Music and Wellbeing for Early Years Educators and Children

10th November 2024 All Posts

Music and Wellbeing for Early Years Educators and Children

Early years educators play a crucial role in helping children build strong mental health, create positive connections in their brains, and develop skills that support wellbeing as they grow. But to do this well, it’s important that you, too, feel positive and energised. Imagine having simple, daily activities that uplift both children and adults alike!

Research in neuroscience shows that music is one of the most effective tools we have to support wellbeing of everyone in early years settings. Music can bring joy, reduce stress, and create a positive atmosphere that benefits both children and educators.

What we all know

We all know from experience that singing and dancing are fun, uplifting, and energising activities! We play music to motivate ourselves when we exercise, to calm our minds, and to be present in the moment. We sing at celebrations and sports events to show excitement and express support together.

These experiences can be explained through neuroscience, which shows how making music—singing, dancing, clapping, tapping, banging, or stomping along to the beat—has a powerful impact on our brains.

Neuroscience overview

Making music is a whole-brain activity that lights up neural networks across the entire brain. It’s like a full workout for the brain, engaging multiple areas at once and strengthening connections throughout. All of the following neural networks are connected to the 3 main cortices of the brain, all are seen to be activated by music practice:

Super sense network – Helps make sense of language. Interestingly, the brain processes music using similar pathways to language.

Reward network – Gives a sense of achievement and motivation, re-enforcing positive learning experiences

Cognitive network – The “engine room,” responsible for figuring out processes and steps.

Perceptual network – Helps predict what comes next.

Cognition network –Allows us to understand meaning, and decide what we like or don’t like.

Emotional network – Influences mood, resilience, emotions and empathy.

In this guest blog, Sue Newman, founder of Boogie Mites, discusses the reward and emotional networks to highlight how participation in music activities can enhance wellbeing—although all these benefits are interconnected.

Pro-social behaviours

Research shows a strong correlation between music practice and pro-social behaviour:

Kindness
Empathy
Agency
Self-regulation

A particular study (Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010) points towards young children (4-year-olds) behaving more pro-socially (positive, helpful and promoting cooperation and friendship) after taking part in music activities together. They become more empathetic and helpful towards each other, which suggests a group music session might be worth a try if you need to get your preschool room playing more co-operatively together.

These are skills that are modelled by significant adults but are very tricky to teach. Music practice offers a great tool or teacher for pro-social behaviours. Through these shared musical activities, we learn to listen to one another, support each other, and feel a sense of connection and collaboration.

Children can start to learn pro-social behaviours from 14 months old. Working in a setting where children have learnt these skills is calmer and less stressful for educators than working in settings where many children have not learnt kindness, empathy, agency and self-regulation.

Social cohesion

Research shows that when a mother and baby/child sing together their heartbeats and body temperatures align. When we sing and move together or make music together, a powerful bond or connection is created.

Also, for a group of children and adults making music together, the same emotional reaction promotes social cohesion in the group. We see this at music festivals, football matches and other big group gatherings where singing, dancing and beat-keeping promote a feeling of tribal belonging.

According to several studies, when humans ‘synchronise’ with each other, social bonding can occur. ‘Synchronising’ is defined as performing movements simultaneously with someone else. This could include dancing, clapping, and tapping rhythm sticks in time with one another

Music is a powerful tool for developing the emotional network in a positive way to promote social skills as part of an inclusive cohesive group activity, for adults and children. With this comes confidence and happiness.

Reward and love of learning

Research studies show that music engages the reward-related regions through functional connectivity with the auditory system. The reward network is activated when we get something right and feel good about it. Music-making often activates the reward network, with a transfer effect of developing a love of learning, a love of getting things right.

Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are the body’s chemical messengers, responsible for sending signals throughout the brain and body. When we engage in group music-making and exercise, four key neurotransmitters are stimulated:

Dopamine – plays a role in how we feel pleasure
Oxytocin – plays a role in social bonding
Serotonin – plays a role in modulating mood
Endorphins – trigger a positive feeling in the body

Get your daily mood booster DOSE of music to stimulate happy hormones, motivation and bonding!

School ready skills

With all of these things going on in the brain, it is easy to understand that music can play a powerful role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and educators in the setting environment.

Beyond music’s impact on the brain, it also plays a key role in building essential group skills for children during music and movement activities, such as active circle time. These sessions teach children how to work together, listen, take turns, and follow instructions—skills that are crucial for a positive start at school. By learning these social and emotional skills early on, children are better prepared for a happy, successful educational journey from day one.

In music and movement circle time, whether in small or large groups, and with or without parents taking part, children build essential group learning skills that help prepare them for school. These activities teach skills like cooperation, patience, active listening, and turn-taking—foundations for a positive learning experience that supports their wellbeing as they progress through school.

Listening and attention
Taking turns
Playing co-operatively
Sharing props and instruments
Following instructions
Contributing ideas
Regulating behaviour
Confidence and self-esteem
Emotional wellbeing

Daily music activities boost wellbeing of educators and children

So, going back to what we know from our own experience, it is no wonder we all choose to have music at celebration events such as weddings, why we all love live music events, discos (showing my age!) and parties. It is no wonder that singing on the football terraces every Saturday creates a tribal feeling of social belonging, a weekly ritual that is vital to the mental health of all involved.

We haven’t even started to think of the impact of music on language and literacy development, another topic supported by a wealth of neuroscience research evidence. Of course, good language and literacy skills impact confidence, and self-esteem. Building a strong foundation for language and literacy in early years can play an important role in children’s mental health and wellbeing throughout school. It helps prevent children from falling behind right from the start, reducing the risk of struggles that can be hard to overcome later on.

The best thing of all is that daily music-making will not only support the mood, and wellbeing of the children, but of the participating adults too. We hear from educators using Boogie Mites music activities, that it is the highlight of everyone’s day. So shed those inhibitions, turn up the music and boogie!

There’s a football chant: “Sing when you’re winning, you only sing when you’re winning”. But we think they have it around the wrong way. At Boogie Mites we would chant “Win when you’re singing, you’ll only win when you’re singing!

If you’d like to learn more about Boogie Mites or explore music programs designed for early years settings, you can find more information here.

Throughout this article, we’ve highlighted the importance of getting your daily mood booster DOSE of music to stimulate those happy hormones, enhance motivation, and strengthen bonds. You can kickstart this experience by downloading our FREE upbeat mood-boosting action song, I Feel Alive!

Download our FREE report and register for our webinar!

Thank you to all educators who completed our Early Years Staff Wellbeing Survey!💙

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About the Author

Content Marketing Executive at Connect Childcare

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