Transformative Tunes: Shaping Early Learning with Music Specialist Nicholaus Young

Ever wonder about the magic that happens when little toes tap and small voices hum along to catchy tunes? We guarantee you'll begin to see pre-school music and movement in a transformative light in our chat with specialist Nick Young, who's been instrumental in music curriculum design for early childhood classrooms. He shares his inspiring journey and speaks to the multitude of benefits such activities have on children's cognitive, emotional, and social development.

Nick further explains the nuts and bolts of engaging preschoolers with music, demonstrating the power of body language, vocal inflection and the right choice of songs. Picture a classroom where children giggle and wiggle, mirroring directed and imaginative movement songs, learning and growing more than we ever realized. Add some instruments, rhythms, and a whole lot of play - and you've got the perfect recipe for a joyful, learning-rich environment. 

But we don't stop at the 'how'. In the final chapter of our conversation, we urge schools and educators to heed this call to action - incorporate music and movement into the curriculum. It's not just fun and games - this impactful learning approach can enhance mathematical and reading proficiency, foster creativity and kick-start critical thinking. We invite you to join us in this mission to revolutionize education - because every child deserves the brighter side of learning. Tune in and subscribe to be a part of this positive movement!

To access Nicholaus Young's work:

•  preschool  music curriculum go to playmotionmusic.com.
• mobile preschool music program site go to youngmusiccompany.com.
• YouTube go to https://youtu.be/k69JAy0jjEc?si=Dbzk1a6jesG39xUR
• schedule virtual classes call (562) 537-4187
• email contact@playmotionmusic.com

Chapters

• 0:34 Music Education Research
• 1:58 Nick Young Introduction
• 6:24 Music and Movement for Academic Success
• 9:26 Social and Emotional Development
• 14:24 4 Elements: Directed and Imaginative Movement, Instruments and Rhythm Sounds, Musical Storytelling, and Class Management
• 15:58 Directed Movement Song Demonstration
• 19:18 Imaginative Movement Song Demonstration
• 21:30 Instrument and Rhythm Sound Demonstration
• 22:13 Musical Storytelling Example
• 22:44 Class Management, Choices
• 25:03 Significance of Play in the Classroom
• 32:07 Take-aways for Parents and Educators
• 36:07 Feeling Faces, Emotion Song Demonstration
• 37:54 Take a Deep Breath, Process Feelings Song
• 39:18 Find More From Nick Young, Resources
• 40:24 Call to Action

Transcript

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:10

Welcome to the Brighter Side of Education. I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In this episode I discuss the benefits of music education. How does music education improve student performance?

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:42

Research has unveiled the remarkable potential of integrating music into early childhood education, revealing profound effects on children's cognitive, emotional and social development. For instance, a study titled Relations Among Musical Skills, phonological Processing and Early Reading Ability in Preschool Children has underscored a strong correlation between phonemic awareness and musical aptitude. This connection implies that the auditory processing skills essential for music appreciation may also be linked to the auditory processing necessary for phonological awareness, which in turn impacts reading skills. Another study titled Possible Effects of Early Childhood Music on Mathematical Achievement found that children exposed to music at home outperformed their peers in mathematics. Researchers identified two key home music activities associated with improved mathematical achievement listening to one's personal music collection and enjoying family members' serenades. With national reading and math scores reaching its lowest in decades. We need to turn our attention to this growing body of research which demonstrates that music can affect how students approach core academic content, enhancing both their proficiency and their enthusiasm for learning.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 1:58

Today, we have a guest who's sure to strike a harmonious chord with educators and parents alike. Nick Young, a music and movement specialist, is joining us to discuss the incredible world of music in education. He is the owner of Play Motion Music and online music curriculum and the Young Music Company, which is a mobile preschool music program. Welcome to the show, nick. It's a pleasure to have you here today.

Nick Young: 2:22

Thank you, Lisa. I'm really excited to be here, super, super excited to share with you guys.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 2:28

Excellent To kick things off. Can you tell us about your journey as a music and movement specialist and how you came to develop a music curriculum for early childhood classrooms?

