Sunday, December 17, 2006
Saturday, December 02, 2006
she must be a musician
She is. Priscilla Dunstan was recently featured on the Oprah Winfrey show and talked about the language babies use to let you know they're hungry, uncomfortable, have lower gas, need to burp, or simply, are sleepy.
You can watch the video here.
After testing her baby language theory on more than 1,000 infants around the world, Priscilla says there are five words that all babies 0–3 months old say—regardless of race and culture:
Neh= "I’m hungry"
Owh= "I’m sleepy"
Heh= "I’m experiencing discomfort"
Eair= "I have lower gas"
Eh= "I need to burp"
Those “words” are actually sound reflexes, Priscilla says. “Babies all around the world have the same reflexes, and they therefore make the same sounds,” she says. If parents don’t respond to those reflexes, Priscilla says the baby will eventually stop using them.
Priscilla recommends that parents listen for those words in a baby’s pre-cry before they start crying hysterically. She says there is no one sound that’s harder to hear than others because it varies by individual. She also says some babies use some words more than others.
The musical connection: (via www.dunstanbaby.com)
"Already an exceptional violinist by the age five, [Priscilla] could hear a piece by Mozart once, then play it back in its entirety, note for note. Her father, Director of the Educational Testing Centre at the University of New South Wales, found that his young daughter had an eidetic memory - a rare photographic memory for sound.
"During her teenage years Priscilla toured throughout Europe and Australia as an accomplished concert violinist. Priscilla then spent more than 10 years exploring the world of opera, where her talent as a mezzo-soprano deepened her understanding of sound produced by the human voice.
"When Priscilla gave birth to her son Tomas, her instincts as a mother and musician led her to believe that a baby’s cries had to be something more than just random sounds. Noting combinations of sounds in a journal, Priscilla explored various settling techniques and observed Tom’s reactions. Eventually she was able to recognize patterns, and identify how specific cries had a distinct need attached to them."
From the Oprah show: The Secret Language of Babies
You can watch the video here.
After testing her baby language theory on more than 1,000 infants around the world, Priscilla says there are five words that all babies 0–3 months old say—regardless of race and culture:
Neh= "I’m hungry"
Owh= "I’m sleepy"
Heh= "I’m experiencing discomfort"
Eair= "I have lower gas"
Eh= "I need to burp"
Those “words” are actually sound reflexes, Priscilla says. “Babies all around the world have the same reflexes, and they therefore make the same sounds,” she says. If parents don’t respond to those reflexes, Priscilla says the baby will eventually stop using them.
Priscilla recommends that parents listen for those words in a baby’s pre-cry before they start crying hysterically. She says there is no one sound that’s harder to hear than others because it varies by individual. She also says some babies use some words more than others.
The musical connection: (via www.dunstanbaby.com)
"Already an exceptional violinist by the age five, [Priscilla] could hear a piece by Mozart once, then play it back in its entirety, note for note. Her father, Director of the Educational Testing Centre at the University of New South Wales, found that his young daughter had an eidetic memory - a rare photographic memory for sound.
"During her teenage years Priscilla toured throughout Europe and Australia as an accomplished concert violinist. Priscilla then spent more than 10 years exploring the world of opera, where her talent as a mezzo-soprano deepened her understanding of sound produced by the human voice.
"When Priscilla gave birth to her son Tomas, her instincts as a mother and musician led her to believe that a baby’s cries had to be something more than just random sounds. Noting combinations of sounds in a journal, Priscilla explored various settling techniques and observed Tom’s reactions. Eventually she was able to recognize patterns, and identify how specific cries had a distinct need attached to them."
Priscilla says, "Because of my gift for sound, I was able to pick out certain patterns in his cries and then remember what those patterns were later on when he cried again. I realized that other babies were saying the same words.”
From the Oprah show: The Secret Language of Babies
- televised November 13, 2006
Thanks Molly McGinn, for getting this out in the blogosphere!
Why it's important to re-enroll!
Why is it so important to keep your child consistently enrolled in Kindermusik?
