For Educators of Young Children. Here Is A Great Book For Your Library.

Good Read: Healing at the Speed of Sound

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Kindermusik International

Don Campbell has been a long-standing friend ofKindermusik International and has a widespread fan base among Kindermusik educators. After The Mozart Effect was published in 1997, Don shared his passion and discoveries with Kindermusik educators at the 1999 Kindermusik Convention in Minneapolis. To say his message resonated with our educators is an understatement!

His new book, co-authored with Alex Doman, Healing at the Speed of Sound, boldly underlines what forms the basis of Kindermusik’s passion for incorporating music and movement more fully into the lives of children and their families. Music is powerful. The abundance of research that now supports the hypotheses of the 90’s lends credence to the long-lasting and far-reaching benefits of music – for children AND adults. This book helps you understand how sound affects health and healing, reduces stress, and stimulates cognitive process and memory. Add the fun, joy, and social benefits of a Kindermusik class and you know it’s true… A good beginning with Kindermusik never ends.

As this interview with the author on Salon.com covers, the book shows us that music has great benefits for all. “Music has been shown to improve children with learning disabilities, help elders feel more connected to the world, and even get people into better shape. It provides children with a “hook” for the brain’s memory centers, allowing them to retain more information, and it can play huge roles in modifying our moods.

The author discusses why music is so important for young children’s brains from a neurological perspective, sharing:

The more participation there is with music early on — through singing and movement — the more it simultaneously activates multiple levels of the brain. If you look at the corpus callosum [of someone who plays music] there are more connections made between right and left sides. A child who is moving, dancing and singing learns coordination between their eye, ear and sound early on. And [the experience of participating in music education] helps integrate the social, the emotional and the real context of what we’re learning. There are studies that show children who play music have higher SAT scores, that learning to control rhythm and tempo not only help them get along with others but plants seeds for similar advantages when we get much older.

A Great Message from Studio Three

Organizing your brain. By the age of 7.

Posted in Child Development

4 Comments »

Having given birth to a “sensory” child (though he would not be classified as so anymore), I was driven to learn as much as I could about sensory integration and children. I’ve discovered that if I hadn’t gone down the library page › grocery clerk › painter › nanny › receptionist › office assistant › musician › teacher › CEO › wife › mom › Kindermusik Educator › Director route, (Hey! I’ve been working since I was 14, and I didn’t even list everything. I could have included goat milker and chicken plucker…), I would have become a pediatric Occupational Therapist working with children who had sensory integration disorders.

I’ve learned so much that I wish I’d known when all my children were really small. I think it’s fascinating, and I think you might, too. So I’m going to write a series of blogs throughout this year that touch on how the senses are integrated from birth to age 7. For most children, this is a naturally occurring process.

I’ll start at age 7, (because I’ll stop at that age). Why? Because until a child is about 7 years of age, the brain’s primary function is to process sensory input. (Understanding what the input is, and what to do with it.) In other words, the brain spends its time organizing what it sees, hears, tastes, touches, smells, and feels though gravity and movement, and muscle and joint sensations. A child takes all that sensory input and is mostly concerned with moving his or her body in relation to that input.

You’ll notice that with preschoolers, they begin to work on social or academic skills, but their primary job remains this “sensorimotor processing”. In other words, they still need to move to learn, and learn to move!

All of these sensory experiences create neural pathways in the brain, and this process is mostly completed by age 7. Which is why at age 7, kids are really school-ready to learn successfully, but only if this sensory integration has gone well, and the brain is efficient at organizing the sensory input.

Did you know that by the age of 7, your brain and each side of your body became specialized? (If sensory integration had been successful, that is.) One example – A child should be right or left handed at this point. This indicates that both halves of the brain are communicating and working well together. If you are right-handed, your left hand will be better at interpreting tactile input, and vice versa. (I could give you two objects you can’t see, and your left hand should figure it out faster than your right.) In other words, the brain has now organized itself, and is now ready and eager to learn in an efficient manner.

Another end product of sensory integration is a child’s ability to organize. Instead of organizing her body in order to get it to move how she wants it to, she can organize letters and numbers. In addition, the ability to concentrate, self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-control all stem from good sensory integration. This child will have the capacity for abstract thought and reasoning, though anyone with a 7 year old will know that this has yet to actually develop!