Nick Young: 2:38

Awesome, I love this question. Yes, okay, I started out as a preschool teacher at my mom's family childcare in Long Beach. She had a Montessori home school at her house and I worked there as a teacher for five years. During that time, I would always bring my guitar in and sing with the kids. That's where I started to notice how the children responded to music, especially live music and interactive music. I got to have the experience of working with children under the mentorship of my mom, who's a professor of child development, now retired. That's where I really learned about how to interact with young children. Also, I started to develop my interactive music and movement skills and I started to study different children's music artists like Greg and Steve, which a lot of preschool teachers are familiar with and probably have music like that that they use in their classroom, of course, rafi, and also a gentleman named Frank Lido, who's a Montessori focused music and movement artist that I learned a lot from Then. From there, I started working at another school where my children were attending the Montessori Children's House in Garden Grove, california. I worked there for, I think, about 13 years. Eventually, after, I started working there just as a teacher's assistant and then I became the music teacher for the whole school. I worked there for about 14 years, going classroom to classroom, leading interactive music and movement activities with the children. While I was doing that, I was creating my mobile preschool music program called the Young Music Company. Then I was off and running and I started to work with trained teachers and develop my curriculum.

Nick Young: 4:30

At a certain point, about 17 years ago, I fulfilled an ambition that I'd had for a long time was to work with the Head Start program. I'm based in Long Beach, california. I went to the local Long Beach Head Start offices and I walked in with this idea for this curriculum that I had. I said let me teach classes, let me work with your teachers no-transcript. You know conferences like the Early Childhood Education conferences around the country and the Head Start conferences and teach workshops and lead music groups for the teachers.

Nick Young: 5:06

When the COVID happened, I got to start teaching online and I still do teach music and movement online for Head Start agencies all over the country and I also teach in person here in California and I have a team of teachers that teach classes. So I'm continuing to develop my music and movement curriculum. I just got back from Washington DC where I got to do a collaboration with the Smithsonian program there and Head Start, where we're live events on Zoom and music and movement and new songs and everything for the zoo and the different museums. So very active and growing all the time and learning more and just so privileged to be able to work with young children and parents and teachers in the early childhood field.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 5:55

That early childhood is where I initiated my spark into the education world as well. I could see where that is a hook. It's the energy and the love of those little ones. They come to school with so much excitement and enjoyment and they want to be there and they're happy to see you and that just kind of rubs off on this wonderful excitement and passion. I think for a lot of educators that just get you hooked into wanting to be around them and nurture them. So how does participating in interactive music and movement affect a child's school readiness, setting them up for future academic success?

Nick Young: 6:32

Wow, fantastic question. It's interesting because music and movement we think about music and movement in early childhood, in the preschool classroom it's so fun and intuitive and organic and natural. It's like the most natural, wonderful thing a teacher or parent can do with a child who's in their toddler or preschool or kindergarten years, because children are so attracted to music, especially interactive music, and I think that kind of can give people the impression well, it's so fun and easy and natural. There must not be any other depth to it or any other benefits to it. I think people kind of have that idea that if something isn't hard and difficult then it's not worthwhile, it's not doing anything important. But that's really not the case when it comes to early music education, music and movement for children in early childhood.

Nick Young: 7:29

There have been numerous scientific studies that show that children who are involved in music and movement at an early age have all kinds of developmental benefits that result from that.

Nick Young: 7:42

And, as we know, another scientific fact is that children in early childhood learn through play.

Nick Young: 7:48

That is absolutely the way that they learn, that's how they develop their ability to navigate the world and it's eventually how they learn how to be an adult is by pretending and playing and interacting.

Nick Young: 8:00

So when we layer on the music aspect then we're adding all this other developmental benefits.

