Critical_Review

Do you know that music supports the formation of brain connection' The article “Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle: Using Music with Infants and Toddlers,” by Rebecca Parlakian and Claire Lerner (March 2010) says “music and music experiences also support the formation of important brain connections that are being established over the first three years of life (Carlton 2000)”. They also explain how music can promote development of social-emotional skills, physical motor skills, cognitive skills, language, and literacy skills. They also provide suggestions how an early childhood educator may use this information to promote development within these areas. Parlakian & Lerner talk about music facilitating social-emotional skills and motor development. Infants and toddlers are beginning to learn and practice self-regulation. For example when an infant or toddler is upset, an adult may sing softly or play soothing music and this usually helps the children calm down and this helps the children learn how to begin to self-regulate. Music also helps babies and toddlers learn the words to describe their emotional state. For example learning words like happy, sad, and mad. They also learn to cooperate and begin building relationships, develop self-esteem and self confidence, and even to start sharing and take turns. Music also helps develop physical motor skills. It helps develop gross motor skills as it promotes movement like dancing. This means developing body awareness, and learning how to balance. It also aids in development of fine motor skills by doing finger plays or other interactive songs that call for hand movement. The other two important skill developments are cognitive skills and language and literacy skills. Music deliberately gives a chance to practice patterns, math concepts and symbolic thinking skills. Lots of songs introduce numbers and counting like, “One, Two, Buckle my Shoe,” and “Five Little Monkeys.” Every song has its own pattern or tempo and this helps children learn sequences. Music invites participation and learning about pitch, timbre, tone and volume. Infants and toddlers can begin to practice pretend play by using props to go along with the songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Parlakian & Lerner (2010) explain that music may greatly influence and increase an infant or toddlers language skills. Music nurtures literacy and learning language in many ways. For example, changing the words in songs, and offering music in children’s home language. Music also lets the child hear the words and they eventually begin to recognize and use different sounds. At the end the author has included some ideas to try with children according to their age group, from birth up to three years. For instance, using their names in the song could help develop social-emotional skill for infants up to 12 months (Parlakian & Lerner, 2010, p.18) Over all, the article is very interesting. There is relevant information about the development of all three domains. It is strongly believed that every living being is attached to music in one way or another. I have worked with children and seen lot of this happening. One time we had a child who just woke up from the nap and was very upset to be awakened. It was Friday and very soon we had our music teacher walking in. The upset child at first was not even ready to sit down for music time but later that child not only joined the group but also took part in the song activities we did. The child waited his turn for playing the small instruments brought in by the music teacher. This article reflects the modified ways the ECE can support children’s development. Music influences the three domains including physical, cognitive and social-emotional. It highly impacts the cognitive skills of very young infants. The early childhood educators can use many different ways to enhance these domains with modified music. After knowing the importance of music can anyone resist music out of their young ones lives'