“Patato" and "attenshun”. How Music improves kids spelling problems

How music is connected with the brain

The positive impact of music on language and early literacy has been proved by many kinds of research. There are multiple educational methods that involve music as a powerful instrument to percept and remember the information. Teaching reading through music is a well-known technique that your teachers used to use too. Can’t remember any? A short test for the adults. Can you recall the English alphabet? We bet you sing a-b-c-d-e-f-g with reciting the melody of “Twinkle, twinkle little star”. This example will convince you more than anything else. Music is strongly connected with a child’s ability to decode sounds and words, in other words, overall language skills.

Finding proof that music has a positive effect on kid’s development was a great breakthrough in educational and cognitive researches. Connecting melodies with the new information helps to record it better in the brain and recall it as the alphabet with the Twinkle Star song.

From do-re-mis to A-B-C. How to help kid learn to read and write

Literacy is one of the essential skills that you’d like your kid to acquire, no matter what profession he will choose for his future life. It is more than just spelling words in the right way. Literacy is one of the social skills and is crucial for proper communication.

What literacy depends on? It depends on good writing and reading skills that children acquire. Some children are more successful than others. What’s the key to improvement? It’s a known fact that an ability to read and write depends on solid oral language skills. While training music, playing and singing, these skills get a solid upgrade. Playing music activates the parts in the left cerebral hemisphere that are responsible for processing language.  When training music the brain works harder which provokes a greater growth of a neural network. Developing literacy through music can be surprisingly successful. Besides literacy, playing music can enhance studying ability and help to excel in other areas like math, logic, rhetoric, and other disciplines that are essential for well-rounded development. If you are questioning how to raise a genius, practicing music should definitely be in your shortlist.

How to make your kid play music (and love it) without pushing

Children usually do not percept spelling problems as a big matter and often will not share your frustration about it. And probably won’t enjoy sitting a couple of extra hours doing exercises instead of playing with Jack and Jill. What parents usually do in this case? They have no other choice than to push their kids to keep their nose buried in a textbook. This usually leads to a conflict between a parent and a kid and definitely do not contribute to your good relations, besides the results can still be poor.

But thankfully, there’s a solution. Improved literacy is one of the great side effects in music education. As you have already got an idea of music effect on spelling, you would probably like your kid to spend more time practicing music. How to start then?

You can go the way most parents do. Enroll your child to music lessons where they will spend a few times a week learning hard music theory and practicing playing the piano or violin. This is a good way to get a basic musical education, but what if your kid’s schedule is already tough or they do not have such great music abilities or do not wish to spend 4 hours a week playing scales?

Having an instrument that your child could easily acquire and practice at home would be the best solution. There’s no secret that kids hate and procrastinate doing something being pushed but they become highly creative and involved when doing something for fun. When asking a kid, what do you prefer playing music and having fun or writing “potato” for 30 times? I think the answer will be obvious. Playing an easy and understandable music instrument and learning basics of music theory simultaneously – yes, it is possible.

The instruments that are usually proposed to kids are drums, xylophones, and simple flutes. But have you ever heard about RAV Vast tongue drum? RAV belongs to a steel drum family that inquires many instruments like handpans, tank drums, and others. If you are looking for an affordable child-friendly instrument, RAV would be the best choice for you. Handpans are designed for professional musicians and are hardly acquired by children. Tank drums are easy to play but require practicing to avoid the unpleasant disharmonious sound that may produce.  RAV has a soft melodious sound so you won’t have a wish to throw the instrument away after listening to your child playing for a few hours. Children love RAV because the instrument has a funny UFO-shape and is really easy to play. RAV is harmonically tuned, so the melodies will sound like the real professional compositions as it’s just impossible to play off-key. The instrument has a glossy cover and is pleasant to touch, so your kid would enjoy the process and tactile feelings.

Improve spelling while playing. What to do

Playing music will work by itself. Try intuitive playing by just letting your child investigate the instrument and hear the notes. You can further try playing simple melodies. If you are raising a daughter, try some simple sweet ballades or nursery songs. Boys might be more fascinated by fast and dynamic rhythms.  You can train your kid by watching educational videos where they can see other children playing the handpan (check out our podcast).

The great idea is to connect the notes with the letters. This can easily be done with RAV Vast as each tongue corresponds to a note. Propose your kid to be a composer and create a few melodies using the drum. Then take a word you kid tends to make spelling mistakes often, for example, “judge” (that kids usually spell as “juge”). This word contains 5 letters and will require a 5-notes melody. Ask your kid to sing each letter while striking the note of the melody. This will make a new synapse – a signal that his brain will percept as the word is considered in a new context. You’ll see how easy it will be for him to learn the correct spelling now. Associative memory is strong, so next time your kid will write the word, he will be able to recall himself playing letters with the notes and won’t face any spelling problems.

Playing can also be a reward for achievements. If your kid succeeded in spelling, you can treat him with an extra music session. This will become a good motivation for your child to perform better in class if he knows he will be rewarded for that at home.

Sometimes kid’s performance gets poor not just because of the lack of knowledge but because of stress and pressure, they get daily at home and school. Children are preoccupied with living up to parents’ expectations and this pressure can paralyze them. Playing a RAV tongue drum has a great ability to relax one’s mind and relieve stress. When being calmed brain starts to work more productively, so you can see how your kid improves not only his spelling skills but the whole academic performance.

At the very end, you can practice music just to enjoy the time spent together. Listen to the melodies your kid creates. Good results at school and an ability to write “al-right” correctly are undoubtedly important, but what is more important is the time you spend with your child and the love you give to him.