Studio3Music Blog

Posts Tagged ‘physical development’

Aug
5

Tooting our own horn. We think you should toot one, too.

Okay, okay. So I know a lot of you prefer to be OUTSIDE as much as possible during our summers here in Seattle, but fall is just around the corner. Along with the rain. Which means it’s time come back inside, at least between the showers. And we want to invite you into our hearts and Kindermusik classrooms. Our Studio3Music families are waiting to greet you with open arms, with some horns to toot, sticks to tap, bells to jingle, tambourines to shake, songs to sing and dances to, well, dance!

Music is the best thing you can do to nurture your child’s mind, body and soul from birth onward. Want to know how?

Listening builds attention.

Feeling and moving to steady beat develops a sense of time.

Beat organizes and coordinates movements.

Music and movement story time encourages musical development through tonal, rhythm, and movement play.

Playing instruments increases eye-hand coordination.

Singing encourages the exploration of one’s voice.

Music develops a sense of own internal steady beat.

Matching external beats develops ensemble skills and cooperation.

Movement and language activities develop body awareness.

Vocal play increases awareness of word sounds and language usage.

Pattern usage fosters memory retention.

Sensory input increases muscular movement and balance.

Exposure to a wide variety of music develops appreciation and understanding of the diverse world.

Sound and silence in music develop a strong sense of internal control and self discipline.

Body awareness is important in developing spatial orientation, which translates to learning and reproducing shapes, letters and numbers on paper.

Understanding of spatial orientation develops relationships with people and objects.

Predictability of patterns within music promotes learning concept of time, sequence and pattern.

Improvising (making up songs) provides opportunities for flexibility, change or rearrangement to encourage creativity.

Emotional relationships are affirmed and strengthened in song and dance.

Exploring with instruments encourages exploratory behavior.

Children learn to value music as another form of human expression and communication.

-posted by Studio3Music, with thanks to Miss Lisa from Soundsteps, who thinks you should register for class right this very minute!

Tags: kindermusik, language development, learning, listening, Miss Analiisa, music, physical development

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Jul
16

Do Bats Dance?

Posted in Child Development, Education, Music and the brain

My husband Karl was gone all last week, which meant that I had drop off and pick up duty for Rob’s rehearsals. (He’s making his debut in Aladdin Jr. this week!) Rather than fight traffic without a carpool buddy (my remaining children were at camp with Karl), I opted to sit in the air conditioned, quiet library in a comfy chair with public wi-fi for 3 hours and wait for him. Otherwise known as heaven to this busy, never-alone momma.

I spent some time researching and reading about a dancing bird, a sizzling tidbit of data I had squirreled away for such a peaceful moment. It actually was pretty fascinating. The article was from a science journal, after all, so there had to be a bit of boring stuff. But I’ll skip all that and only share the interesting parts.

There was a 2009 study done by Patel (he’s from the Neurosciences Institute of San Diego), Iverson, Bregman and Schultz, inspired by a YouTube video of a dancing sulfer-crested cockatoo named Snowball. (You can him perform at the World Science Fair below.) Apparently, this was the first time scientists had noticed a species other than humans who had BPS – beat perception and synchronization.

BPS means that you have the ability to perceive the beat in music and move your body to that beat. I admit, not everyone does it well. But every human can do it, every culture does it, though I actually heard something about “beat deafness” a while ago. That bit of data is also squirreled away for a looksee later, too.

The scientists, being the thorough researchers that they are, poured over thousands of YouTube videos looking for other examples of animals that had BPS. Surprisingly (or maybe not), they found only a couple of other species of birds and one Asian elephant.

They did some further hands-on research with Snowball, and found he could also adapt to changes in tempo. His BPS and adaption to tempo change percentage of accuracy was around 60% – approximately the same as young children.

Trying to find commonalities between the birds and the Asian elephant and the non beat-deaf humans, the scientists found that we all have a rare trait in common – complex vocal learning. This simply means that we learn to produce complex sounds by imitation. Think about it, that’s how babies learn to speak – by mimicking the sounds of other people.

