- Reprinted with permission from "The Parent's Guide: Getting
the Most
- Out Of Your Child's Band or Orchestral Experience"
published by The
- Selmer Company.
-
- Rhythm Seen as Key to Music's
Evolutionary
Role in Human Intellectual Development
-
- Study findings in that will soon be published in the American
Journal of
- Occupational Therapy show that improving children's
physical
- rhythmicity also produces statistically significant positive
gains in his or
- her capacity to focus and attend; plan, sequence, and
coordinate actions; as
- well as a variety of cognitive and language skills, including
reading,
- spelling, and math. These findings suggest that the rhythmic
experiences
- shared by our earliest ancestors may have done more than just
entertain
them. They may have been instrumental to humans developing
underlying
brain functions that were foundational to our brain's developing
higher
level capabilities.
-
- Rhythmicity from a practitioner's point of view:
-
- Individuals with fundamental rhythmicity typically have the
ability to
- 1. recognize that rhythmic patterns exist in our
surroundings,
- 2. focus their attention long enough to recognize individual
patterns
- 3. within a group of simultaneously occurring patterns,
- 4. create patterns (actions and thoughts) that are in sync
(entrain) with
- other patterns,
- 5. consciously adjust or stop their own patterns so they
don't
- interfere with the patterns of others, and
- 6. learn from previous experiences.
-
- Individuals with exceptional rhythmicity typically have the
ability to:
- 1. stay focused on internal and/or external patterns for
extended
- periods of time without interruption,
- 2. unconsciously distinguish between minute individual
patterns
- occurring within a group of simultaneously occurring
intricate
- patterns,
- 3. unconsciously adjust own personal rhythms when they
waver
- from what is intended,
- 4. make faster and more precise corrections,
- 5. create highly creative (productive) rhythm patterns that
others
- tend to follow (entrain with) and learn from,
- 6. more effectively learn from previous experiences, and
- 7. have exceptional experiences that often occur as a direct
result of
having highly accurate rhythmicity (timing).
-
- Bottom line: Rhythmicity is a critical foundation of our
ability to learn.
- The soon to be published studies suggest that helping our
children
- improve their rhythmicity will likely help them become more
productive
- members of society. They also verify another age-old saying
:
- Everything is just a matter of timing!
-
- Source: Timing, Concentration, and Motor Skills (TCAMS)
Professional Resource Center
- http://www.tcams.org/JFCcollumn2x12.html
-
-
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