Music and movement are primary to the young child’s development ‘Music is language without words’ and relates directly to learning foundations that precede the later development of language skills. ‘Musical activities have been shown to improve children’s learning. …Music is one of life’s earliest teachers.’

‘Music is processed at all levels in the brain’, and perceived in both the right and left hemisphere of the brain. In the young child the right hemisphere is thought to be more developed and is considered ‘responsible for melody recognition, language comprehension, rhythm, spatial orientation, and picture recognition………… Musical training also helps to develop left-hemisphere abilities such as sound discrimination, timing, numerical skills, and expressive language………..  Singing and instrumental training develop fine motor coordination, but they also train the matching of motor output to visual input.’ (Goddard, 2004:77-78)

The issue of visual-motor skills is especially important in the early years when movement and balance are critical to all areas of development and learning. These foundations will relate to later skills such as climbing, bike riding, and the hand-eye coordination associated with crafts and handwriting.

Steiner has placed particular importance on giving young children safe, gentle and natural environments that promote free play.

‘Natural soundscapes illustrate movement through melodic and rhythmic sounds that differ according to time and place and illustrate intervals and timbre.’(Ceppi&zini, 1998: 90).

‘Because noise and confusion can be detrimental to development, be sure to monitor the level of the TV.  Even many children’s programmes are far too noisy for baby brains.’ (Healy, 1987: 33)

Steiner presents that the visual and auditory experiences unite through the ‘rhythmic system’. Musical memory, everything audible is remembered in the same region of the brain as the reception of visual sensory information and in the ‘rhythmic system’ they ‘dovetail and interlock’. Steiner describes perception as the activity of the sense system, whereas comprehension is transmitted through the rhythmic system and is closely linked to our feelings and emotions. (Steiner, 1947:p37-8)

The Waldorf kindergarten teachers are encouraged to sing to the class in order to facilitate class participation through a transition period; for example, introducing tidying up time with a simple song that supports and encourages the tidying up process. Steiner education is focused on natural environments and encourages natural play and learning methods based on Steiner’s anthroposophical presentation of child development.  Within this approach children are encouraged to participate in dance, drama, and a wide range of musical activities e.g. singing and playing simple and beautifully made musical instruments such as the .

Steiner education presents that motivation and incentive have their roots ‘deeply embedded in our feelings…….  Intrinsic motivation that engages our feelings arises from our direct interest and curiosity, or even our long term ambitions and goals’ intrinsic motivation is guided by the inner world of the child and facilitated by the will…..‘playing of a musical instrument also has a beneficial effect on the will and thereby strengthens self-discipline (Childs, 1995: 129 &118.)

Steiner also devised a whole body approach to movement and sound that he called ‘eurhythmy’.  He describes eurhythmy as ‘visible speech’, ‘visible song’ – ‘soul gymnastics’.  When we speak or sing, we create ‘patterned forms and gestures with our breath and resulting sounds, and it is these forms which furnish the source that is the whole art of eurhythmy which is an art in its own right. Performers of speech eurhythmy carry out arm and hand gestures which correspond to the sounds of the vowels and consonants in the speech element, at the same time tracing artistically conceived foot work patterns, known as forms. In tone eurhythmy the appropriate limb movements correspond with the melodies and rhythms of the music being played.’ (Childs, 1995: 40) Later Steiner developed a form of ‘curative eurhythmy’.  This is taught by specialist teachers to individual or small groups of children and it is particularly noted as a curative support for children with specific learning difficulties.

E.M.Standing cites Maria Montessori’s specification of ‘educational movement’, which she suggests must be an activity that fortifies the personality and empowers the child, through its wholeness, to engage in creativity that ‘unites his motor forces and his psychic life’. (Standing, 1984:233)

1. Standing goes on to clarify this type of movement as ‘synthetic movement’, which contains the essence of intelligence and knowing and ‘must call forth a real effort; since the will like any other organ grows by functioning.’ (Standing, 1984:233)

Musical activities are so joyfully received by young children and their participation is usually so passionate, that it is easy to appreciate the reasons why both Montessori and Steiner appear to give such high levels of importance to musical activities in early childhood.

