Music Tip Monday #7 - Neuromusical education
/Last Friday I attended a thought provoking day on music learning and brain development given by Dr Anita Collins, an Australian neuromusical educator from the ACT.
Anita is a passionate, practicing music teacher as well as researcher. Her three sessions focused on how learning music affects the brain and a child’s cognitive development. It was a discussion more about using music education as a powerful tool in building bigger better brains, than about the equally important function of music learning in an arts enriched education.
Here are a few points which resonated strongly with me:
Left brain / right brain is an outmoded way of thinking.
Hearing is our biggest information gathering sense.
The ages 0-7 are critical in the first wiring of the brain. Rhythm and beat form the basis of all brain development. ( Aside: any early- childhood classroom teacher is capable of simple beat and rhythm activities and is thereby enhancing the cognitive development of every child in the class)
In the ‘first wiring’ stage, significant results can be achieved by just 10 min of beat and rhythm activities per day.
After age 7 brain development is considered ‘rewiring’. It can be achieved but requires more minutes per day.
Singing and moving engages the whole sensory network.
That is just a taste of Dr Anita Collins’ work. To read more, check out ‘Bigger Better Brains’ on Facebook.