Next time I’ll tell you how busy your mind and body were getting organized, even before you were born.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose primary form of getting organized (now well past the age of 7), consists of detailed list making.

Balance..... And The Vestibular System.. Teething and all that jazz

Hello there Mommies and Daddies.. This is our wonderful String Bean Circus. 

We perform in the summers at different venues and your little one is now an honorary Member...

It was great to meet more wonderful parents who love giving the gift of music to their kids.

Just being there and experiencing this magic with others is such an amazing loving exchange...

We love your in our family.

There were a lot of things we covered in our classes this week.

Loud and Soft 

High and Low.

Slow Stop and Fast

Adagio (slow)  , Allegro ( Fast ) and Andante ( Walking Pace )

Did you know that when you label the motions and movement you do with your child you are teaching them so much more..

Just imagine your with someone who speaks a different language then you.

The more you participate in a language from a different county .. the faster you start to speak it..

This is the same way babies learn to talk.

First they realize they recognize a word and that it has a meaning..

Then they recognize what the meaning is...after they do it.

Yes Children learn by doing then speaking. This s a proven fact.

So when you are walking with your baby... You can say Label things such as..

Do you like this ball. Can you throw the ball.  

Your walking so fast..

Can you sit down fast

Lets clean these toys up really fast...

This labeling really does make a difference.

They have done studies with children who came from families where they were not held or stimulated to action or to speak. These same babies grew up as slow learners as well as experiencing a sense of feeling uncomfortable in society as an initiator. 

Giving children the time to try to speak the sound of Old Mac Donalds Farm animals or to Say the words to the Story Silly Mouse.. is part of the lessons included in this months ABC Music and Me.

The stories all rhyme offering the opportunity for the child to memorize the story and to say the words out loud...I encourage to explore your home magazines with your children. They have many fantastic ideas of fun activities and make the songs on your cd's come alive as well.

I do not know any parent who can say they are satisfied with the amount of time they spent with their children when they were young.. there was never ever enough time.. cherish these next few years ,, they go by faster then you can imagine...

Thank you for sharing the beauty and love of your child with us at the Muse...

Primary Lesson Focus for Village and ABC Music and Me. 

Up and down ,

Sitting and Standing

Dancing and Stopping

Listening and repeating...

All of these exercises are part of a demonstration in the importance of Stimulating the Vestibular System .

Here are some notes from Kindermusik international on the this very topic...

What is the Vestibular

System?

The vestibular system controls one’s

sense of movement and balance. It

integrates the sensory inputs that give

us information about gravity and

motion, our body’s muscular

movements, and our body’s position in

space.

Your baby’s vestibular system is

developing minute by minute and can

be stimulated by movements that move

her head off center (always safely

supported, of course). These

movements might be performed by her

alone (e.g. rolling), but many times

they also occur while she is being

moved by you—in your arms or in a

stroller (e.g. tipping, swinging,

swaying, turning, swooping, and

twisting). Try some with your child!

Rocking

As you rock—from center to one side

and the other, or forward and

backward—there are alternating

experiences of being on-balance and

off-balance. Such gentle motions

stimulate the vestibular system.

Rolling

Rolling is initiated from the center of

the body, with the body being propelled

in a prone state by the hips and torso. It

allows your baby to experience the

sensation of seeing the world from his

stomach and back all in one continuous

movement.

Bouncing

Gentle bouncing (always with Baby’s

head supported) stimulates the

vestibular system in many ways. It

keeps your baby alert and attentive and

it increases your baby’s muscle tone

when he has to adjust his posture and

position to stay upright. The surprise

element of the lift into the air or a

cradled fall backwards provides

immediate feedback to the vestibular

system so that your baby just has to

smile or giggle.

Do Try This at Home!

As you participate in these activities,

make sure that you support your baby’s

head and do not allow it to flop.

• Rock your baby as you listen and

hum to Sweetest Little Baby (Home

CD, track 7) . Not only is this good

for your baby’s vestibular system, but

it soothes as it provides gentle

rhythmic motion.

• Gently bounce Baby as you play

and sing Ride a Cock-Horse (Home

CD, track 8).

• Move about the room and house in

different directions and a variety of

ways. Baby will enjoy viewing the

house in all different manners. This

also develops his vision as he shifts

his focus from object to object.