1. Standing also cites Montessori’s description of what she called the ‘silence game’ through which Montessori discovered ‘that, deep down in their souls, children have a great love for silence’. She goes on to describe how Montessori noticed that the ‘silence game’ required great patience and self-discipline and seemed to bring to the children a sense of wellbeing and contentment. (Standing, 1984:45)

In all of musical activities there is a dependence upon momentary pauses; it is the spaces between notes that direct the rhythm and tempo. Howard Gardner describes how four month infants can match rhythms and simple melodies and by their second year children are inventing their own rhythms and melodies in spontaneous song; thus illustrating the child’s intuitive feel for music and innate musical intelligence. (Gardner, 1983:108-9)

‘When the child follows its own inner, private and intimate rhythm his spontaneity expresses ‘the total personality’.  It is important that the child’s actions are not directed by the will of another, activities that require self-discipline must be freely chosen.’ (Standing, 1984: 234)

The intrinsic reflective quality of musical activities supports the development and integration of willed choice, discipline, coordination of movement and personal expression.  Musical sounds are explicitly accurate in their presentation of physical movements and this unprecedented system of feedback accurately illustrates to the children a musical interpretation of their actions. This can encourage children to interpretate a sense of consequence through the musical results to their actions. Physical movements that initiate authentic musical activity require skills in auditory discrimination, rhythmic patterns of movement and balance. Thus music motivates self-imposed physical mastery. The autonomy and immediacy of responding sounds meet the sensory and spontaneous focus in this first phase of learning described by Montessori as ‘the absorbent mind’ (Britton:1992: 12)  and Piaget as the ‘sensory motor period’ (Gardner,1993: 105) . This physical ‘language of the body’, forms foundation skills that support more complex learning in later years. ‘Just as the brain controls the body, the body has much to teach the brain.’ (Goddard, 2004: 3)

Complementing the reflective aspects of musical activities one must also acknowledge how music inspires the movements of ‘dance’.  Learning to stand up, to walk, to run and dance are some of the most prominent aspects of a child’s early years.  Babies and young children illustrate this area of passion even in their very earliest responses to music. If movement and balance are facilitated by the body’s ‘rhythmic system’, it is easy to appreciate why children of this age are so moved by musical activities and performance.

In her book ‘Children dancing’  RosemundShreeves describes how rhythms arise out of movement and that through dance, children experience feelings of release and satisfaction not found in other activities.  She describes dance as: ‘body awareness and sensitivity; movement to follow; physical and emotional fitness; creativity in movement and thought; and response to the surrounding environment’ Further important aspects of dancing include, involvement and interaction; vitality and energy; and repeated enjoyment of the rhythmic sensation. Furthermore the nonverbal quality of dance enhances concentration and awareness of the physical sensations of body-movement and touch.  Dancing to music encourages flowing movements and requires a relaxation of unwanted body tensions and thereby encourages and extends spontaneous creativity. (Shreeves, 1990:12)

Children’s Musical Development

The following is a basic representation of children’s musical development:-

Stimulus – Organism – Responses     

• Relaxing to gentle music.
• Random body movements.
• Spontaneous expressive vocal sounds.

Cause & Effect

• Simple random actions that create a sound i.e. shaking a rattle.
• Experimentation with action and sound associations.
• Exploring vocal production of melodious sounds.

Stop-Pause-Go

• Exploring rhythm; developing actions that are repeated in a predictable pattern – clapping, rocking, tapping.
• Imitation – specialized movements creating a specific musical response i.e. Beating a drum or clashing spoons.
• Nonverbal imitation of the intonation of speech with emphasis on variations of tone and pulse (speed).
• Organized dance activities g. Here we go round the mulberry bush.
• Physical responses to musical arrangements of sound and instrumental music.

Self-directed Spontaneous Creativity

• Personal qualities of expressive language
• Recognising rhyming words and sounds.
• Exploration and experimentation on musical instruments and/or other objects with some personal purpose and expression of mood, unique to that particular time, place and situation.
• Spontaneous dance 

Directing Musical Production

• Playing up and down notes on a musical instrument.
• Creating improvised musical melodies and percussion rhythms that have themes and structures; engaging in the joy of organized simple (3-5 notes) musical patterns.
• Specific dance routines. 

Focus & Discipline

• Expression of sounds through movement, e.g. stamping, floating, marching…
• Coordination of movement and development of basic musical skills.
• Auditory memory learning to play a simple repeated pattern of notes.
• Copying and or repeating simple dance movements.
• Learning to sing simple songs with an emphasis on the rhyming words and repeated phrases.
• Skills associated with dance performance.

Social Interaction through Music

• Shared music making activities.
• Shared singing activities and alternately singing.
• Improvised tunes that express mood and /or personality and temperament.
• Putting everyday phrases to a familiar tune e.g. ‘I am hungry, I am hungry’ to the tune of ‘I hear thunder’ or ‘mummy put the kettle’ on instead of ‘Polly put the kettle on’.
• Songs with co-ordinated actions.
• Improvised dancing to a familiar tune e.g. disco dancing, improvised waltzing.
• Simple shared dance routines and informal co-operative dance.

