7th July 2023
Exploring the benefits of Musical Play
Musical Play is increasingly becoming the looked-to framework to get kids engaged with learning. Here we explore the benefits of musical play, and how your school can implement them from today.
Just this year, the UK’s Department of Education announced a new music curriculum. Even at a government level, therefore, the increasingly obvious benefits of musical play on children’s development is being acknowledged. So, what are these benefits and what exactly can they do to improve the lives of children?
Musical play and brain development
Babies learn to interact with the world through play long before they can talk. Alongside this, studies have found that young children’s brains develop and respond positively to music. It’s safe to say that, by the time children are heading off to primary school aged 4 or 5, interacting with music in play garners fantastic results.
The simple addition of a tongue drum or xylophone to everyday settings can help improve fine motor skills and have huge benefits to the cognitive development of children.
By learning about music through play and self-coordination, children begin to tune into the finer elements of sound. This results in a subsequent improvement of understanding spoken language. It also has a huge knock-on effect when it comes to learning to read and write.
Learning to speak and communicate naturally becomes easier. Children also begin to engage with their imaginations almost immediately when playing with musical instruments. This encourages speech, creativity and expression.
Another surprising benefit of musical play is that, in school, instruments can help with subjects that focus on patterns, such as maths. By allowing children to link their movements to sound and develop coordination, they automatically begin to find patterns in music.
Increased emotional development
Further benefits of musical play are that it helps to reduce anxiety and improve overall mental health. By adding a rain wheel or chimes to the playground, kids can engage with others through non-verbal communication.
They naturally begin to develop self-confidence as a result of this and start establishing new relationships with fellow students that they otherwise may not have. The focus on teamwork and collaborative play that music play provides, whether by creating harmonies of by making up musical stories, improves communication and motor skills as well as concentration.
Recent reports have noted that, by exposing children to musical instruments, schools can improve the ‘auditory, linguistic and cognitive abilities’ of children.
Let’s get musical
From brain development to mental well-being, now is a better time than ever to invest in children’s futures. This is done by bringing the benefits of musical play to your playgrounds. At Playcubed, we provide a selection of top-quality outdoor musical instruments to schools throughout London and the South East.
To find out more about any of our products or arrange a free consultation for your school, don’t hesitate to contact out team.