• Little Regent Nursery
  • Child Development

How Music Makes Children Smarter

Every early years classroom in the world runs on songs, and not by accident. Long before a child can read a word or count a set of objects, music is quietly teaching the skills those things depend on, listening, pattern, sequence, memory and self-control.

None of this requires lessons, an instrument, or any musical ability on your part. A parent who sings badly in the car is giving their child something genuinely valuable, and children are famously uncritical audiences.

Here is what is actually happening when a two-year-old bangs a saucepan in time with a nursery rhyme.

You do not need to be able to sing. You need to be willing to, which, to a small child, is very nearly the same thing.

Rhythm prepares the ear for reading

Clapping out “ba-na-na” in three beats is the same skill that later lets a child break a written word into sounds. Researchers link a strong sense of beat with the phonological awareness that underpins early reading, which is one reason rhymes, chants and clapping games feature so heavily in the EYFS approach.

Songs stretch memory and sequence

A nursery rhyme is a short story that must be recalled in order. Children who sing regularly are practising working memory and sequencing without any sense of effort, and a tune carries far more words than plain speech does, which is why so many of us can still recite songs we learned at three.

Patterns are early mathematics

Loud and quiet, fast and slow, high and low, repeat the chorus, two claps then a pause. This is pattern recognition, counting and structure in a form a toddler can feel in their body long before they meet it as a number on a page.

Moving to music builds the body and the brain

Marching, spinning, stopping on cue and matching an action to a sound develop balance, coordination and crossing the midline. “Stop and start” songs in particular give children real practice in holding back an impulse, which is one of the most useful skills a preschooler can carry into school.

Music helps children manage feelings

A familiar song can mark the end of play, ease a difficult transition or settle a room in a way that instructions never quite manage. Children also use music to express what they cannot yet say, which is why a child will drum harder when they are cross.

Making music together is a social skill

Taking turns with a shaker, waiting for the chorus, matching your voice to the group. Group singing asks children to co-ordinate with other people, and it does so in a setting where getting it slightly wrong costs nothing at all.

Children shaking instruments during a music and movement session at Little Regent Nursery
Toddlers clapping along to a song during circle time at Little Regent Nursery

Music and movement is a daily part of life at Little Regent Nursery, alongside circle time, Jolly Phonics, story time and Monkeynastix. Our educators use songs to open the day, mark transitions and support children who are still finding their words. If you would like to hear a session in full swing, get in touch and book a visit, mornings are the noisiest and by far the most fun.