Often, you must have seen children dancing to the beats of “If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands”, with some tapping their legs on the ground at the same time as they are clapping, while others failing to coordinate their limbs together and appearing funny. However, have you ever wondered how such a simple exercise incorporated into the educational system can help children develop their social skills?
Why Should Rhythmic Activities Be Taught In Early Childhood?
A study proves that ‘In the first few years of human life, more than one million neural connections are formed each second –and it is a pace that would never be repeated again.’
Early childhood is the most crucial time for development and positive intervention and this development is strongly affected by their environment. It is not a process that takes place within months or years, but a moment-by-moment process. The early development proves to have a strong influence on the rest of their lives.
Early Childhood Development By Teaching Rhythm
Let’s learn how, through another simple example. What children are asked to do, for instance, is clap in a group a number of times, say 5 claps, following which they are all asked to jump up high and land on the floor and then again repeat the same cycle of rhythmical activity.
This is basically a sauté that children are engaging in. Sometimes, it may happen that one set of children are clapping their hands, while the other sets are still jumping high up in the air. There is clearly a lack of coordination, which children observe and try to correct. Thus, teaching children rhythm can make them more cooperative as they grow, pushing them to work effectively in a group, coordinating tasks and making them learn coherence and group efficiency.
However, interestingly, movements of children clapping and landing at different intervals of time produce varying degrees of sounds, and children pay close attention to them, either consciously or subconsciously. This aids in developing their listening skills, making aids in the development of cognitive skills and even helps them become more a part of the society later in life.
But at the outset, social life is not only about coordinating, listening, and cooperating with people at large. It’s also about integrating well into the social fabric by bringing in your sets of talents, competencies, and skills. It’s what makes you different in society, playing guitar, painting, colouring, singing, playing a sport, etc. Undeniably, all these activities require motor skills.
A rhythmic activity, even listening to the music, sets a child’s brain on fire and make them more focused and creative. Here, let’s see how listening to music stimulates the child’s brain:
- Listening to music causes the brain to release dopamine, a happy chemical that the brain releases when we feel exciting.
- Music acts as a distractor, focusing attention from negative stimuli to something pleasant and encouraging.
- Music has the power to alter breathing and heart rate.
- Music also holds the ability to improve your state of mind. This keeps things like depression and anxiety at bay.
- Music is also a great tool to reduce the perception of pain.
- Music alters the patterns of pain, depression and disability.
Playing Games And Music Instrumentals
Playing cricket, for instance, may require coordination between hands, legs and eyes, as the cricketer focuses his eye on the ball, places his legs at an angle to take a shot and flings his arm in the direction to hit the ball. In a similar fashion, playing the piano, drum or guitar may require fine motor skills such as perfect eye-hand coordination, building soft skills of restraint, control, and patience — all of which make a person better suited to his environment (which can be a school, a society, etc.)
Those who are successful musicians today may not even realize how such a simple training in a rhythm early in their childhood has helped them develop a sensitivity to beats, following which they have built their entire career.
However, contrary to what some people think that developing rhythm may happen overnight, it doesn’t. It takes intensive effort in the early phase of childhood by parents, by teachers, and by the social environment at large. It may even take a whole family moving on a dance floor or singing a Christmas carol for a child to learn these basic fine motor skills.
Nevertheless, to succeed in life, to socialize, and to be better adjusted to one’s environment, is all one need.
To sum up the benefits of rhythm teaching for children under 5 years are –
- Cognitive growth
- Self-expression
- Development of hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and balance.
- Social skills like cooperation, taking turns, working in groups and sharing.
- Self-confidence
- Regulation of their emotions by learning how to calm down, relax and control their feelings.
- Creativity and imagination
- Explore cause and effect
- Improvement of motor skills
Conclusion
So, now we can say that it becomes very important to teach rhythm and tempo to children which would foster inclusion, acceptance, and excitement. When children get the best start in life, the benefits gained are huge.
What do you think, how we can add more into our child’s growth and skills? Do comment below and share your thoughts. Also, share it with your friends so that they can benefit from the facts mentioned in the blog.