There is just a small group of animals that have complex vocal learning – parrots, songbirds, hummingbirds, dolphins, seals, elephants, some bats and some whales. The researchers wondered if those animals would have BPS, too. (Imagine the funding required to find out if whales can dance!)

Now to me, here’s the really interesting part. BPS requires auditory (hearing) motor (moving) to integrate in the nervous system, and vocal learning helps create this interface.

Not only that, the circuits in the brain that deal with vocal learning overlap with those that involve BPS. The ability to keep a steady beat with our bodies and vocal learning are connected.

The researchers went on to note that young children are better at synchronizing to a steady beat in a social versus non-social context.

Now, I’m not qualified by a series of letters after my last name to draw any amazing conclusions from this research. And personally, I’m not titillated by the thoughts of piping Sousa into a dark cave and standing knee deep in guano, trying to see with my flashlight if the bats will move in time to Stars and Stripes Forever, but the info from this study is a no-brainer to me.

Why? It’s exactly what do we do in Kindermusik class. Those neuroscientists should check us out.Vocal play (another way to say complex vocal learning), steady beat work in a social context. Moving to music while we sing, speak, talk, and play. It’s what we do. And learning has never been so much fun. The long term benefits? Great athletes, musicians, scientists, actors, thinkers, creators and problem solvers develop the beginnings of wings to soar in a Kindermusik classroom. Baby sulfer-crested cockatoos should be so lucky.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is off to try and convince her 10 year old actor to hold still while she gets his stage makeup mascara on without jabbing him in the eye with it.

Tags: brain, dancing, kindermusik, language development, learning, listening, Miss Analiisa, physical development

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Apr
6

Life With a Tornado

Posted in Child Development, Family

My niece Macie turns one year in a month. Right now, she’s at that annoying stage where she sits in her high chair, looks you straight in the eye, gives a cheeky grin, and drops her cup onto the floor.

My sister finds it annoying. I find it hilarious. Of course, I’ve been-there done-that three times, and it’s been five years since one of mine played that game. Because I’m the auntie, I can call it cute and be glad I’m no longer scraping food off the walls.

What this all means is that 11 month old Macie has moved from the this-is-all-about-picking-things-up stage, to the what-will-happen-if-I, what-does-it-feel-like, what-noise-does-it-make stage.

But let’s back up a moment. I’ve got to get you caught up. These fine motor skills began at about 2 to 4 months of age, when she inaccurately swiped at objects. Sometime after 3 months, she could hold small objects in her hand, and within a couple of months, could transfer those objects between her hands. Between 5 and 9 months Macie could first rake at objects with her whole hand to pick them up, and then moved on to picking up small objects using her thumb and index finger. We call this a pincer grasp.

She’ll use this grasp to string beads, close a Ziploc bag, color, hold her glockenspiel mallets in Kindermusik Young Child, build Lego creations, and cut with scissors.

As Macie’s grasp became more precise, she explored objects by moving, twisting, turning and shaking them. Now at almost a year, she’s just about ready for my favorite classic of baby toys – the Tupperware shape sorter, which combines the rotating, moving and flipping skills she learned earlier, which a little cognitive thinking.

When she first learned to sit, Macie would prop herself up on one arm, and explore her playthings with one hand and her mouth. As she learned sit without help, both hands became free to be used to answer her questions about the shape, texture, size, hardness, and weight of objects. She’s using her mouth less (though a lot of children remain really oral for a couple of years, and that’s perfectly okay).

Which brings us back to the cup throwing. And the banging, shaking, squeezing, tapping, twisting and flinging. Is my sister annoyed? You betcha. Her living room floor currently looks like a tornado hit it. So does Macie’s room. And the dining room. And sometimes even the bathroom. (And even the hallway, which occasionally gets mummified by an unwound roll of toilet paper.