Nick Young: 8:07

So it's been shown that children who are involved in music and movement activities are going to have a boost to their social and emotional development and their language development and their cognitive development, their gross and fine motor skills, their impulse control, their physical movement ability, like their physical exercise and their facility with movement. So I'm sure people that are listening are thinking oh yeah, that makes sense. Children who are crawling like a spider, hopping like a frog, flying like a bird, playing shakers, drums, scrapers, triangles, learning about music and rhythms, telling musical stories, dancing with their peers and with their teachers, and moving and directed and imaginative ways. All those things are going to result in these wonderful results that just happen naturally. And a big focus of early childhood education is for children to be prepared for kindergarten, so that when they start kindergarten they're more than ready to start learning all those at that level, and so we always focus on these important developmental areas and all the things that music impacts are things that are important for our school readiness.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 9:27

So how does music and movement tie into the social and emotional development?

Nick Young: 9:31

Yeah. So the groups that I lead with my students when I teach and the groups that teachers that I teach how to do what I do, what's happening in that music time with the children. I really think of it as a laboratory for social and emotional development. Our music groups are 30 minutes long and we start out with interactive songs with the children that are moving and dancing. Then we'll have the children sit down, we pass out shakers, drums, scrapers, triangles, bells and we do songs and rhythm games and tell musical stories and then we get up and do some more movement in that 30 minute music groups. The children are moving around together in this space. So it's the group space at school. That's where you have your large and small group space, your group times with your students. If you're a teacher or if you're home with your children, it's maybe the living room rug, but it's a space where the children are moving and interacting with each other. So you can imagine in a preschool classroom 20, 25, three or four or five year old children all crawling like spiders together in this music group space, and so they're having this opportunity to interact with each other in a creative way to create something together. That's really greater than the sum of its parts. They're getting to use their imaginations. They're also needing to be able to move together in an active and creative way, while taking care of their own bodies and the bodies of their peers, making sure that they're staying safe and they're keeping their friends safe. And so, right there you have some areas where children are going to need to learn social skills, impulse control, in order to do that. They're highly incentivized to want to be able to participate in the group because it's something that they just enjoy so much and they love doing the movement songs, they love playing the instruments. They just love every aspect of it and they want to be able to participate, and that means that they're going to have to be able to do it in a way that's safe. And part of what I do is I also teach about class management specifically for music and movement time, and you're going to have a whole set of class management challenges that are going to crop up when you have children moving together like that and participating and creating together.

Nick Young: 11:56

And, of course, all the tools that we use are positive and they're never we're never shaming children. We're never telling them oh, you're doing that wrong. We're just giving them choices about what they're going to do with their body, how they're going to move, how they're going to interact, and certain children that have very challenging classroom behavior. Maybe they're brand new to the preschool classroom, maybe they're facing certain challenges that are just a result of too much screen time at home, going through a pandemic where they were isolated with their families at home for years.

Nick Young: 12:35

In my teaching I see the results of a lot of this stuff and I see how children have been impacted by these environmental things and I also see the way that music and movement pulls them out of that kind of isolation that they may be in if they're watching too much YouTube on an iPad for too many hours a day and things like that. Suffice it to say that I see the impact every day in my work. It's a wonderful tool for being able to help children to develop social and emotional literacy and things like that.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 13:09

Yeah, I could see when I was in the classroom and I would do music and movement activities, when you talked about how the students had to really be able to have that impulse control. So you knew that if you wanted to be able to enjoy the activity and stay with the class, you had to follow the just the directions. You had to watch your personal space so that you weren't flailing your body limbs around because you could hurt a friend and no one wanted that. And of course it could happen and it did happen every once in a while. But quickly learned people be like, ooh, that that wasn't good.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 13:42

So you control, you know where you are, noticing your, your space and your body movements, and so it is really wonderful in those areas and and the joy and excitement that comes with Certain little things like we would do, like a native American rhythm dance, you know, a rain dance Around this time of year and the, the children just loved that. You know they love being able to rub their hands together and clap. You know to snap the fingers and, and you know, stomp their feet, you know, and then being able to do that together in the wave. So when you say the, the sun was greater than the parts. It definitely was, because Individually wise it wasn't that wonderful, but together it became like a symphony of sounds, they say. I felt like I was in a rainstorm, so now you are. You talked about training teachers in early childhood music education. Can you talk more about the four elements in your program directed and imaginative movement, instruments and rhythm, sounds, music storytelling and class management?