• For older babies, rolling around on

the floor can be tons of fun and

provides lots of stimulation. You can

help your young baby gently roll

from side to side.

• Take your baby for a walk in her

stroller. Move the stroller in different

ways for fun and stimulation. Gently

push the stroller in curvy or zigzag

patterns and change directions and

speeds. 

≈

Children’s Sense of

Balance

“From conception to the first fifteen

months after birth, the vestibular

system is very active as a child gains a

sense of gravity and knowledge of the

physical environment through

movement. Every movement of the child

stimulates the vestibular system, which

stimulates the brain for new learning.

From this sensory ‘wake up’ and basal

understanding of gravity, a child is able

to perform the most remarkable feats of

balance.”

–Smart Moves, by Carla Hannaford,

pp. 35-36. 

Foundations of learning is concerned with nurturing the development of the whole child,, viewing the parent as a partner in this work. 

Although the brain is a very complex structure, modern technology allows us to observe it in action. As a result, we are learning more about its capacities every day and becoming more and more in awe of how it controls eery aspect of our being : physical, emotional, cognitive ,, etc. A newborns brain is filled with neurons primed to connect with other neurons for true learning and development to take place. This building of the brian continue after birth when billions of connectors are formed. Current research confirms that musical experiences create and strengthen neural pathways in EVERY area of a child’s brain. 

Here is the latest great blog from Off Beat Momma. The subscription is free .... 

I would love your photos and stories from your kids for our blog here at Kindermusik With Miss Mana.

Hows about it mommies.. :) Subscribe .. and share your world love love and laughter with all of us...

Tra La La

My four-year-old son and his eggplant sibling Posted: 25 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST All photos by Rebecca B. So my pregnancy ticker tells me week by week how big my new baby is in relation to produce. My nearly four-year-old son loves it. He's an hands-on learner (his grandmother the teacher says it's a "kinesthetic learner") and it gives him a tactile idea of how big our new wiggly addition to the family has grown. He asks me constantly how big the baby is now and really grasps the process of growing with the progression of fruits and veggies. I hit week 25 and The Fetus (as we call it because we are avoiding sharing the sex with friends and family) is the size of an eggplant. Having never played with an eggplant, he was enthralled, so when we went to the grocery store for a spastic midnight run after a crappy day I saw an eggplant and plopped it in his lap so he could "hold the baby." Long story short, we have now adopted an eggplant and promised not to eat it. Cuteeee! He even made a nest for it! I keep telling him it's only going to last a couple of days, in hopes he doesn't become too attached and break down when we have to compost the poor thing, but I think that ship has sailed. We will be doomed to tears I fear. I remind him he has to be really careful with it, (so it will last as long as possible honestly) and he takes this to heart. He pats its little round purple bottom, has named it "Eggplant," and wrapped himself up in a nest of blankets on the couch with it to snuggle gently and keep Eggplant warm. This may be one of the cutest and oddest moments of brotherly fetus love… ever.

A Safe Place To Just Be

A Safe Place To Just "Be"

I look back at my childhood and how music gave me sanctuary.

 As a child with disabilities it was music that gave me my “safe” place to be. 

It is so amazing what sticks in our minds as adults. Now; 40 plus years later, I still can remember the magic that my cello gave to me. It is emotional for me to look back at it.  There just never seemed to be a place for me on the play ground or in gym class or the lunch room, but when I sat down in my chair during Orchestra rehearsal, it did not matter who liked me or did not like me. It was all about my cello and the music in front of me and inside of me .  It was was like a magic spell I could unlock and exist in. 

I was a watcher... 

I was not much of a doer 

Or a speaker. ( You would not think this long winded woman was like that now ... but believe me I was. )

I could never say in words what was said just sitting down in a room with other musicians.

It was like stepping into a portal of love and endless time.

Acting was a lot like that too, however I would have never continued as an actress, if I had not been a cellist or pianist first. 

I do not know if this happens for everyone, but for me it was like something I had always known how to do. 

Like walking or breathing... Some artists talk about this. In all honesty, Through all the years I have worked with children. I think everyone has this inner talent , it is just a few who had parents like you who got them going , either with a pen and paper or paints.. Or they put a drum mallet in their hands or they sang every day with their children.

One of the authors of a fantastic song book called" Rise up Singing" wrote once that they collected the songs in the song book from their experiences walking and singing together.

