MUSIC EDUCATION IN CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT: TOWARDS ENHANCING COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

Every unique experience has a role to play in the development of a child. No experience can replace the other as each is vital in its importance, therefore, the need for varieties of experience and programs. Consider Soccer, Computer Games and Classes, Chess, and on and on, today's children have so many activities to choose from. It often seems as if their days are programmed from dawn to dusk. In the midst of all these, is listening to music. Every day, our children are bombarded, as are all of us, with recorded music in stores, subways, from television, radio, and record player and hand phones. A look around the streets, in the cars, buses, in schools, even in markets, the headphone on people's ears says it all. But to the question, why is it that children are not engaged in musical activities, some would ask is there anything that Music has to offer. Researchers have proved that Participation in music instruction has many benefits and outcomes. Has one ever considered what one's life would be like without music? No folk songs, no highlife; no reggae; no symphonies; no carols; hymns or religious songs; etc. Impossible you say; perhaps, but it is in the rare home today which the child learns the folklore of his culture: the rhymes, songs, games, and finger-plays which used to be part of every child's birthright. We are all aware of the crucial impact of music on our mood and general well-being. The love of music is apparent everywhere but no attention has been given to its study.