Nick Young: 14:42

Yes, thank you so much, and I just happened to have my guitar with me. Yeah, I could do a little demonstration. I love it, okay. Yeah, when I train people to work for me in my mobile preschool music program, I'm working with musicians who play guitar and sing and I give them the curriculum and I teach them how to lead music groups and how to do the class management. And they're playing the music, live with the children. But I also much more than that I work with preschool teachers, headstart teachers and other teachers that work in preschool classrooms, and I assume that they're not musicians and that's why I show them how to access Songs and activities that they can use pre-recorded stuff. But they're leading the group and so, while the music is playing, they're leading the group and they're modeling the movements that the song calls out.

Nick Young: 15:29

So you know, I always say you know, feel free to crawl on the floor like a spider with your students, but you don't have to, but you might just do it the first time so they get what you're talking about. Yes, but if it's a song, say where you there say tap your foot. And the teachers there with their students, the music's playing, they're tapping their foot, they say, friends, with the song we're gonna tap our foot, show me how you tap, tap, tap your foot right now. And that's an example of a directed movement song, because it's really specifically saying this is how we're gonna move our body. To this song, the first movement is tapping your foot. So I'll just do a little demonstration of a song that is specifically about this.

Nick Young: 16:05

So I say, friends, show me how you tap your foot, tap one foot, make it bounce up and down. Now tap the other foot, make it go to town. Oh yeah, now wiggle your shoulders and turn yourself around. Now clap your hands, clap, clap, clap your hands, clap, clap, clap your hands, clap, clap, clap, clap your hands, clap, clap. Stomp your feet, feet, feet. Stomp your feet, feet, feet, clap your hands, clap, clap, clap your hands, clap, clap. Wiggle your shoulders, turn yourself around.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 16:54

So, it'll be great at a teacher Institute days too, I think oh yeah.

Nick Young: 16:59

Oh, that's right. When I do workshops with teachers, I have them dancing and doing all the movements and it's really fun.

Nick Young: 17:06

But that's an example of a directed movement song and you can see, you can hear how the the song tells you exactly what to do. So it's telling you tap your foot, wiggle your shoulders, turn around, clap your hands and there's the teacher Clapping, tapping, turning around and everything with their students. And that's how we kind of really sparked their engagement and get them involved in the activity. And also, when I train teachers I'm always saying make sure you're coming and when you're presenting this you're communicating with your body language and your vocal inflection and your facial expression that you're excited and having fun and You're hundred percent engaged with what you're doing and that really helps to get children To engage and then stay engaged with the activities. So that's an example of a directed movement song. And then I'll just do a little bit of an Imaginative movement song. And we've talked about crawling like a spider on the floor. So what I say for this one, this one is where the children are moving around together in the group space. They're gonna be crawling like spiders and moving like different animals. And so I always say put on your invisible bubble around your whole body. That's an important class management tool. And I say when you have your bubble around you, that means you're not gonna bump into your friends. Please make sure you move where there's room to go without bumping your friends. And if I notice my class is really rambunctious and may have a tendency to do a lot of bumping. I might just reiterate it again in different words and just make sure I really explain Clearly before I start the song that that's. You know, we have this invisible bubble and we're making sure we move where there's room to go and Then during the song, when there's gonna be some kind of some bumping going on, and that's totally natural and fine. But I, if I'll be able to call back to the bubble again during the song and that's kind of a shorthand for just helping my friends to remember to be safe If the bumping is getting a little too rough and I just say, remember your invisible bubble around your body, I don't stop the song. I keep the song going when I do that because I don't want to stop the momentum of what we're doing, because as soon as you stop something, if you stop the music and you're specifically trying to correct some behavior, then you start to lose kind of the momentum and the flow of what you're presenting, and that's when you're kind of risking losing their engagement too Okay. So this is animals on the move. And I say, friends, put on your invisible bubble, we're gonna crawl like a spider. Show me how you crawl like a spider. I might demonstrate how I crawl like a spider.