Informal musical activities seem to have a natural aptitude to embrace all the above levels of criteria and often create very special qualities of focus and joyful enthusiasm.

Movement is Monitored by the Vestibular Sensory System

The first aspect of learning comes from movement which is monitored by the Vestibular system. The following is an outline of the young child’s neurological development of reflexes and the influence music based activities might have on this essential aspect of early learning.

Physical movement creates:-

Movement of the fluid within the semi circular canals in the vestibular.

The Fluid touches Sensory Nerve Endings.

The Nerve cells send information to the lower brain and the eyes.

The brain sends responses to the muscles in order to maintain balance.

Maintenance of balance dovetails with directed movement.

Movement is fundamental to our existence. We can learn without sight or hearing or even without both, as Helen Keller illustrated in her life. However, learning without movement is very difficult.

A young child’s movements may be restricted by the following:-

• Within the Physical body: Specific brain damage, sensory dysfunction, physical disability, physical weakness and/or ill health, body temperature too hot or too cold.

• Environmental restrictions

Excessive amounts of passive experience as an observer, and/or restricted physical space: playpens, baby buggies, being carried, high chairs etc.

• Over stimulation

TV entertainment; media distractions; excessive interference from adults/children/siblings; excessive amounts of stressful experience e.g.hospitalization or parents fighting; disturbance from pets.

The question of what effect movement deprivation has on children’s development and learning is now considered alongside the present interest in the importance of play. Steiner, Montessori and Reggio Emilio have all promoted specific theories and highly specified environments that they believe promote children’s natural movement through free play.

All movement is sensed in the inner ear by the semi-circular canals and this is called the vestibular system.  The vestibular system senses our head movements. This is done by the movement of fluid within the three semi-circular canals. This system works in the same way as a spirit level. As the liquid moves within the canals many small hair like nerve endings are stimulated. These nerves send messages to the cerebellum and to the eyes. The cerebellum could be described as the gatekeeper to the brain. From the cerebellum messages are sent to the appropriate areas of left and right brain hemispheres. The messages to the eyes allow the eyes to accommodate the tilting effect on our vision. When we tilt our head we can still see the world ‘straight’. Our visual images do not rotate with our head position in the same way as they do when we use a camera. However, if a person spins round and round and then stops s/he will get ‘dizzy’.  This dizziness is caused by the central fugal force which continues to spin the fluid around inside the semi-circular canals for a short while after the body has stopped moving.  The movement of the fluid is communicated to the nerve cells at the back of the eyes and this creates the false illusion that the world is spinning while the body remains still.  In reality neither the body nor the world is spinning, it is only the fluid inside the semi-circular canal that is still moving in a spiralling rotation.

The vestibular system is very sensitive and can easily be disrupted by drugs and alcohol. It is not known specifically what influence drugs may have on the neurological information presented to the brain by the vestibular system. Adverse effects may be caused in the unborn child during pregnancy and child birth and the early years when learning is dependent upon the organisation of neurological information from the vestibular system.

The small and gentle body movements within the womb give the baby its first related neurological information.  After the birth the baby can gradually experience a greater and ever developing range of neurological information from the vestibular system.

Most therapeutic and curative programmes for brain damage and or neurological dysfunction involve slow rocking movements.  (Goddard-Blythe, S. 2004; Doman, G. 1974; The Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential; Handle; The sun rise programme at the Option Institute MA, USA. )

It is therefore possible that all learning is dependent upon the neurological information presented to the brain by the vestibular system. This suggests that the child’s release from primitive reflexes is related to the development of consciously organised movement through interactive play.

‘With the increasing mobility of society and baby’s being ferried around from home to an early years setting, to the supermarket etc, babies are spending more and more time immobile strapped into car seats or baby bouncer/rocker-type seats. For some babies these seats are also where they sleep. It also appears that babies are not having frequent opportunity to spend time on the floor. All of this constrains play opportunities.’(Forbes, R. 2004)

‘…..the vestibular system may be the expert in movement but it receives its training through movement……. practice is therefore an essential ingredient of every child’s play, a baby’s first playground is the floor.’ (Goddard, 2004:16)

The movement development of the human infant is slow and complex compared to that of the fawn or the foal.  Freedom to play provides vital training during the early years. ‘training of these systems is a gradual process during which maturation of the vestibular pathways involved will take until at least 7 years of age, and continue through puberty and beyond…….  Knowledge of one’s own position in space is essential for orientation, directional awareness, and effective operations in space. Immature vestibular functioning is frequently found amongst children who have specific learning difficulties’ (Goddard, 2004:17) and/or brain damage. (Doman, G. 1974)

‘The first signs of response to sensory signals are seen through a series of reflexes that support the developing child until such time as s/he gains a degree of voluntary control over specific functions.’ (Goddard, 2004:24)

Aspects of learning Through Musical Activity:-

Eye contact, musical sounds and sweet melodious verbal communication and singing encourage the young baby to take control of his head, so as to gain better focus on the auditory source of stimulation.

