The first three years of a child's life represent an important period in the future of every individual, since that special relationship between parents and children called "attachment" is established there. Music can help strengthen this bond and help it develop into a healthy and working relationship. In this PsychologyOnline article, we develop the relationship between Music and children's brain development.
All over the world, when parents speak to their young children, they adjust their voices to make them softer, more rhythmic, more musical. Music can be a vehicle for the integral development of the child that covers the areas cognitive, social, emotional, affective, motor, language, as well as the ability to read and writing.
Index
- Music and its origins
- Brain
- The "Mozart" effect and the "Tomatis" effect
- Music and its effects on brain development
- Conclusions
Music and its origins.
Music it is a universal means of expression, its origins are believed to be related to man's own voice. The first musical instruments appeared around 2500 BC. C., in Egyptian culture. In ancient Greece and Rome, around the 5th century BC. C., the music was essentially vocal, and made use of percussion, string and wind instruments. Around the 5th century AD. C., the Christian era brought with it the appearance of liturgical songs. In the Middle Ages Gregorian chants appeared as the most important musical manifestation of the time. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the opera appeared, which with instrumental music and the great composers of classical music (Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mozart and others), represented the maturity of the music.
In the 19th and 20th centuries there was an expansion and improvement of the different musical instruments. Music began to be used as a therapeutic method especially in the second half of the 20th century, due to the recognition of its effects on the affective and attention state of individuals.
Brain.
The human brain is the most important and most complex organ of the nervous system, it is a organ that undergoes maturational changes during childhood and is highly sensitive to stimuli external. Anatomically we can divide it into two hemispheres (right and left), each with different functional characteristics and special, composed of lobes and covered by a structure called the cerebral cortex in which the areas of the human development.
Neuroanatomical studies have shown that the left hemisphere specializes in language processing and the right hemisphere in the perception and processing of music.
The human brain works by means of connections (synapses) made by brain cells called neurons and which are responsible for transmitting the nerve impulse that determines our behavior. The human brain has a high learning ability and it has the property of working in extreme situations or deficits both organic and functional, this ability is called brain plasticity.
The "Mozart" effect and the "Tomatis" effect.
In the middle of the 20th century, a French otolaryngologist, Alfred Tomatis, started a rehabilitation proposal aimed at people with hearing or language difficulties.
His therapeutic program consisted of musical stimulation through listening to pieces by Mozart and other classical composers, obtaining positive changes in the rehabilitation of language and in the development of speech, for this purpose it has been called the “Tomatis effect”. Also this eminent doctor, developed a new model of growth and development of the human ear and recognized that the fetus hears sounds inside the womb (such as digestion movements, heart rhythms, and mother). He also observed that the newborn relaxes when he hears the mother's voice.
In 1993, Rauscher and collaborators from the University of California, published the results obtained in an investigation carried out with groups of university students, who were exposed to listen to a Mozart sonata for 10 minutes, achieving high scores on tests of visuospatial and cognitive abilities in general, as well as a transitory increase in the quotient intellectual. This finding was called the "Mozart effect."
Subsequent studies have shown that listening to Mozart's music triggers behavioral changes (in relation to states of alert and calm), affectivity (induces emotional states) and metabolic (increased content of calcium and dopamine in the brain).
Music and its effects on brain development.
The investigations that have referred to effect of music on children's brain, have agreed that it causes an activation of the cerebral cortex, specifically the frontal and occipital areas, involved in spatio-temporal processing.
Likewise, when evaluating the effects of music through electroencephalogram recordings, it has been found that music originates an alpha-type brain electrical activity. All of the above translates into the following: music (especially classical music, by Mozart) causes:
- Increased memory capacity, attention and concentration of children.
- Improves the ability to solve mathematical problems and complex reasoning.
- It's a way of Express oneself.
- Introduce children to the sounds and meanings of words and strengthens learning.
- Provides an opportunity for children to interact with each other and with adults.
- Stimulates creativity and children's imagination.
- When combined with dance, it stimulates the senses, balance, and muscle development.
- It provokes the evocation of memories and images with which the intellect is enriched.
- It stimulates the integral development of the child, by acting on all areas of development.
Conclusions.
To conclude, only remainder to say that music plays an important role in the teaching-learning process of students (especially those of initial education), therefore, teachers, Educational institutions, parents and health personnel must know the scope and benefits derived from the use of music as an important part of the integral education of the less.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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