Nick Young: 19:28

And here we go Spiders are creeping. Spiders are creeping. Spiders are creeping. Spiders are creeping, creep around the circle. Stop now. Slither like a snake. Snakes that slither. Snakes that slither, snakes that slither Snakes that slither, slither around the circle. Stop now. Swim like a dolphin. And then it goes on and we do dolphins, birds, elephants, and then around the holidays like right now we're in October I might make it a Halloween theme where it's fly like a ghost or a witch, or dance like a skeleton, or, if you know, whatever time of the year. You can adapt these songs for the for the different themes, but you can kind of see how you can imagine in your mind's eye a whole bunch of children crawling like a spider, slytherin, like a snake.

Nick Young: 20:31

They absolutely love it. Then you also have all the developmental benefits that come along with it. Okay, so the next part is Instruments and rhythms. So at a certain point in my group, about halfway through, I say, okay, friends, we sit down in our circle space, we're all sitting around the edge facing towards the middle, and we get out our instruments like shakers, drums, scrapers, triangles, bells, and I pass them out to the children and then we'll do Songs and activities with the instruments. I'll do rhythmic songs when we're, the children are playing their instrument and I'm playing a song, and where it's just the for the sake of playing their instrument. We'll do rhythm sounds where we use ta, t, t, toe, diggy, diggy. Ta is a quarter note with one dot, and I have rhythm sound cards that I show the children. To say ta, we count the dot, one dot, we say one. One dot means one sound top. And let's see, I've got my Instruments with me right here.

Nick Young: 21:28

So if I have a shaker, I'll say Ta, and they all say ta. I'll say let's do a whole bunch in a row. Here we go Ta, ta, ta, ta. And then we'll say now it's time for TT, and I get up my TT card, which is two eighth notes, and it's TT, tt, tt, tt. And then we put TT and ta together, tt, top, t, t, t, t, t, t, t. And so in that way they're starting to learn about how to read rhythms, music notes and recognize patterns. It's a fantastic pre-literacy activity and it's a wonderful contrast to the other things that we do. And then, moving along in instrument time, we'll do musical stories. So I have a story about a bird and a frog and a crocodile and in the story a scraper makes the sound of the frog. So here's my scraper and the children that have the scraper. Whenever I say frog in the story, they scrape their scraper to make the frog sound the drum is the elephants running in the jungle.

Nick Young: 22:33

The shakers and bells are the splashing water, and so we tell stories. Maybe I involve them in some dramatic play where they're actually reciting some of the lines in the story and then, moving on from there class management we've been talking about I always give the children choices. So if I say, well, this one child is really being rough and he's just really getting disruptive or unsafe, I'll say I'm noticing your body's not ready for music time today. Can you make your body ready for music? And maybe I have to ask them to take a quick break from the music time and then they can come right back in as soon as they're ready.

Nick Young: 23:08

And then if a child just is really brand new to the preschool environment, they may need extra steps along the way. I may need some help from another teacher. I may give that child a pep talk before we start the music time next time. But it's all giving them choices. I'm never calling them out or embarrassing them in front of their friends. I'm always making sure that I use positive language because I never want to be punitive. I always want them to associate music with something that they enjoy and is fun. I never want to make it a chore or anything like that. So in that way we're giving them an opportunity for that social and emotional growth. That is a part of what we're doing.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 23:48

Excellent. I love it all. I'm wishing I had my bin of musical instruments. I always had in the classroom so I'm like, oh, we could have done a musical story together. I had it all. I had the drums, I have the little. I've got all of all of those little things you're talking about and I would collect them when I would go on travels around the world and bring them back to the classroom and incorporate that into the options for the kids to be able to pull out when we would do certain stories and songs. And the kids absolutely loved it.