Making musical sounds is an enjoyable and motivating activity for all children and many of the earliest baby toys include musical sounds that can be produced by the baby’s earliest reflex movements.

Many musical activities are ideal for developing consciously organized sucking and blowing skills, whereby the child is motivated and pleasured by consequential musical sounds.

Movement and exercise can have a very positive effect on the breathing capacity of the lungs. Fitness and stronger breathing go hand in hand. The rhythmic nature of dancing and singing creates further aspects of fitness and refinements to control of the breath. This conscious development of breathing is also required for both formal and spontaneous musical activities based on the playing of wind instruments, for example: whistles, harmonicas and recorders. Good breathing brings oxygen to the body and brain cells and ensures that the correct level of carbon-dioxide is maintained within the body. The out breath releases excess carbon-dioxide out of the body.  This may be another reason why musical activities help children’s learning.

Child’s development through natural play and learning, is presented by the author as the following simple sequence :-

Sensory reception of stimulus —— movement —— balance ——- motor coordination ——- reaction or consciously directed action ——manipulation of the environment (will) ——- expressive presentations through play (creativity).

Informal musical activities seem to have a natural aptitude to embrace a wide criteria and often create very special qualities of focus, joyful enthusiasm and aesthetic pleasure Direct association with live musical activities provides children with the following environmental enrichment and development of skills:-

• Stimulates creative and expressive dance movement, encouraging physical balance, gross motor and fine motor control.
• Gives reflective feedback to movement; musical instruments give accurate ‘sound’ reflections to movement. Even the baby’s rattle in the reflex grasp of the very young baby continually and accurately describes every aspect of the baby’s random movements.
• Intimate 1 to 1 sharing, authentic expression of mood and personality through musical conversation.
• Motivates discipline and coordination of breath and vocal sounds.
• Language development through the art of singing.
• Auditory discrimination across a wide spectrum of sound frequencies.
• Auditory awareness and integration of patterns and sequencing.
• Self-directed expression of mood and personality.
• The motor development of postural reflexes through balance and coordination skills associated with dance.
• Proprioceptive learning; this is the knowledge of body movements from an inner kinaesthetic awareness and a knowledge of the body’s physical relationship with the environment. For example, with eyes closed there is an awareness of where an outstretched arm is in relation to the rest of the body and the surrounding environment and how far the outstretched arm will reach beyond the body; and how to bring two parts of the body to meet together accurately, e.g. touching one’s nose and clapping.

An environment that supports children’s natural play and learning would need to provide appropriate facilitates to accommodate each individual child’s:-

• Physical and emotional safety
• Imitative play
• Repetition of schema
• Expression of creativity
• Exploration and experimentation
• Social interaction
• Self-directed learning
• Authentic personal choices.

Chris Athey suggests that when an adult identifies a theme of activity (the schema the child is working with) and then enriches the child’s opportunities within this learning style, this will enhance the child’s cognitive development.

The quality of musical activity available to a child or children is intrinsically dependent upon the adult carer’s ability to create suitably equipped, supportive and safe environments. The aspects of sound production may, in busy/confined and/or closely populated living spaces, demand a special effort of organisation and co-operation. One must hope therefore that adult carers can establish spaces that encourage a child to enjoy musical experience without the need to compete with noisy background noises and other forms of external interference. The quality of a musical experience is more important than the quantity of sound produced.

Children who have been encouraged to perform musical activities in a suitably supportive environment are noted for their general ability to focus and persevere when presented with new areas of learning.

The chart below illustrates how music can be an intrinsic part of everyday learning and communication when integrated appropriately with a young child’s multi-sensory learning environment.

In conclusion the author would like to propose the hypothesis that music is a child’s first language. That musical activities and interactions are especially important during the early years because they provide the earliest foundations for learning, memory and comprehension. Giving young children direct association with real (live) musical activities provides an enriched multisensory environment. Thus, musical activities support and encourage natural play and learning in a way that cannot be provided within non-musical environments or from electronic production or recordings.