Youth Music to develop a Music Start pack for parents of 2 – 5 year olds
Youth Music have been awarded £50,000 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to develop a Music Start pack, part of the package announced by Education Secretary Alan Johnson last week, to boost music for children.
The Music Start Pack will be aimed at the parents of children aged 2 - 5. Each pack will contain a selection of small hand-held musical instruments, a CD of songs and instrumental music with suggestions to get parents doing some very simple musical activities with their children. This new drive is welcomed by Youth Music who published research in 2006 which indicated that participation in music making activities assists in the development of communication and numeracy skills in pre-school aged children.
A Youth Music funded project on the Isle of Wight was the inspiration for this new scheme. Music Start was originally a Healing Arts Programme for the Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Trust, largely funded by Youth Music, in partnership with IOW Childcare and Early Education Unit, and Surestart Ryde. It was aimed at babies and toddlers under 2 years old. This new investment from the DfES will enable Youth Music to develop the scheme for older pre-school children with a view to rolling it out across England.
Youth Music wants every child to begin a life-long journey from the earliest possible moment. The first fruits of this journey will be a positive impact upon learning and development by the time they reach primary school. To this end Youth Music wants to ensure that every child under five years of age has access to music-making opportunities.
It is well known that the early years provide the greatest opportunity for significant growth of the neural network in the brain. This is a period in a child’s life when the learning process is fast-tracked. Research has found a positive impact on neural path-building if the child’s stimuli are enriched. Youth Music believes that one of these enrichments should be music.
Youth Music recognises that parental involvement in their child’s early music making is highly significant both in terms of the child’s progress and also in the bonding process between parent and child. An easy-to-use musical resource for parents and children is just what is needed and the Music Start project developed on the Isle of Wight was very successful in promoting singing and music making with parents and babies.
To download some fun activity sheets from MusicStart for you and your baby please go to our Parental Resources section by clicking here
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