Child brain music and development

The first three years of a child's life represent an important period in the future of every individual, since there is that special relationship between parents and children called "attachment". Music can contribute to strengthening this link and getting a healthy and operational relationship. In this Psychology Line article, we develop the relationship between Child brain music and development.

Throughout the world, when parents talk 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 cognitive, social, emotional, affective, motor, language, as well as the reading and writing capacity.

1. Music and its origins
2. Brain
3. The "Mozart" effect and the "Tomatis" effect
4. Music and its effects on brain development
5. Conclusions

Music and its origins

Music It is a means of universal expression, It is believed that their origins are related to the man's own voice. The first musical instruments appeared around 2500 to.C., In Egyptian culture. In ancient Greece and Rome, around the 5th century.C., Music was essentially vocal, and made use of percussion, rope and wind instruments. Around century V D.C., The Christian era brought with it the appearance of liturgical songs. In the Middle Ages the Gregorian songs 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 music.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there was an extension and improvement of the different musical instruments. Music began to be used as a therapeutic method especially in the second half of the twentieth century, due to the recognition of its effects on the affective state and care of individuals.

Brain

The human brain constitutes the most important and greater complexity of the nervous system, it is an organ that during childhood undergoes maturative changes and that is highly sensitive to external stimuli. Anatomically we can divide it into two hemispheres (right and left), each with different and special functional characteristics, composed of lobes and covered by a structure called cerebral cortex in which the areas of human development are found.

Neuroanatomic studies They have shown that the left hemisphere specializes in the processing of language and the right hemisphere in the perception and processing of music.

The human brain works through connections (synapse) that brain cells called neurons and that are responsible for transmitting the nerve impulse that determines our behavior. The human brain presents a High learning capacity And it has the property of operating in extreme or deficit situations both organic and functional, this capacity is called cerebral plasticity.

The "Mozart" effect and the "Tomatis" effect

In the mid -twentieth century, a French biaralingologist Alfred Tomatis, initiated a Rehabilitation proposal aimed at people with auditory or language difficulties.

Its therapeutic program consisted of the Musical stimulation through listening to Mozart pieces and other classic composers, Obtaining positive changes in language rehabilitation and speech development, this purpose has been called "Tomatis effect". This eminent doctor also developed a new model of growth and development of the human ear and acknowledged that the fetus listens to sounds within the maternal uterus (such as digestion movements, heart rhythms and mother's breathing). He also observed that the newborn relaxes when he hears the mother's voice.

In 1993, Rauscher and collaborators of the University of California, published the results obtained in an investigation conducted with groups of university students, who were exposed to listen to a Mozart sonata for 10 minutes, achieving high scores in the testspacial skills tests and cognitive in general, as well as a transitory increase in the intellectual quotient. This finding was called "Mozart effect".

Subsequent studies have shown that listening to Mozart music triggers behavior changes (in relation to alert and calm states), affectivity (induces emotional states) and metabolic (increased calcium and dopamine content in the brain).

Music and its effects on brain development

The investigations that have referred to Effect of music on the children's brain, They have agreed that it causes an activation of the cerebral cortex, specifically the front and occipital areas, involved in space-temporal processing.

Also when evaluating the effects of music through electroencephalograms records, music has been found that music originates an alpha -type brain activity. All of the above translates into the following: music (especially classical music, from Mozart) causes:

• Increase in memory capacity, Children's attention and concentration.
• Improve the Ability to solve mathematical problems and complex reasoning.
• It's a way of Express oneself.
• Introduces children to The sounds and meanings of words and strengthens learning.
• It provides the opportunity for children to interact with each other and with adults.
• Stimulates creativity and child imagination.
• When combined with dance, stimulates the senses, balance, and muscle development.
• Causes the evocation of memories and images with which the intellect is enriched.
• Stimulates the integral development of the child, acting over all areas of development.

Conclusions

To conclude only rest saying that music represents an important role in the teaching 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 child.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no 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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