I encourage you all to walk and sing as much as you can with your child. ..

Studies show that children with autism will respond to requests sung to them significantly more so then those spoken... Hum...

It is written in some of the ancient texts that the Heavens are places where the souls earth exist.

They sing , and they dance where ever they go .. Not speaking or walking ,,, Just singing and dancing...

I like that

I sure hope they include Chocolate in that description...LOL

  It made all the sense in the world to me and it did not even have to have a reason. It just was mine. 

By the Way We are going to start to offer beginning String lessons in March. If your interested. Let me know.

Marion Crumbie will be returning from England and I believe she will be offering some classes as well as myself.

This is a great article that NPR had recently .

Musicians are very different people . 

Exciting research was presented at Neuroscience 2009 in Chicago in October that suggests that musicians’ auditory pathways are distinctly different from non-musicians.

Nina Kraus, scientist at Northwestern University, conducted a study comparing trained musicians to the general population in how they perceive and interpret sound. Each subject heard a person reciting simple sentence, but each time they heard it, there was increasing levels of background noise. Kraus’s team of researchers discovered that the musicians were able to pick out the voice more easily and accurately than the non-musician group.

Standard hearing tests, however, show that musicians and non-musicians ears have the same sensitivity. So what’s the difference?

It’s in the neural hearing system, Kraus says. Like a muscle, the brain gets stronger with use. “Musical experience can change how our brain interacts with sounds,” she says. “It’s almost like the brain is better able to pay attention to sound and [to] better extract meaning from sound.”  Musicians, and students of music, must pay close attention to qualities such as pitch, timing and tone. They also need to be able to listen for particular sounds amidst the cacophony of the orchestra, band or choir.

These aspects of sound are the ones that are particularly difficult for children struggling with language development. When given a simple test asking them to distinguish one sound from another, musicians excel, while people with dyslexia and other language problems do poorly. A study conducted by Dana Strait suggests that musical training could help these children who are struggling with language. “These kids seem to be impaired in the very areas that musicians excel,” says Ms. Strait. “Musical experience can change how our brain interacts with sounds”.

I can say that being in special education classes from an early age in school for this very same life challenge, were not as helpful as my experiences playing music. Back in Dinosaur times.. ( just kidding ) no one back then expected Music to be the solution. Art Therapy, Music Therapy ? Great work .  It sort of makes you think that if we build music and dance and art into our everyday lives , just as we build rest and relaxation time in our lives as a normal pleasant task, we would have less situations with OCD or ADD or even socially challenging diseases.

Noticing

By describing what baby is seeing or doing you add a language element to ever activity. This makes a multi sensory language. Having words that go with the sensations Baby feels will help these vocabulary words become meaningful more quickly. Over the semester we will work to refine our observation skills by watching modeling and labeling the movements Baby makes herself and the movement we help them make . When our babies are older and in a class like “ Our Time’  for 18 months to age 3 , we will be able to turn this noticing into true interactive scaffolding. Scaffolding is a method used in early childhood education to stimulate cognitive behavior. It is done like this.

One asks a question to challenge to the child to adapt and expand her learning. 

An example would be like this.

“Emma your sitting there so nicely . I love they way your sitting. Can you stand up for me Emma ? Good Standing Emma... “

This is also used in positive reinforcement .

Tempo 

One of the fundamental aspects of Music

You see how your little child enjoys those games with music that include fast and slow music equally, or that he prefers one extreme over the other. It is important for his understanding of music and language that your Baby hear and feel a range of Tempi .

Your baby has experienced Temp changes in  Skip to my Lou.

Adagio is Slow

Andante is Walking Tempo

Allegro is Running Temp.

Creeped Adagio

Skipped Andante

Run Allegro

Humans learn though movement first. When we skip and creep and run while we label these actions through song we are actually planting seeds of early music education.

I can remember opening my first peanut with a little friend when I was at his birthday party . Clear as a bell. So We do remember.... I wonder what some of your earliest memories are as a young child?

Hum....Something to share at gathering time next week .

Brain Development

Holding your baby in a variety of positions lets him experience a variety of perspectives that stimulate his brain development. 

By experiencing the feeling of motion and seeing the world from different angles, your baby is making brain connections that will ultimately help her balance herself when she is walking and dancing on her own... I read recently that mothers who played music either live with an instrument or on a cd or mp3 player.. had significantly more alert infants. I believe this to be true. 

