Parents use music to give toddlers a head start

MANILA, Philippines - Intellectual as well as socio-emotional skills can be enhanced through playful lessons on beat, rhythm and melody, according to Gymboree.

A child’s brain is like a sponge absorbing all the information around him, according to Ann Tan, managing director of Gymboree Philippines. By the time, a child is one year of age, around 75 percent of his brain would have been formed, according to studies. By age three, 85 percent of the core structures of this most complex organ would have developed — logically determining to a large extent his quality of life for the balance of his years.

Focused on giving their children that crucial head start,  parents of toddlers as young as six months are enrolling their children at Gymboree learning programs to ensure that they meet or even exceed the development milestones for their age. Gymboree is the global leader for classes for kids up to pre-school age of five with nine centers in Metro Manila, as well as two branches in Cebu and one in General Santos.

Among the most popular classes for children less than one year of age are the Music classes which the youngsters attend with their parents. In 12 sessions that each run for 45 minutes, toddlers who have not yet learned to run or even talk are exposed to a wide range of music – from Latin to African to Broadway—as they play with maracas, cage bells and a spectrum of other musical instruments.

Tan explains that “music is a powerful tool for the pre-linguistic child.” Studies have shown that music impacts all areas of a child’s development: cognitive or conscious intellectual activity, physical and socio-emotional. Cognitively, music enhances, among other skills, “spatial-temporal reasoning” which is an important component of mathematical reasoning. Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to visualize spatial patterns and mentally manipulate images, an important step to solve problems in math, science, art and other areas.

Music also enhances memory as proven by the alphabet song and other tunes that help youngsters remember numbers, months of the year, etc.

Supported by extensive and detailed curriculum from Gymboree in the US, Tan explains just one connection between music and math.  For a child to understand the concept of numbers, he begins with an awareness of one-to-one correspondence – for example, one candy for each child or one block for each car in a toy train. This concept can also be learned through music while patting, tapping or walking to the steady beat. He learns to match his pats or steps one to one with the beat.

Gymboree’s progressive learning theories, nevertheless, are best observed in the classes attended by very young children with their parents. The popular music class could begin with a lap ride.  Parents, all seated on the floor, are instructed by the teacher to seat their toddler on their laps as the adults’ legs move rhythmically to a tune they sing altogether.

The master franchise holder of Gymboree in the Philippines, Tan notes that Gymboree Music takes an active, playful approach to musical learning. “Because we create a context of fun and playfulness, learning becomes meaningful to the child.”

Tan summarizes: “At Gymboree, we develop the thinking skills children use later on in their lives whether its for Math, language, memorization and so on.”