Arts Education and its Impact on Child Development

Research has shown that simple creative activities are critical to the building blocks of child development. Many of the motions involved in creating art or playing music, such as holding a paintbrush or playing a keyboard, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young children. For very young children, creating art or hearing music provides opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions, which enhance language skills. IThis panel discussion explores the different facets of arts and music education and the best practices for educators.

Guests Include:
Lauren Meehan, Director, Newark Arts Education Roundtable
Amy Burns, Music Teacher, Far Hills Country Day School & Chair, Early Childhood Music Education, NJ Music Education Association
Matt Ross, Founder, One River School of Art and Design
Lawrence Tamburri, Executive Director, Newark School of the Arts

3/9/19 #3134

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to Caucus. I'm Steve Adubato. And you know, there's absolutely no debate that the arts are absolutely critical to a child's development. Here in our studio to discuss the best ways to incorporate the arts into education, we are joined by Larry Tamburri. He's been with us before. Executive director of Newark School of the Arts. Lauren Meehan, director of Newark Arts Education Roundtable. Amy Burns, music teacher, Far Hills Country Day. And finally, Matt Ross, founder of One River School of Art + Design. Great. Thank you all for joining us. You are all artists in your own way, and committed to arts education. Let me ask you this, Larry... the biggest benefits of music and arts education would be... ABC. What's ABC? Well, it develops creativity in children. Depending on the age, there are different kinds of benefits, but certainly very young children socialization, bonding, connect.. all kinds of connections in an urban environment. It's really important because the... it reduces stress. Huh? Really? Yes. Jump back in. By the way, I want to make it clear... we just had a series of One on One conversations with the three of you... you've been with us before? Mm hmm. And so we've talked about this separately. Give me the stress part. So, yeah. I mean, there's been research done out of Philadelphia, actually, through West Chester University where they actually measured the cortisol levels of students who were participating in arts education programs, and there was a difference. Whether it was the statistical significance or not, we don't know, but it was clear that it definitely had an impact on their stress levels and reduced the amount of stress that kids were seeing over the course of their day. Let's go through a couple things... you started playing the violin when you were eight years of old... eight years of age? Yes. That's correct. You admit this? Yes, I do. [laughter] Okay, and what... who told me about the music aptitude thing? Me. Okay, so you were eight? Yeah. When you said that the research shows that musical aptitude..."