Should I Encourage My Child to Learn an Instrument?

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Learning a musical instrument can help children within many areas of their development, such as their motor skills, emotional development and can benefit them academically as they gain new skills. However, it also requires sacrifice as children must give up their time to practise and persevere. To help you decide whether lessons are right for your child, here are some points to consider from a day nursery in Richmond.

Builds Patience and Resilience 

While learning an instrument is a huge commitment, it can help children to practise patience and develop resilience. Learning anything new takes time, and to see improvement your child will need to be consistent which means being able to deal with failure and mistakes. This is great preparation for later life as things don’t always come easily and take perseverance.  

Memory

This leads us nicely on to memory. Learning to play an instrument requires memorisation which exercises and strengthens the brain’s hippocampus, thus improving memory.

Motor Skills

Going back to motor skills, playing an instrument uses what are known as fine motor skills that allow us to perform simple day to day tasks, like tying our shoelaces etc. Strengthening these particular skills can help children with their hand-eye coordination.

Paying for Lessons

There’s also the commitment on your part as music lessons can be expensive.

Emotional Development

Music is creative and open-ended which allows children to use it as a medium to express themselves, and their emotions.

Self-Esteem

Finding something they’re good at like playing an instrument can help children with their self-esteem and develop their confidence.

To conclude, learning an instrument can immensely benefit children. Before making any decision though, you should make sure that it is something that your child wants to do as it’s a demanding hobby that will take a lot of time and effort.