Because it’s been proven that repeated, not sporadic, enrollment makes all the difference!
In early 2005, Beth Frook of Little Hands Kindermusik (http://www.littlehands.com/) in Clifton, Virginia, shared a granddaddy of a Foundations of Learning (FOLs) in her Kindermusik class. A local university had recently conducted a study on 3-and-5-year old children in her program titled “The Effects of Kindermusik on Behavioral Self-Regulation in Early Childhood.”
It proved what Beth—and many other Kindermusik Educators—already knew:
The longer you stay in Kindermusik, the better.
Specifically, the study showed:
“Children currently enrolled in Kindermusik showed higher levels of self-control than those never enrolled and those previously enrolled. This suggests that in order for children to reap the benefit of increased self-control as a result of Kindermusik participation, it is important to have repeated and recent Kindermusik experiences and remain enrolled in the program.”
“Four-year-old children who had been exposed to Kindermusik for longer periods of time are better off in terms of self-control—namely a child’s ability to plan, guide, and control their own behavior—than similar children with less Kindermusik history.”
“These experiences, stop-go, high-low, fast-slow, short-long, and loud-soft, whereby children’s motor behavior is guided by the music, appear to be good exercise for young children’s emerging self-regulatory skills.”
Beth shares why she feels this research is so important:
I think it adds impetus to a parent’s decision-making because it’s more than just saying, “Okay, we’ve done Kindermusik, let’s try something else.” It encourages a parent to go beyond the smorgasbord approach to children’s activities.
A lot of times parents will say, “We’ll do art, then soccer, then swimming.” A study like this encourages families to look at the value of re-enrolling. Repetition is vital for a child’s learning, and currently in our culture, it’s not viewed that way.
Study results were made available to Kindermusik in May, 2005. The study was conducted by Adam Winsler Ph.D and graduate student Lesley Ducenne in the Department of Psychology at George Mason University.
The 15-month study included 91 children between the ages of 3 and 5 who were split into three groups: 23 students currently enrolled in Kindermusik, 19 students previously enrolled in Kindermusik, and 49 students of similar family backgrounds from local preschools who had never had Kindermusik.
The children were observed doing a variety of tasks that required self-control such as slowing down their motor behavior, delaying their gratification, refraining from touching attractive but forbidden toys, quietly whispering, and compliance with instructions to initiate or stop certain behaviors. Parents also completed surveys.
The study, supervised by Adam Winsler, Ph.D, Applied Developmental Psychology in the Department of Psychology at George Mason University, will likely be presented at national conferences and published later this year.
Many thanks go to Lori Burkhardt of St. Louis for sharing this with us.
Because it’s been proven that repeated, not sporadic, enrollment makes all the difference!
In early 2005, Beth Frook of Little Hands Kindermusik (http://www.littlehands.com/) in Clifton, Virginia, shared a granddaddy of a Foundations of Learning (FOLs) in her Kindermusik class. A local university had recently conducted a study on 3-and-5-year old children in her program titled “The Effects of Kindermusik on Behavioral Self-Regulation in Early Childhood.”
It proved what Beth—and many other Kindermusik Educators—already knew:
The longer you stay in Kindermusik, the better.
Specifically, the study showed:
“Children currently enrolled in Kindermusik showed higher levels of self-control than those never enrolled and those previously enrolled. This suggests that in order for children to reap the benefit of increased self-control as a result of Kindermusik participation, it is important to have repeated and recent Kindermusik experiences and remain enrolled in the program.”
“Four-year-old children who had been exposed to Kindermusik for longer periods of time are better off in terms of self-control—namely a child’s ability to plan, guide, and control their own behavior—than similar children with less Kindermusik history.”
“These experiences, stop-go, high-low, fast-slow, short-long, and loud-soft, whereby children’s motor behavior is guided by the music, appear to be good exercise for young children’s emerging self-regulatory skills.”
Beth shares why she feels this research is so important:
I think it adds impetus to a parent’s decision-making because it’s more than just saying, “Okay, we’ve done Kindermusik, let’s try something else.” It encourages a parent to go beyond the smorgasbord approach to children’s activities.
