Born to Dance

The following is from an interesting article I read in ScienceDaily:

Researchers have discovered that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech.

The findings, based on the study of infants aged between five months and two years old, suggest that babies may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.

The research was conducted by Dr Marcel Zentner, from the University of York’s Department of Psychology, and Dr Tuomas Eerola, from the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research at the University of Jyvaskyla.

Dr Zentner said: “Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants. We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music the more they smiled.”

But, if you’ve come to a Studio3Music Kindermusik class, you already know that, and didn’t need scientific research to tell you so.

What I love about this research is that it enforces what we’ve learned about the brain. In the first 7 years of life, the brain’s main job is to organize itself. It does this through sensory integration. Sensory integration is the process of sorting, ordering and organizing sensory input (sounds, tastes, touch, visual input, smells, the sense of gravity and movement, and where the body is in space) so that the brain produces useful body responses, useful perceptions, and emotions.

When sensory integration is happening as it should, learning is also easy, and children naturally then seek to learn more complicated tasks. There is an inner drive in children to develop sensory integration. Remember how the babies in the research study smiled the more they could synchronize their movements to the music?

They experienced an “adaptive response”, which is a purposeful, goal-directed response to a sensory experience. The sensory input from his eyes, muscles, joints and vestibular system all are integrated and organized in his brain; therefore, he can make his body move in time to the music. And that ability to do so is very satisfying. So the baby smiles.

I think the key is this: Music helps organize the brain. When the body and all of the senses work together as a whole, adaptation and learning are easy for the brain. Most of our learning must occur first through the integration of our sensory systems. This provides the groundwork for later cognitive functions.

But, you already knew that, whether in your head or in your heart. And so does your little one. And that’s one of the reasons you come to class every week. Because music leads to learning, and learning leads to great satisfaction. What better gift can you give your children?

­-posted by Miss Analiisa, who loves to watch the babies wiggle in their grownups arms as they head toward the studio, cause they can’t get to Kindermusik fast enough, or the older ones running down the sidewalk towards the door, calling their teacher’s name!