Nick Young: 24:18

You're just the type of early childhood educator that I always love to work with, you know, and I always love to give more tools and really help them to make it an intentional part of their curriculum. A lot of classrooms have music as a part of what they do, but it's not what we call intentional. It's not something that they kind of put the forethought into to really maximize the benefit. It's not a throwaway activity. It's a very important specific activity that we can incorporate into our daily curriculum and our daily routine. That's going to be really beneficial for everyone. It makes the teacher's lives easier, you know, using songs for transitions, you know, and helping their students to develop their language skills and all these other important skills. So, yeah, I love it.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 25:03

So can you talk about the significance of play in the context of child development and music education, as well as share strategies for infusing more joy and fun into the classroom?

Nick Young: 25:14

One of the things that's important in an early childhood classroom, any classroom is having a positive affect, a positive environment, so that when children are there, they feel uplifted, they feel welcome, they feel safe, they feel like they're enjoying themselves and they associate you know all the things that they're doing with something that they enjoy doing, instead of something that's hard or difficult or threatening or you know I'm going to get in trouble that kind of a thing. And music in all the different forms and probably, for you know, classrooms that involve older children is such a great way to foster that positive affect in the classroom. But you know, speaking specifically about the early childhood classroom, you know we've been talking about how much the children love and enjoy these activities and it's really a great way to give opportunities for positive Peer to peer interactions and child to teacher interactions and parents at home. It's a great way for them to interact with their children in a way that's positive. Children really need face to face interaction To in order to develop these social and emotional skills, being able to recognize emotions that they may be having and recognize emotions and other people. That's part of social and emotional literacy, and when you take away that face to face interaction. That's so vital. For instance, when children are getting too much screen time in their lives, they they don't have that, that developmental opportunity. And music and movement. They're interacting together. They're crawling like a spider, hopping like a frog. They're flying on a plane. They're playing instruments. There. You're playing the instruments in ways that's collaborative, you know, playing rhythm, sounds, telling musical stories, playing songs All these things are ways that they're interacting with their peers and with their teachers or their parents In a positive way.

Nick Young: 27:12

That is just absolutely vital. I mean saying it out loud. It's like, yeah, of course you know children that have been isolated from covid or whatever Children that are, you know, from in an environment at home that where they're not getting that face to face interaction as much as they may Need to, and possibly through no fault of their parents, be of many parents are working multiple jobs to make ends meet and they don't have the time to interact with their children that might be optimal for their development. So there's so many things that you mentioned that this kind of covers, but it's it's all these layers of learning opportunities and you know we're talking about these basic developmental areas that are getting stimulated in the children, but there's other layers of of educational opportunities and learning that we can also layer on that.

Nick Young: 28:00

So, for instance, my curriculum I have modules that are on specific subjects that are Addressed in the preschool classroom, like pre math, pre reading and spelling, science, nature. You know a lot of preschool classrooms will have a transportation unit. For instance, in the science module We've got songs about the water cycle and how plants grow and photosynthesis and all these different aspects of science that are happening in the context, context of Music and movement. So, like you say, it's a song about a storm cloud that has water drops and ice crystals that rub together inside of the cloud. That creates static electricity and then the electricity shoots down to the ground as lightning and causes thunder and the children are jumping and dancing. When the lightning is happening it's, you know, electrons jump and we're all jumping, so the children are. They're having this learning opportunity, so they're learning about what a storm cloud is and how that happens, but they're also dancing and moving and I really believe that children who are viscerally interacting with the, with the material, in this way, are getting a deeper learning than they would otherwise.

Nick Young: 29:08

You say, okay, sit down, I'm going to read you a story about the water cycle.

Nick Young: 29:11

There's the water in the ocean.

Nick Young: 29:13

It evaporates from the sun, it goes up into the sky, it forms clouds and the clouds get full of lots of moisture and then the rain comes down.