But rather than get angry when our babes make a mess, keep this in mind: You already know what a balloon does when you kick it, what noise a cup makes when you throw it, just how fast you can unwind toilet paper (and how long it is!), how scratchy brush bristles feel on your skin – but your little one doesn’t. Someone, long ago, let you taste, touch, feel and manipulate objects. And then helped you learn how to pick up your tornado.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who suggests you make an ever-changing sensory box filled with varied objects like a sponge, a wooden spoon, a rock, a piece of sandpaper, a feather duster, and egg shaker, a pan lid, a real flower, a jingle bell stick and a stuffed animal for you to explore together.

Tags: babies, learning, Miss Analiisa, physical development, toddlers

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Mar
31

Bad handwriting – just laziness?

Posted in Child Development, Education

Dysgraphia is a form of learning disorder which affects how kids write—more accurately, don’t write. These kids avoid writing like the plague. When forced, it’s a struggle. Often gifted students, they are labeled lazy or messy because of the extreme amount of time it takes them to produce next to nothing—and that’s not even talking about legibility. When reasonable kids are given reasonable training and still don’t want to write, dysgraphia may be the reason!

For a long time, dysgraphia wasn’t a recognized learning issue. Just read a few of the comments on any of the websites listed at the bottom and you’ll quickly see what I mean. You’ll hear from adults who struggled through school and only later in life discovered they weren’t stupid or lazy. Good-hearted parents who have tried to decode the mystery of their smart non-writer lament and rejoice in the helpful diagnosis. Guilt-smothered parents who berated their kids for not doing what they couldn’t are out there too, guaranteed. It’s time for dysgraphia to come into the light.

The diagnosis for dysgraphia is, as with many learning disabilities, somewhat inexact. A “cluster of symptoms” identifies it. Here is a sampling of the list from Wikipedia: Dysgraphia: Signs and Symptoms:

Cramping of fingers while writing short entries
Odd wrist, arm, body, or paper orientations such as creating an L shape with your arm
Excessive erasures
Mixed upper case and lower case letters
Inconsistent form and size of letters, or unfinished letters
Misuse of lines and margins
Inefficient speed of copying
Inattentiveness over details when writing
Frequent need of verbal cues
Referring heavily on vision to write
Poor legibility
Handwriting abilities that may interfere with spelling and written composition
Having a hard time translating ideas to writing, sometimes using the wrong words altogether
May feel pain while writing

Writing is a complex set of motor and information processing skills. Breakdowns can occur on several levels. Three identified subtypes are: Dyslexic & Spatial which are brain-based issues. Motor which is caused by fine motor problems.

Dyslexic: Children’s spontaneous writing is illegible. Copy work is fairly good, but spelling is bad. Not thought to be fine motor based problem.

Spatial: Illegible spontaneous writing and copy work, but normal spelling. Not thought to be fine motor based.

Motor: Fine motor skills are deficient. They have poor dexterity, weak muscle tone or clumsiness. Writing requires extreme effort and an unreasonable amount of time to accomplish. Writing is poor, often illegible. They have difficulty drawing. Their oral spelling is normal. Often they hold their pencil in an awkward manner.

The bright side of a diagnosis of dysgraphia may well be the emotional relief and redirection of correction in a positive direction. Stress was listed as a main negative side effect of the disorder. Can you imagine the frustration of not being able move a thought from head to hand to paper? Assigning correct meaning helps the patient and parent know how to proceed.

Intervention for dysgraphia is better when started younger. Dianne Craft, an expert in treating “learning glitches” as she calls them, has a website and treatment program for a variety of learning disabilities affecting children, including dysgraphia. Exercises include retraining the brain through copy work and gross motor activities. She identifies dysgraphia as the most common learning block of gifted children and offers many resources for helping children move beyond the disability.

When therapy is given the college try and is clearly not helping, “accommodation” is recommended. Helping children live with dysgraphia often includes teaching cursive as it can be easier letter formation than printing. Early keyboard training can help diminish frustration, however giving up on handwriting is not recommended. Public schools are able or sometime required to offer diagnosed children therapy or appropriate classroom help, such as a keyboard, or note-taker or alternate testing methods.

