Early Childhood Education: Music, Movement, and Drama's Significance

This essay examines the crucial role of music, movement, and drama in early childhood education, emphasizing their impact on children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. The essay explores the benefits of incorporating these activities into the curriculum, highlighting how they facilitate self-expression, skill development, and understanding of concepts. It discusses the teacher's role in implementing these activities, theories like Eurythmics and Sensory Integration, and historical influences. The importance of music, movement, and drama is underscored by referencing studies and reports, including those from UNESCO and the University of Southern California, which illustrate the positive effects on brain development, academic performance, and overall well-being. The essay concludes by reinforcing the necessity of integrating these activities into early childhood education to foster comprehensive child development.

The value of music, movement
and drama in early childhood
education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Music, movement and drama play an important role in developing social, emotional and
cognitive skills of children which teaches them to express themselves more physically, represent
feeling and acquire fundamentals concepts and skills. Therefore, it is necessarily required for
schools to implement such curriculum activity in their education system for the overall growth of
their students (Austin, 2013). The essay is based on the value and importance of music,
movement and drama which includes several aspects such as teachers' role in implementation of
music, movement and drama, theories and historic influences of dance and movement etc.
MAIN BODY
The early childhood education, usually of children from the age of 8 and Younger, they
play a very crucial part in the overall development and grooming of a kid. It is one of the most
crucial time for learning as well as brain development in preparation of their education career.
Playing Music and Moving on a beat of music provides a very good experience to young
children, which will help them in their classrooms as well as Home in an efficient manner. As a
children grows, they have to learn specific kind of activities that are essential for brain
development. Thus, involving Children in various music as well as dance learning activities can
further help in their development. They will be able to learn the meaning of rhythm, usually in
school the teaching in primary classes are given with the help of music, because it helps children
in grasping the meaning of words efficiently. Some other ways includes singing songs in rounds,
marching on beat etc. Hence the importance of music and drama can not be ignored in the early
childhood education (Bruce, 2012).
Music, Movement as well as Dram is a very important pillar in early childhood
education. Through effective Musical activities, children can better learn and develop their skills.
According to a report of UNESCO, 2007, A human being is most creative in his early childhood
life and thus any skills trained during the age of 8 to 15 usually remains with the kid forever and
he is able to nourish the same in an efficient manner in future. The theory of drama states that a a
young children can learn better about a particular task, if the same will be conducted through
games and in any other form within which the kid will have natural interest. The current
generation Education system is somewhat Digitised, which makes it easier for kids and children
to learn better.
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The Importance of Music as well as drama is very high in the overall development of
children. Thus there is a need that effective education system in which children will be given
necessary learning through the use of music and Drama. A report made by university of Southern
California Stated that musical experience in childhood can actually leads to acceleration of brain
development over period of time. It is also there in the report that learning to play a instrument
can actually improve the mathematical learning as well as SAT Scores over period of time. Also,
the role of music and drama is not restricted only to academic achievements but is rather spread
through all the areas of child development like intellectual, social and emotional, motor language
etc. It basically helps a human body as well as mind to work together in an effective way
(Dinham and et. al., 2017).
The early childhood Curriculum can incorporate various types of tasks within it that
would require better use of music, movement as well as drama. If the same can be incorporated
within the eduction system of Australia, then this can lead to better and efficient development of
the children's in longer run. The need is to make sure that the inclusion of music, drama and
movement is according to the national and standards of state. In order to effectively
implementing the same, there is a need for spending a hefty amount on instruction design of the
classrooms for the purpose of teaching. If the teaching of music and drama will be given in
curriculum itself then it can lead to better development of skills and abilities at earlier level in
life, which can further be converted into an art over period of time.
The Australian Curriculum do give importance to music, drama and movement in their
respective courses. For example, In the coursework of Arts, there are five subjects that can really
help an individual to groom and learn various skills related to music in an efficient manner.
These includes dance, drama, media, music as well as visual arts. Therefore, the focus is on
improving curriculum by incorporating all these subjects in the early childhood level for
children's so that they can get a better understanding of these artworks for growth in future. The
evaluation of the system has given a positive response from the parents of children's regarding
the application of these subjects within the curriculum. Thus, there is a need to enhance the
quality of curriculum and at the same time bring new and fresh talents in the form of teachers
and mentors and that will lead to better growth as well as development of kids (Gronlund, 2014).
