These music lessons complement our existing curriculum and ensure that the children develop to their full potential while enjoying one of Austin’s claims to fame – live music.

Dominique Comeaux
Development Manager | Open Door Preschool

Music and the Preschool years:

Children respond to music from the moment they are born. This is why lullabies and other types of children’s songs are universal. We are hardwired to be musical. Developing musical skills is no less fundamental than learning to move and speak and make sense of the world around us. In fact, learning music helps children to carry themselves with greater confidence and ability in many areas of their lives for years to come.

Music Education professor Lili M. Levinowitz points out the similarities between the development of language skills and the development of musical skills. Like speech, music begins with “babble” that slowly synthesizes into a coherent musical pattern. During the preschool years, children develop an internal understanding of rhythm and melody. Starting on the right note means providing a rich musical environment that nurtures a most natural and universal skill.

Research and the value of music:

A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. (Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb, “Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial-temporal reasoning,” Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February 1997)

Across a broad spectrum of research, the development of musical skills is linked to positive outcomes. Music nourishes our intellect. It enriches connection to our own culture and the cultures of others. It provides myriad opportunities for personal expression and social interaction. Through music and its inextricable relationship with dance, we make contact with our deepest physical self, while other elements of music make the abstract discernable at a very early age.