Check out these websites for more information:

ncld.org: National Center for Learning Disabilities

Nototherwisespecified.typepad.com: Sara Gardner’s blog (mother of a child with dysgraphia)

Diannecraft.org: Expert in treating childhood learning “glitches.”

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who hopes that this blog will get some frustrated children the help they need to succeed.

Tags: Donna Detweiler, learning, physical development

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Mar
21

Understanding Your Child (Boring title, important idea.)

Posted in Child Development, Education, Family, parenting

I’ll be right up front and tell you that tell you that I don’t pretend to understand your children. Seriously, I have three of my own. All complete opposites. I have enough to do, thank you very much, without worrying about your kids.

Don’t believe that? Okay. Truth be told – I’m a teacher through and through. I strive to appreciate every child I work with, and if you ask me about your child, (as some of you have), I’m happy to give you my observations. I really do want you help you be successful in the art of parenting.

I can also share what I’ve learned about how to really get to know them. And why would you want to get to know them? Besides the obvious fact that you like your children, of course! Your children are born with unique personalities, skills, gifts, talents, learning styles, and characteristics. It’s our job as parents to support our children as they mature.

Understanding your child will assist you to guiding them as they grow. For instance, knowing your child’s learning style (In order to understand concepts, do they need to see it, hear it, or do it?) will tell you how to help them with learning to read, tell time, or grasp their addition facts.

Children arrive with some prewiring. I don’t mean that they can’t change and grow, but they aren’t blank slates, either. How my 3 children behaved in utero was how they acted after they arrived on the outside. One was a poker – he’s 13 and he still “pokes” at me verbally if he wants my attention. One was a roller – I looked like a pregnant Sigourney Weaver from the movie Alien. He still is a whole body mover. He needs to move to learn. He moves when things get emotionally difficult to deal with. He rolls on the floor a few times in the middle of a particularly intense violin lesson, and then gets up and is ready to work again. My two boys will always be pokers and rollers.

The best way to understand your children is to simply observe them. Playing, working, sleeping, eating. What are the character traits that continually show themselves? Are they introverted or extroverted? What are their favorite activities? Those things are your child’s “normal”. Most of the time, your child’s “normal” is perfectly okay. And you need to be okay with it, too.

You don’t like going to the zoo every weekend, but your daughter begs, rain or shine? Think about what clues that gives you. Nurture that love of nature. If you don’t want to go to the zoo again, find new museums, take a field trip to the vet’s office, check out library books about reptiles for your visual learner. Get a pet for your “doer” to take care of.

Want to get to know someone? Ask a lot of questions! So, ask your child open-ended questions. (Those questions that require more than a yes or no answer.) Instead of asking your child who they played with in school, ask them what they played.

Miss Allison (a great observer of children) gave me some more ideas to pass along to you:

When you read a book to them ask them what their favorite part was… who their favorite character was…

Have a verbal child tell you a story. You’ll discover a lot about what they think about, and feel, are scared of… wishing for…

Watch how they play with small pretend play manipulatives: people toys (like action figures and Polly Pocket type things) and anthropomorphized animal toys, too, plastic animals or dinosaurs, small stuffed animals. Large motor pretend play is usually done with other children, but small motor pretend play is often done alone, so you only see what your child is interested in rather than what they are willing to compromise on.

Pay attention to the skill sets that confuse them or make them frustrated. Those activities are pointing you toward the areas the child isn’t as comfortable with, may be stuck with, or toward personality traits such as perfectionist, or short tempered.

Make a point of playing with your child in different areas of development. Do a puzzle one day, take a nature hike the next. Ride bikes, or work on pedaling, build with blocks, color and do a craft, sing a song, tell a story so that you can see where your child is gifted, where they struggle and most importantly, where they are growing and where they are not growing.

With lots of observation and interaction, you’ll have the knowledge of what tools and toys to provide, to assist them in reaching their next level of maturity.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who sees so many of her sister’s and mother’s traits in her daughter that it’s more than a bit freaky.

Image: Naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net