There are various theories like Eurythmics and Sensory Integration, which is quite
helpful in teaching children's about music and movement. The term “sensory integration” refers
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to both a neurological process and a theory of the relationship between behaviour, academic
performance and neural functioning. Historical examples have suggested that Sensory
Integration can be used for giving a better overview to children's about study and curriculum and
it also helps in improving brain process and also organises sensation within the Children.
Through these theories a better as well as effective platform for learning and development can be
put, which will lead to growth of children in future (Loureiro and Caramelli, 2013).
Children's Movement as well as dance development shall be introduced within the early
childhood curriculum of Australia so that a better growth and development can take place and
children's can learn dance as well as other physical movements very easily. The aim of
Australian Government shall be to enhance the effectiveness of childhood curriculum by
incorporating various creating activities within the same. Children's, no doubt, are the future of
any nation, and if they are well groomed and have learned various aspects related to music and
dance, they can create a better future for themselves over period of time. Kids shall be given
opportunity to participate in dance and movement activities that will lead to enhancement of their
personalities and will give them and to their parents a better idea for their future prospects.
Teacher is also playing an important role in implementing and managing music,
movement and drama as they always tried to give maximum support in cognitive development of
children. Classroom teacher have an opportunity to demonstrate the various uses for music which
includes accompaniment for dancing, relaxation, setting a mood or a story. The best way of
incorporating music into early childhood classroom is to relate it other areas of the curriculum.
This is an effective way that teachers help children in gaining cognitive, social-emotional and
physical development (Roy, Baker and Hamilton, 2015).
Movement refers to a physical motion between points in space and Dance is a sequence
of rhythmic steps or movement which is performed to music in order to get pleasure or as form
of social interactions. It will brings benefits to children if provided by school in their early
childhood. It helps children in gaining skills such as creative and imaginative through performing
in wide range of movement-oriented activities. It further help children in expressing their
emotions through movement so that it can be represented towards people ion more effective way.
Music, dance and movement enables children to express their feelings and emotions
towards people which builds confidence among them to represent themselves in better manner. It
is more beneficial for the children which are struggling with language. Early childhood educators
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are not often confident in their own musical abilities and thus reluctant to use music in their
classrooms. Early childhood music educators will motivate them to “just do it”. Incorporating
music in classrooms in form of singing songs with children, play a variety of music styles etc.
All such help children in expressing more confidently without using words.
Dramatic play is a type of play where children assign and accept roles and act them out.
In this, children take on real-world roles, other time they take on fantasy roles. It is essential for
school to conduct dramatic activity which is help children in gaining skills in dialogues,
collaboration and creative problem solving through collectively pretending with teacher guidance
to be in an imaginative elsewhere. It help children in acquiring knowledge about particular
situation which can faced by adults at present times (Woods, 2012).
Dramatic play communicates real lief picture towards the people in order to educate them
to deal with different situations in future period of time. Conducting dramatic play in school help
children in gaining skills in dialogues, collaboration and creative problem solving through
having proper guidance of employees. Drama integrated in curriculum activity help children to
explore a particular problem, situations or theme references related national core arts. Training
and drama teachers on how to work in early childhood and for early childhood teachers on how
to integrate drama into their curriculum are presented.
According to Roy, Waker and Hasmilton (2015), early childhood and primary education
encourages students to engage in curriculum activities so as to achieve growth and development
which further assist them to achieve success in their future life.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above study that it is compulsorily required for every
schools to conduct activities such as music, dance and movement which help children in gaining
cognitive, social and emotional skills that will further support them in future. For this, teacher
play an important role in implementing and managing music, movement and drama through
motivating children to engage in different curriculum activities. Drama also play a major role in
developing children through gaining the real life experiences through dramatic activity so that it
become easy for them to deal in future in more effective and efficient manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Austin, G. R. (2013). Early childhood education: An international perspective. Academic Press.
Bruce, T. (2012). Early childhood education. Hachette UK.
Dinham, J., & et. al., (2017). Pathways to resilience: how drawings reveal pre-service teachers’
core narratives underpinning their future teacher-selves. Asia-Pacific Journal of
Teacher Education. 45(2). 126-144.
Gronlund, G. (2014). Make early learning standards come alive: Connecting your practice and
curriculum to state guidelines. Redleaf Press.
Rodrigues, A. C., Loureiro, M. A., & Caramelli, P. (2013). Long-term musical training may
improve different forms of visual attention ability. Brain and cognition. 82(3). 229-235.
Roy, D., Baker, W., & Hamilton, A. (2015). Teaching the Arts: Early Childhood & Primary
Education: Early Childhood and Primary Education. Cambridge University Press.
Woods, P. (2012). Critical events in teaching & learning. Routledge.
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