How does children’s music making affect language and communication?

Abstract

Low educations achievement is a risk to become socially excluded. What can music education contribute to children’s education? There is increasing evidence that children benefit from regular and playful musical stimulations from early in life. Among the beneficial domains are language and communication. A brief review on recent studies is given. Next, some problems related to traditional and static concepts of music and language are discussed. After outlining general theoretical assumptions about music and language, the earliest and simplest way of engaging in music and language is the main focus. Song singing and rhyming are both musical and linguistic. Both are founded on play; singing and rhyming are both playing with the timing of sounds in a generic way that is lacking in ordinary speech. Of central importance is the underlying emotional wellbeing related to these activities. Further studies into the co-evolution of vocal musical and linguistic communication should emphasize related emotional states.