There is a great book out there called 

The Secret Life of the Unborn Child

by Thomas R Verny, M.D.

This book is so awesome and not too bad to read . It also is good for mommies with infants. 

You can get it from Alibris for the embarrassing price of 99 cents.. I am not joking.. Great book company. 

I read this book when I was pregnant 

Photo fro Offbeat Momma Blog

Vocal Play

Observe Your little one’s reaction to vocal play in Old Mac Donald Had a Farm

Remember how we practiced making pauses and waiting to listen with eye to eye contact for them to start to sing along with you . Babies love to imitate and so the more you play with them in little vocal games like this song or other nursery songs is a fantastic exercise. 

Ball Play and Visual Development

Labeling Our Movement

Not only is ball play lots of fun, but it also has many side benefits, especially to visual development . Lap babies are stimulated by the moving ball as they attempt to visually track the movement. Crawlers begin to exercise visual convergence as their eyes work together to follow the movements of the ball, not only side to side but also as it comes closer and farther away. Both eyes must work together to determine distance. Walkers sue those visual convergence skills as they attempt to coordinate their movements with the visual information and catch or kick the moving ball.

Security

Vestibular Stimulation

Babies who have warm responsive care are more resilient later in life. By following your instincts to cuddle Baby in activities such as this,you are providing the security and safety necessary for baby’s healthy development. - “ Brain Development Research Support and Challenges in Child care Exchange , ARticle by Pam Schiller, Ph> D., Vice President in Early Childhood Division of McGraw - Hill 

Opposites 

During the Skip to My Lou song is also a great example of opposites in the loud and soft examples.

Remember that it does not matter that they know intellectually . They are experiencing this through their bodies first

One of my cello teachers was deaf, like the famous Pablo Casals Cellist of Spain.

I learned at the age of 12 that music is not heard it is felt...

It left an impact on me... 

We talked about the importance of Timbre in music ..

Our lives reflect the movement of life though the color of Music

This is a short description of Timbre that I think really explains it best.

A Few Notes on Timbre:

“The Color of Music”

by: Catherine Schmidt-Jones.

One of the basic elements of music is called color, or timbre (pronounced "TAM-ber"). Timbre describes all of the aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do with the sound's pitch, loudness, or length. In other words, if a flute plays a note, and then an oboe plays the same note, for the same length of time, at the same loudness, you can still easily distinguish between the two sounds, because a flute sounds different from an oboe. This difference is in the timbre of the sounds.Many words are used to describe timbre. Some are somewhat interchangeable, and some may have slightly different meanings for different musicians, so no attempt will be made to provide definitions. Here are a few words commonly used to describe either timbre or tone quality.

Reedy

Brassy

Clear

Focussed or unfocussed

Breathy (pronounced "BRETH-ee")

Rounded

Piercing

Strident

Harsh

Warm

Mellow

Resonant

Dark or Bright

Heavy or Light

Flat

Having much, little, or no vibrato (a controlled wavering in the sound); or narrow or wide, or slow or fast, vibrato .

Next week in Lesson Three we will be exploring more about steady beat like what we did in Yankee Doodle as well as the importance of daily intentional touch like massage as well as the magic of routines. 

Learning steady beat creates opportunities to learn coordination and bridges their world in so many ways.
We will have a little drum session this coming Monday.. I have some drums.
Get your grove on Mommies and bring your drum to class .

PS

 Take a look at your Baby Journals. you will be getting new ones which each Village Semester you enroll in. 

PSS

Don't forget to put on your music and spend a few minutes listening to some of you songs and music with your tiny tiny ones... It will really make a difference in class.

The Hello song. Old Mac Donald Song, this Little Cow Eats Grass.

I can not wait to see what kind of dance moves our little students are going to pull out on the carpet for us next week.

I am having a fantastic time with you mommies..

Your love for you families and children is breath taking.

You all carry me through the week. 

Take care..

Tra La La

Miss M

 Sing Good Bye to Baby Baby Baby 

Sing Good Bye to Baby ...

Oh How I love my baby - o .

 Remember Grandma Elowises' advice : 

Setting your kitchen timer for 15 mins to do nothing , think of nothing and really relax is a life saver.

 If your not lying down right now... Set your timer.. It is probably time too... Wink Wink... :)