As parents, surely you want to give all the best things for your children. How much money you have spent to buy your toddlers education toys or how much time you have sent your children to private teacher or professional in order to optimize their development? Well, do you know that the best and the only thing that children need to grow optimally and normally are their parents?
What Is Toddlers?
Toddlers are children age 12 months up to 36 months. The term toddler is derived from the word ‘toddle’ which means walk unsteadily just like the main characteristic of children of this age. During this age, children are experiencing the most basic development stages for cognitive, emotional and social abilities. That is why for those parents who want their children to grow optimally, optimizing those abilities development during this age is highly recommended. The next question is what parents should do? The answer is a lot but for now let’s finding out about the health benefits of singing and dancing for toddlers since it is probably the easiest thing that every parent could do for their toddlers.
Benefits of Singing and Dancing for Toddlers
During these activities there are three factors that involved, first is singing activity, second is dancing activity and third is music or song. Surely, there is no singing and dancing without music and song.
Benefits of Music and Song
You must be surprised about how early children could identify the rhythm in the music. That’s why a lot of experts are suggesting introducing music to children as early as possible because of these reasons:
- Increases Sensory Development
During this age children are learning to understand their sensory ability such as texture, taste, color and sound included. The best way to increase their sensory to sound is by introducing them to different types of music. They will learn to differentiate slow and beat music, combine music with dancing will let them understanding more about the connection between beat and movement.
- Improves Literacy
Do you know that a baby under 12 month is already able to identify different voice and tone? When they reach 12 month, that ability is improved. Use this chance to improve their literacy ability. Some studies have stated that one of the health benefits of listening to music is improving literacy. Toddlers who are familiar with music have better literacy skill because they were trained to decode words and sounds from the early age.
- Mood Lifter
By introducing different types of music to toddlers, you could set or schedule the routine for them. It is because the ability of music in affecting emotion. It means, you could start introducing slow or nursery rhyme to toddlers that indicates it is a bed time. Beat music to indicate it is playing time. In this way you could train your toddlers to specific schedule in much easier way. Some studies also showed the health benefits of listening classical music is actually good to control emotion in toddlers.
- Develops Good Thinking Skill
Music has been used to help developing good thinking skill in toddlers. By learning music, toddler could learn about paying attention to different note. Some studies have published the fact about health benefits of listening to your favorite song and evidence shows that most people could think better and learn better while listening to their favorite music or song.
Benefits of Singing
Through singing activity, toddlers are learning about different words and their meaning. Don’t underestimate their little brains because you must be surprised how amazing their brains are working in this early age.
- Develops Vocabulary
There is no way for toddler to practice language better than singing. Through singing activity, toddler will learn about how to pronounce correctly and how to combine words into sentences just like the benefits of reading but with music. Furthermore, by singing their favorite song, they won’t feel like learning, instead they will feel like playing.
- Good for Memory
It is no longer a secret that kids memorizing alphabet better from a song. It is because through singing toddler could learn new information in much better way than just being told or thought.
- Excellent Way to Practice Language
During singing, toddlers are not only learning about how to pronounce a word but they also learn about the meaning. Different tone in a word is also having different meaning. The best way to tell them is through singing because it is an excellent way to practice language.
Benefits of Dancing
Not only singing, dancing is also having a lot of benefits for toddlers. Most parents will be worry for the first time when seeing their toddlers are dancing around while they are still walking unstably. Some facts below may open the parents’ mind that there is nothing to worry about.
- Greats for Coordination
Though your toddler may not understand the meaning of the lyrics but still they could enjoy the rhythm of the music. Most of them may start dancing when listening to their favorite tune. Firstly, their movement is probably random but then they will naturally develop interest to specific tune when they will start jumping or walking around. One of the health benefits of dancing is great for coordination because dancing could help developing muscle and balance.
- Develops Strength and Endurance
Some studies stated that toddlers who are moving a lot since early age may develop strength and endurance better than those toddlers who don’t. Through dancing, toddler will learn from the early age about what their bodies are capable of and not. At the same time, it will build their curiosity as well and naturally they will experiment with certain movements. The older they get, the more experiments they have made and achieved.
- Good for Kinesthetic Memory
There are a lot of ways to improve memory, one of them is kinesthetic memory; it is ability where you could memory something better through movement. Today, kinesthetic memory has been used as part of learning process. If toddlers have been introduced to dancing since early age, the chance of they develop good kinesthetic memory is bigger than those who don’t.
Now you already know that sometimes toddlers don’t need expensive educational toys or expensive private teacher because just by singing and dancing with their parents are enough to support their development. Learning about the benefits of singing and dancing for toddlers as mentioned above may open your mind that sometimes you see something too far or think too much. However, just because you have known about that instead of letting your kids exploring themselves you hire a private vocal coach or professional dancer are not the best solution either. The key is letting your toddlers enjoy it naturally.