Music, Language and the Child

Abstract

Societies from inception play crucial roles in the humanization of life. This is fostered through exposures of members of such societies to various identifiable aspects that make them distinct from each other. Inherent in such exposures are the people‟s belief systems, values, norms, attitudes, ideas, ideals, etc. These constitute the culture whose continuity must be ensured. Its propagation and preservation assumes a vital place in the scheme of things starting as an individual enters its community at birth. Music and language serve as means of communication of this process of induction and usher the child into all his community values. They are two vital tools in communication, which aid in the understanding of culture and other disciplines. It is obvious that some form of communication exists from conception of a child to when the child reaches school age. The child‟s environments, (the womb and the outer environment) offer musical and language cues to the child. The main thrust of this paper is to discuss milieu issues, examine early music education and the child, theory of music and language learning and the use of music in language learning of the child. This paper further proffer suggestion on ways of improving the child‟s language and musical learning experiences for active involvement to align the child with his environment and musical culture.