Moving to the Music
A natural partner to music is movement. Movement is a nonverbal response for children who do not yet have language ability. The vestibular system (part of the ear related to balance and movement) must be activated for learning to take place (Hannaford, 1995). The eighth cranial nerve is the Vestibulo-cochlear. It comes from the inner ear mechanism, the semicircular canals and cochlea. The eighth cranial nerve pair carries auditory information from the ear to the brain. These connect through the vestibular system to all the muscles of the body.  All learning in the first fifteen months of life is centered on the vestibular system development (Hannaford, p.157). Disturbance to the vestibular system can cause learning difficulties. This highlights the importance of movement in the beginning years to strengthen the vestibular system and ready the brain for learning. 

Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect and The Mozart Effect for Children, states, “Movement is an absolute necessity for a toddler, and music stimulates the best kinds of movement.” (Campbell, p. 102). The brain works by electrical current thereby needing oxygen and water to function well. Movement helps to provide one of these two elements, oxygen. Another wonderful thing happens with movement. The brain produces a neuro-chemical called endorphins. This chemical causes a feeling of energy and makes the brain more conducive to learning. Movement and rhythm stimulate the frontal lobes, important in language development. This portion of the brain grows between the ages of two and six. It has another growth spurt at around the age of twenty-two.

A specific type of movement, cross lateral, is necessary for the brain to be ready to learn to read. This type of movement can be done while dancing or moving to other activities to accompany music or by tapping rhythm sticks and using different tapping patterns. It is also done while crawling and that is why it is important for babies to crawl. Cross lateral movement enables the brain to cross the mid-section (going from the right side of your body, across the center to the other side). This ability is necessary for reading and writing because in order to read and write one must go from one side of the paper to the other. There are many wonderful ways to cross one’s midsection. Dancing with scarves, as they flow from one side of the body to the other or walking like elephants, swaying arms as if they were trunks from side to side are just two examples. Exercising to music and doing cross crawls or windmills is not only great for the cardio-vascular system, but it is readying the brain for reading and is fun as well. These activities also help with balancing. A child, who cannot stand on one foot, probably can't read and write because standing on one foot demonstrates the ability to balance and being able to balance is the result of a strong vestibular system. (Hannaford, 1995). The vestibular system is strongly related to language abilities. Being able to stand on one foot is an accomplishment that could be greeted with “Wow! Look at you standing on one foot!” This makes the child feel good which gets them trying to do more activities to balance. Balancing strengthens the vestibular system. One activity is directly related to another.

In Dr. Carla Hannaford’s book, Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All in Your Head” (1995), she outlines the development of the ear and its role in language development. Once the amniotic fluid has dried out of the Eustachian tubes and outer ear canals, the sense of hearing becomes pretty accurate. The ear is the most fully developed of the sense organs at birth and the last sense to stop at death. Much of the previous information is a result of the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis who is credited with ‘discovering’ that the voice only represents what the ear can hear, also known as the Tomatis Effect. His research has done much to help with developmental delays and disabilities including autism. A person’s ability to hear affects abilities and emotion. Damage to hearing can cause depression. In patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, the playing of a song that has emotional memory causes periods of clarity. It is believed it is because the music stimulates a part of the brain related to memory. There have also been many anecdotes of people remembering melodies that had been played while they were in utero. This is not only fascinating, but also functional. Having this information, we need to implement it in early childhood by providing activities that encourage active listening skills. These activities can include rhythm stick activities, imitating vocal sounds, and marching.

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