A lot of times parents will say, “We’ll do art, then soccer, then swimming.” A study like this encourages families to look at the value of re-enrolling. Repetition is vital for a child’s learning, and currently in our culture, it’s not viewed that way.
Study results were made available to Kindermusik in May, 2005. The study was conducted by Adam Winsler Ph.D and graduate student Lesley Ducenne in the Department of Psychology at George Mason University.
The 15-month study included 91 children between the ages of 3 and 5 who were split into three groups: 23 students currently enrolled in Kindermusik, 19 students previously enrolled in Kindermusik, and 49 students of similar family backgrounds from local preschools who had never had Kindermusik.
The children were observed doing a variety of tasks that required self-control such as slowing down their motor behavior, delaying their gratification, refraining from touching attractive but forbidden toys, quietly whispering, and compliance with instructions to initiate or stop certain behaviors. Parents also completed surveys.
The study, supervised by Adam Winsler, Ph.D, Applied Developmental Psychology in the Department of Psychology at George Mason University, will likely be presented at national conferences and published later this year.
Many thanks go to Lori Burkhardt of St. Louis for sharing this with us.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Kindermusik at the Brier Creek Community Center
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
Saturday, September 30, 2006
crayons
"We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp; some are pretty; some are dull; some have wierd names; and all are different colors. But they all exist very nicely in the same box."
-unknown
new fall classes
Sign & Sing and Family Time
new fall classes have just been added to the schedule...
Have you considered Sign & Sing with Kindermusik? You will be giving your child the tools to communicate with you at an early age.
Our fall session of Sign & Sing begins Thursday Oct 19 at 10:15 am.
Won't you join us?
Learn when you play. You'll never have to memorize a list of signs. This curriculum gives you the ASL signs that are most useful to you, and most interesting to your child. So playtime and everyday items around the house-- ball, bubbles, mom and dad--become the objects of learning in the classroom, and sign language becomes a natural, happy part of your child's day.
Hearing children who know signs, learn language almost twice as fast. As early as 11-14 months old, hearing children exposed to sign language put little sentences together faster than non-signing children, who do not begin to combine words into short sentences, such as "Da-da car" until the average age of 20 months.Study conducted by Dr. Michelle Anthony and Dr. Reyna Lindert, Signing Smart program founders. I look forward to hearing from you and telling you more about Sign & Sing! Want to see real pictures of real children signing?
visit http://www.myspace.com/sessielou
Do you have a child 0 - 7 years-old? Do you have more than one child?
Have you considered Kindermusik Family Time?
Our fall session of Family Time begins Saturday Oct 14 at 10:45 am.
Do you have a child 0 - 7 years-old? Do you have more than one child?
Have you considered Kindermusik Family Time?
Our fall session of Family Time begins Saturday Oct 14 at 10:45 am.
Won't you join us?
click this link to view a clip of a Family Time class:
http://www.briercreekmusik.com/kinder/kinder2/WM9_512_ComeAll.wmv
reserve your spot online today!
www.briercreekmusik.com
click this link to view a clip of a Family Time class:
http://www.briercreekmusik.com/kinder/kinder2/WM9_512_ComeAll.wmv
reserve your spot online today!
www.briercreekmusik.com
We're in the business of changing the world one child at a time.
Kindermusik International is the world's leading publisher of music and movement curricula for parents and their children, ages newborn to 7 years old.
Kindermusik’s philosophy is founded upon rigorous research and our fundamental beliefs.
Every parent is the child’s most important teacher.
Every child is musical.
The home is the most important learning environment.
Music nurtures a child’s cognitive, emotional, social, language, and physical development.
As a Kindermusik educator...
I believe that music has the power to illuminate and enhance lives, to foster a sense of community and to tap the unique gifts that each child offers to the world.
I believe that every child deserves the opportunity to know, enjoy and grow with music.
I recognize that music for children is not about perfection but about possibilities.
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