Nick Young: 29:21

That waters the plants and gives water to the animals, it goes in the rivers and things and that back to the ocean and it goes around again. So is a child going to remember that? Or they're going to remember the song about the water in the ocean and they're moving their arm like the water in the ocean and then the Evaporation and they float up and they become clouds and then the water drops, come down and they're all doing it with movement. You know, I just believe very firmly that the child that has that kind of interaction with the subject matter is going to have a greater impact and have more of a retention of knowledge than they would just by passively receiving the information. And I think as adults we can relate because you know, you remember the lyrics to songs that you love, because it's in the context of rhythm and melody and music where you may not remember those words if it was in the context of a song that you enjoy.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 30:15

It's so very true. I would have teachers that would tell me oh, I was teaching my class about the water cycle and they remembered that song that you taught them back in second grade and could all do it still. You know, when you think about big words like evaporation and condensation and accumulation, and how would they remember these? What it's in their brain? Because of the rhythm and the song and the movement of their fingers and with the way that they went and turning around, and so there's absolutely something for them. And when you say about music and us remembering songs that people sang to you as a child, that then you repeated, somehow came back up when you had your own children Music classes, I still remember songs from elementary school. It's stored in your brain. All of a sudden it comes rushing back to you and you're like I remember it all is connected when it comes to all subject matter. It's just really beneficial. So dig them out, find them, use them. The kids love them.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 31:12

I don't even care how old they are, for it doesn't matter, because absolutely.

Nick Young: 31:16

You know.

Nick Young: 31:17

It's funny when you say like any age, I thought about infants, you know, and sometimes I get to go into the infant room and schools and sing with the very, very young children, and these are children that maybe they can sit up, maybe they can't. They don't have any language facility at all and I'll play a rhythmic song and you just see these little babies bopping their bodies around to the music, you know, and to me it's like that's the proof that that music is Just a part of being a human being, is something really basic about music as something that's just a part of us, and I just encourage people to celebrate that and take advantage of it and make sure to make it a priority in your classroom. You know, the benefits are Beyond even what we understand, I think, for children.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 32:03

I agree, Leslie. As we wrap up the conversation, what takeaways can you give educators and parents to incorporate music into their classrooms or homes?

Nick Young: 32:12

Well, you know, there's a lot of music available like a ton of music available that's designed for children, and I have some very specific criteria for what type of music, what qualities music should have that you would want to seek out and use in your classroom. One of the things I make a priority about the music that I create for children it just happens naturally because I'm a musician. But I want the music to be something that you can enjoy as an adult, because if you're in the car with your toddler and you're playing the music on the radio, you don't want it to be something that's kind of ear splitting and not enjoyable for you. So the music should be something that you enjoy. But also there's some specific criteria Like, for instance, an interactive movement song, like a directed movement song or an imaginative movement song, like we demonstrated earlier, should have directions about what to do. In the case of a directed movement song, it's tap your foot, wiggle your shoulders, clap your hands, wiggle your fingers, tap your head, whatever it is. The song should have that in the lyrics of the song, so it's very simple to understand and you can just follow along with the song and as an adult, you can model the movements along with the children.

Nick Young: 33:21

If it's an imaginative movement song crawl like a spider, hop like a frog you want those things to be in the song. Now, some songs that are like that, it'll say, okay, crawl like a spider, jump like a frog. But the song should have a period of time in the song after the direction for the child to enjoy that movement. So if it's moving along too quickly from spider to frog to bird without giving time in between, that's probably not ideal. So you want to say spiders are creeping, spiders are creeping, creep around the circle and stop. Then all that period of time the children were crawling like a spider. Then the next thing comes up fly like a bird. Then they have time to fly like a bird. So you just want to make sure it's giving time in the song for them to do that.

Nick Young: 34:07

It's important, I think, to include a variety of different types of activities, like we talked about, instrument time with hand percussion instruments, reading, music notes, making sure that what you're presenting to the children is accessible and it's play-oriented, Because, like we said, children learn through play and there's nothing about play that's not good or important for children With social and emotional development.

