Integrating Music in Children's Library Programming Trends And

Running Head: INTEGRATING MUSIC IN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY PROGRAMMING Integrating Music in Children’s Library Programming Trends and Recommendations Rebecca Ballard Completed as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Library and Information Science Capstone November 12, 2018 INTEGRATING MUSIC IN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY PROGRAMMING 2 Abstract The integration of music in children’s library programs has become increasingly popular in recent years. Music is often incorporated in traditional library programs, such as storytimes. Music is also the focus of many different types of standalone children’s library programs, such as music classes, music clubs, concerts, and instrument exploration. Some libraries are now even circulating a wide variety musical instruments for children to check out. This report surveys the cognitive benefits of children’s musical library programs and makes recommendations for best practices in incorporating music in children’s library programming. Keywords: music in libraries, library services to children, public libraries, child development, activity programs in children’s libraries, best practices INTEGRATING MUSIC IN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY PROGRAMMING 3 Integrating Music in Children’s Library Programming Children’s programming is an essential service offered by public libraries. “A high level of literacy contributes to the positive quality of life in a community. Literacy does not begin when children enter school; the roots of literacy are nourished even from birth” (Georgia Public Library Service, 2002). Librarians strive to meet both the educational and recreational needs of the patrons in their communities (Baker, 2017). Children’s librarians today are reaching out to young patrons of all ages and are expanding their literacy programming in a variety of ways. The incorporation of music in library programming has become increasingly popular in recent years. Why should librarians use music in library programs? Isn’t children’s library programming supposed to be all about books? Don’t librarians just read in storytime? Are there real reasons or benefits of including music in library programs? The purpose of this study is to review the research and reasoning behind incorporating music in children’s library programming, to discuss why music is beneficial, and to investigate best practices and make recommendations in developing music-related library programs for children. Children’s librarians are adapting their storytime and library program designs in response to early childhood development research on the ways children learn and take in information (Jacobson, 2017). Research shows that exposure to musical experiences improves memory and caters to multiple intelligences. Music also improves the acquisition of language skills, helps develop pre-writing skills, and increases print motivation. Music also creates a sense of community. Music Improves Memory Incorporating music into educational experiences improves a child’s memory. A child’s healthy brain growth develops from a combination of both inherited genetics and environmental INTEGRATING MUSIC IN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY PROGRAMMING 4 experiences. Combining music with reading books, such as singing a song about a story while a child looks at a picture book, helps encourage healthy brain development and enhances learning experiences (Diamant-Cohen, Riordan, & Wade, 2004). “Studies show that people who practice or are exposed to music have better word recall and verbal memory, and babies exposed to music learn faster than their peers” (Sullivan, 2013). Extremely complex mathematical or science concepts, or even very basic skills such as reciting the alphabet, the names of the planets, or the names of all the fifty United States are much more easily learned when they are set to music and sung as a song (Hansen, Bernstorf, & Stuber, 2014; Brown, 2014). Information that a child learns to the tune of a song is more easily recalled than information learned by rote (Hansen, et al., 2014). Repetition of sensorimotor experiences combined with oral, auditory, and visual stimulation assist in infant and toddler synaptic brain development (Gallagher, 2005). Repeated experiences develop and strengthen brain synaptic connections, and repeated musical experiences imprint on a child’s memory (Diamant-Cohen, 2018). Music is a multisensory experience and is easily utilized to help children memorize information (Baker, 2017). “Music has the power to help students learn and remember important information and experiences all while having fun” (Brown, 2009). Music Caters to Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is based on the belief that human cognition and intelligences are complex, varied, and changeable. The eight intelligences Gardner describes are linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist (Brown & Meyers, 2008). Children can hear music in the womb, and a child will naturally feel the rhythm of their mother’s heartbeat; the first intelligence a child develops is musical (Hill-Clarke & Robinson, 2004). INTEGRATING MUSIC IN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY PROGRAMMING 5 Music that is incorporated in children’s programming also caters to multiple intelligences. Movement to music, playing musical instruments, and songs with fingerplays interacts with bodily kinesthetic intelligences. Singing a non-fiction picture book caters to logical-mathematical intelligences (Brown, 2014). Children observing, exploring, and playing with musical instruments incorporates both spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences. Connecting through music with others utilizes both intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences (McEwing, 2011). And, using instruments made of natural materials such as wood and singing stories about nature caters to naturalist intelligences (Brown, 2014). Music helps children develop in multiple ways: physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and aesthetically (Diamant-Cohen, 2018). Music Improves the Acquisition of Language Skills Singing songs increases children’s vocabulary. The Association for Library Service to Children [ASLC] has shown in studies that by the time children from low-income families reach the age of four, they will have heard thirty million fewer words than their more advantaged peers (The Association for Library Service to Children, 2018). The ASLC’s campaign, “Talk, Read, Sing, Play,” encourages playful ways, like singing, to share words with babies and young children (Celano & Neuman, 2015). Songs sung to children can demonstrate new and unfamiliar words, and children’s songs can also describe objects that children might not be familiar with; this musical introduction to new concepts increases a child’s vocabulary. For example, the song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” can introduce a child to the names of new animals and sounds they make that were previously unfamiliar to them (Brown, 2014). “The easiest and most effective way to build young children’s vocabulary is to talk and sing with them” (Diamant- Cohen, 2018). INTEGRATING MUSIC IN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY PROGRAMMING 6 Singing songs also improves phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is simply the parts that make up language; syllables, sounds, rhymes, and words. When one sings a song, the words to that song are sung at a slower tempo than they would be produced in speech. (Baker, 2017). This reduction in tempo offers children additional time to listen and hear individual syllables and words. (The Association for Library Service to Children, 2018). Children who are able to discern and recognize different rhymes, syllables, and phonemes will develop into better readers (Bryant, MacLean, Bradley, & Crossland, 1990). Additionally, the syllables of words in a song are often individually separated and are associated with different specific musical notes. That note-syllable association is an audible cue that helps children notice and realize that words are made up of different sounds. Both of the musical concepts of tempo, which is speed, and tone, which are the audible musical notes, assist in developing phonological awareness (Brown, 2014). “Each time children learn a chant or nursery rhyme, their reading skills grow. Each time children learn a rhythmic pattern, they strengthen their accenting and syllabication skills.” (Hill-Clarke & Robinson, 2004). Music Helps Develop Pre-writing Skills Pre-writing skills are the fine sensorimotor skills that a child develops which are necessary for a child to learn how to hold and use a writing implement, such as a crayon or a pencil. As pre-writing skills are developed and improve, a child then develops the ability to write words, draw pictures, copy, and color (Royal Children’s Hospital, 2005). Fingerplays are songs that combine motion with a child’s hands and/or fingers to follow along with the words of the song or chant (Gruncheva, 2015). Songs with fingerplays increase fine motor skills and muscle coordination that later contribute to a child developing the ability to hold and manipulate a pencil (Diamant-Cohen, 2018). Fingerplays also contribute to children’s neuro-physiological INTEGRATING MUSIC IN CHILDREN’S LIBRARY PROGRAMMING 7 development and stimulate a child’s interest while they are developing pre-writing skills (Gruncheva, 2015). Music Increases Print Motivation Print motivation is, simply stated, a child’s desire to read. A child’s interest and enjoyment of books is an essential literacy skill (Arnold, 2003). Children are motivated to read

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