a simple version of musical chairs that teaches careful listening. Listen for the music to stop, then freeze!

*Source: Kindermusic Music and Reading Full Research Booklet

Ages 18 months to 3 years old

Little Treblemakers proudly offers Kindermusik for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids. Schedule your Free Preview Class today!Call/Text: 818-953-4954 Email: Liltreblemakers@aol.com

Explore the Benefits of Music for Children

Musical Learning Supports Child Development

All over the world, parents bond with their babies through musical sounds and rhythmic movement. 

They rock and swing their children, put them to sleep with lullabies, make them laugh with nursery 

rhymes. Parents know instinctively what scientists have now proven: young children thrive on music. 

It’s one of the best vehicles for learning in early childhood development.

Kindermusik takes musical learning to the next level; our curriculum is proven to improve child 

brain development. And, did we mention it's fun for kids and parents alike?!

 

Music matters

Psychologists, neuroscientists, and experts in early childhood development have demonstrated that 

music does more for children than bring them joy; it helps their brain cells make the connections 

needed for virtually every kind of intelligence. Kindermusik's curriculum is built on this research.

When young children are consistently engaged by music in an age-appropriate, 

socially accepting environment, they benefit at many levels:

*Early Literacy. They gain the phonological processing, spoken language, and comprehension skills 
that are the foundation of reading.

*Quantitative. They build the spatial-temporal and reasoning skills required for math, science, 
and engineering.

*Social-Emotional. They develop social and emotional skills that are essential for school readiness—
like the ability to regulate their responses and relate to others in complex ways.

*Physical. By moving and dancing to music and playing simple instruments, children improve their 
gross and fine motor skills.

*Creative. Activities that encourage freedom within a fun and friendly structure spark children's 
creativity and provide inspiration.

And of course, they develop a lifelong love of music.

Little Treblemakers proudly offers Kindermusik for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids. Schedule your Free Preview Class today!Call/Text: 818-953-4954 

Email: Liltreblemakers@aol.com

How Repetition Strengthens the Brain

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Kindermusik International

“Repetition continues to be important in the development of language and movement, as it is repeated experiences that reinforce the pathways of the brain.  By two years of age, a toddler’s cerebral cortex contains well over a hundred trillion synapses, which is actually some fifty percent more synapses than she will keep as an adult.  While new synapses form rapidly during this time frame, a ‘pruning’ process is also taking place.  This process strengthens frequently used pathways, while deleting those that are not used.  As pruning continues, it will allow your child to process thoughts and actions more quickly and efficiently” (zerotothree.org. 1998-2001)

Tips for parents:

You can incorporate more repetition in your child’s life in some fairly simple ways.  One way is to set aside time each day for reading his or her favorite books together.  You’ll probably read his favorites repeatedly!  Another way to foster more repetition is to make full use of your Kindermusik home materials, enjoying the music and activities together regularly.

How Repetition Strengthens the Brain | Minds on Music

Little Treblemakers proudly offers Kindermusik for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids. Schedule your Free Preview Class today!Call/Text: 818-953-4954 
Email: Liltreblemakers@aol.com

Spatial Skills Linked to Math Learning from Education Week

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Kindermusik International

Learning how to hold a mallet!

This morning, Education Week published an article affirming spatial skills as a key to math learning. Movement and “task” activities (cutting paper shapes, building blocks, coloring in lines, clapping, stomping, singing) not only improve a child’s discipline ability to write neatly, they improve his or her capacity for abstract reasoning. The article quotes Claire E. Cameron, research scientist at the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, on this point:

“We think of early-childhood classrooms as being really high in executive-function demands, but what children are being asked to exercise [executive function] on end up being visual-motor and fine-motor tasks.”

Here’s how it works. As you listen to music or make music, certain neuronsin the cortex ofyour brain start firing. The pathways created are the same pathwaysthat are used when you complete complex spatial reasoning tasks. The more of these pathways that are forged and the more they are in use, the stronger the connections become. Strong connections lead to easier access, which translatesinto better skills.

Although listening to music does give the neural network a workout, the gains in spatial reasoning skills have been shown to be very short-term—15 minutes or less. This “Mozart effect” is much longer-lasting when you engage in making music, however. Studies are showing that the attendant spatial reasoning gains can extend over months or even years (Rauscher et al, 1997; Gardiner, 2000; Hetland, 2000b). Studies focused on music for young children are also suggesting that math gains increase according to the number of years that students engage in active music learning (Gardiner, 2000), with some indication that the younger children are when they begin music instruction, the greater the gains will be.

Read more from Kindermusik about the benefits of music and math here, and comment below with questions or feedback!

Spatial Skills Linked to Math Learning from Education Week | Minds on Music

Get Your Kids to Listen!

Becoming a Good Listener

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Kindermusik International

Focusing on one sense at a time helps children strengthen their perception.  Focusing on sound, for example, sharpens listening skills.  Experts say that about two-thirds of everything learned is learned through listening.  When children are given an opportunity to practice their listening skills, they also enhance their abilities to focus and pay attention, allowing them to understand and interpret more of what they hear.

Ideas for parents:

As you take a walk outdoors with your child, encourage your child to listen, identify, imitate, and discuss the different sounds you hear.  Listen for the sound of birds, neighbors chatting, lawn mowers, vehicles, and more.  You’ll have a lot of fun playing the “Listening Game,” and your child’s listening skills will be sharpened too!

Try a Free Kindermusik Class!

We engage kids in fun activities every week in Kindermusik music classes for kids – and focus on developing listening skills, cognitive skills, musical skills and more. Learning through music and movement is fun and effective, come check it out.

- Contributed by Theresa Case, whose Greenville, SC program, Kindermusik at Piano Central Studios, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.

Get Your Kids to Listen! | Minds on Music

What’s the Rhythm of Spring? | Minds on Music

What’s the Rhythm of Spring?

Posted by Kindermusik International

Photo Credit: New York Botanical Garden

Monday mornings are best begun with a poem. We think this E.E. Cummings  poem, “in Just-” celebrates spring, children, and music in a refreshingly dissonant way. What do you think?

in Just–E.E. Cummings

in Just-
spring          when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far          and             wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s
spring
and

the
goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles
far
and
wee

Rhythm is central to this poem. It is typographical – the disjointed spacing, repetition of verses, and vertical arrangement makes movement tangible: moving children, wind, and the whistle thread the poem together in evolving combinations. It is also lyrical – the refrain, the balloonMan’s whistle “far and wee,” is contrasted with the huffing breaths of young children running, slurring names “eddieandbill” and “bettyandisabel” together. The whistle has the effect of an ice cream truck’s song, calling children to chase after it. To the adult (the reader?), the whistle is the belittled sound of a, “lame,” “little,” “goat footed” man.  But to the children, the whistle is a mysterious a-harmonic tune. It is a mysterious sound. It implores them to break away from their games and explore an even more magical realm of the imagination.

What does this poem mean to you? Share your thoughts below, or share another poem that reminds you of spring, play, rhythm, or the imagination below!

What’s the Rhythm of Spring? | Minds on Music