Nick Young: 34:31

There are six emotions that children should be literate in by age five, and if they are, then it's going to have a major impact on their lives as they grow into adulthood, their careers, their relationships. The emotions are happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised and disgusted. And so these six emotions we want to help the children to become literate in these before age five, and we talked about social and emotional literacy, so prioritizing that in the context of music and movement, it's more important I think this is my opinion more important than learning your numbers, your shapes, your colors. If you have literacy in those six emotions by age five, it's just it could be a determiner of going to college or going to somewhere not college, you know. So give this gift to your students, to your children, and why not have fun while you're doing it in the context of music and movement.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 35:31

And you have a storytime podcast and you have links to your preschool music and you also have a YouTube channel and in those different mediums are you addressing those attributes that they need to have mastered?

Nick Young: 35:47

Yeah, well, I have a module in my curriculum that's all about social and emotional development and I have a song. I have a whole bunch of songs, but one that comes to mind just as an example, and I want to emphasize children are going to be learning these things organically and developing this organically, but we can also be more specific if we want to. So there's a song where I'm encouraging the children to demonstrate these emotions with their facial expression in the song. So it's feeling faces. Feeling faces Show me how your face looks when you feel happy. And then the children are showing their happy face.

Nick Young: 36:21

Feeling faces. Feeling faces Show me how your face looks when you feel sad. Oh, show me your sad face. Feeling faces. Feeling faces show me how your face looks when you feel excited. Feeling faces. Feeling faces Show me how your face looks when you feel disgusted. Ew, gross. Feeling faces. Feeling faces show me how your face looks when you feel afraid. Feeling faces. Feeling faces show me how your face looks when you feel happy. So you know, I think in some sometimes in our culture with young children, we're actually trying to discourage them from expressing these emotions. We're saying don't cry, don't get angry, don't express these emotions, because I'm busy, I got things to do and I don't have time to deal with you right now. And so we're really saying to them don't express these feelings. It's not okay to feel sad, it's not okay to feel angry and you know what.

Nick Young: 37:26

It's not convenient for us adults to have to deal with a child who's going through these big feelings. But it's important that we make sure that they understand that these are valid feelings and that they should be able to express them in a way that eventually can be constructive and healthy and safe. And we can use music to do that. For instance, I have a song for children that are really upset and it's helping them to process their feelings. Take a deep breath, let it out softly. Take another breath. Count to ten slowly. One, two I still feel angry. Three, four I'm still a little cranky, five, six.

Nick Young: 38:17

My body is calling seven eight.

Nick Young: 38:22

Now I am relaxing. Nine, ten, I feel better. Finally, sometimes I just need to take a break. Sometimes I just need to stop what I'm doing. Sometimes I just need a hug to show me everything's okay, to help my upset feelings go away. So in the context of working with a child who's having a big emotional feeling, you could use that at the appropriate time to help them breathe and count and process through those big feelings and that's them learning how to self-soothe and how to deal with feelings and that's a really important lifetime skill.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 39:12

Thank you, nick. That was wonderful. I think I need to learn that song we all do Before we end. Can you tell us your website? Where could they go to find these resources?

Nick Young: 39:25

So my curriculum program is Play Motion Music and so the website is playmotionmusic. com and you can access the whole curriculum there. There's also links to my YouTube channel and social media and stuff. My other website, which is my mobile preschool music program site, which is also a great resource, is youngmusiccompany. com, so playmotionmusic. com, youngmusiccompany. com, and I just want to encourage anyone who's listening to reach out to me. I'm always available. If you're a teacher or a parent and you just want to talk about music and movement in the early childhood classroom or at home, don't hesitate to send me an email. Message me and I love to talk about this type of thing and I'm always here as a resource.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 40:15

Well it shows. And thank you so much, Nick, for joining us today and shedding light on the remarkable benefits of incorporating music into education. The call to action is to integrate music and movement into schools. It provides a dynamic and engaging learning environment that not only aids in the master of math and reading, but also fosters creativity and critical thinking. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at drlisarichardsonhassler@ gmail. com or visit my website at wwwdrlisahassler. com and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and please tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.