The Benefits of Music for Children

A magical experience for parents and children.

Music affects development in the womb and in early childhood. Researchers observe an increase in fetal heart rate when in the presence of music. Moreover, when a mother listens to sacred music during her pregnancy, she creates a healing, soothing, and uplifting environment for the child to enter into. Of course, a child continues to develop after birth, when environment and experience combine to create mental circuits and patterns between neurons, those electrically charged nerve cells that transfer information through the brain. When the neurons are not exercised, they cease to properly form the necessary pathways. The brain then trims the fat, so to speak, by pruning the unused neurons. Understand that a critical window of opportunity for the development of both verbal and musical abilities opens at birth and closes around the age of eleven. Music can assist in the cognitive development of very young children; for musical training generates the neural connections used during abstract reasoning and the assimilation of mathematical concepts. Meanwhile, the spoken language heard by an infant creates a complex set of interconnections that have an important impact on overall brain development. To be sure, there is an overlap in the neurons used to process music, language, and mathematical and abstract concepts. The more parents sing and/or play sacred music in the presence of their baby or young child, the more the brain generates neural circuits and patterns. It is essential then, that parents cultivate, encourage, and support their children's appreciation for music. Again, sacred music is recommended for its ability to create a high vibration and beneficial atmosphere that helps to calm children while heightening their level of intelligence and intuitive thinking. Children should be encouraged to chant along with sacred music; for this is a magical experience that forms patterns and creates energy fields of resonance and movement in the surrounding space. The energy absorbed positively alters the child's breathing, pulse, blood pressure, muscle tension, and skin temperature. Due to the high level of unfiltered noise and environmental chaos, the beneficial impact of sacred music is greater when the volume is kept low.