A music teacher from the Australian National University thinks that music helps children to develop their communication skills.



DR JOLANTA KALANDYK-GALLAGHER: I think that musicality is not only in upbringing - it could also be in our genes too.

I was always interested in the effect of music on children. In fact when I was only 16 I got my first part-time job as a kindergarten music teacher, so I could observe the children's reaction to music.

What my research found was that music not only contributed to development of self-esteem, but more specifically increased, enhanced communications with peers.

Those children who were quite shy and wouldn't really communicate with other children, they actually started to initiate the contact, they started to come out of their shell and so the communication with peers, involvement in group activities.

As we all know, babies are little sponges and they may not register the concept on an intellectual level but definitely they absorb, they absorb and develop the sense of beat and sense of rhythm.

I believe that if there was this great joyful experience to music, no matter whether it's going to be continued or not in the future, it's going to leave a positive influence on the individual.

MOTHER 1: He loves the piano. It's going to be an expensive exercise if he continues to love the piano.

MOTHER 2: We've loved it. It's been a great learning experience for her. She started when she was very young and I've really watched her blossom over the last few months and she really gets a great deal of enjoyment out of music and that's really what I was aiming to get out of the course.

MOTHER 3: Come and do it if you can, its fantastic for kids, the more stimulation the better, especially at this young tender age.

LITTLE BOY: Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye-bye.