Why music and movement are important

Engaging with music or dance allows children to develop their motor skills, communication, expression, creativity and imagination, social emotional skills, and so much more. The most key developmental years in a child’s life happen before they are 5 years old. When a child is this young, skills like recognising patterns, sounds, and cues in music and sequencing movement, body awareness, and spatial patterns in dance are all valuable to helping the child develop successfully and even transition into their school years.

By singing and clapping to silly songs, hopping like a frog, galloping like a horse, or finding more ways to involve music and dance in your daily life, your child will start building stronger connections between their own body and the world around them. Finding activities like group music and dance classes is a great way to deepen these connections and provide you and your young one with community and structured activity.

The benefits of music and movement for children under 5 years include helping them with:

· their cognitive growth: how they think, explore and work things through

· the development of problem-solving skills, like logic, reasoning and sequencing

· self-expression: how they communicate feelings, ideas and thoughts through music, movement or playing an instrument

· the development of physical skills like hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and balance

· social skills like cooperation, taking turns and sharing the music experience of learning how to dance and play instruments with others

· the regulation of their emotions by learning to calm down, relax and control their feelings

  Music and Movement Home Learning