How Music Can Unleash Children’s Cognitive, Creative Skills in Preschool and Early School Age — Interdisciplinarity and Music

Abstract: It is indisputable that the relationship with music in the early years of children’s lives plays an important role in their later development, having a positive impact on their cognitive development. According to Neuromusicology, listening to musical melodies activate areas of the brain that are directly related to their cognitive functions. More specifically, children of preschool and early school age by listening to music, singing, playing and making songs are prepared for the processes of learning that they will conquer during reading and writing in later years.

In addition, many more benefits could be added in terms of the beneficial effect of music, such as the development of creative expression, the improvement of memory and the development of their skills. In addition, studies have shown that learning processes in music can serve as a means of knowing how to work, study processes and other courses. The music that is taught at school aims to cultivate the aesthetic ability and release the creative potential of children. However, it is not an object that remains in isolation from the other areas of the curriculum. Many musical concepts can help to better understand concepts of other cognitive fields. Thus, with the interdisciplinary approach to teaching, learning develops through a process of continuous negotiation of all knowledge.

In particular, music, as an art but also as a lesson with a specific structure, has some concepts and elements, such as shapes, repetitions and contrasts. The combination of music with other lessons is based on the exploration of these basic concepts, elements and the relationships created by their interweaving. Interdisciplinary teaching, therefore, gives students more opportunities to create relationships and combinations that will make them better understand some content of all knowledge.

Key words: music, music and movement, interdisciplinarity, skills, preschool, protoschool