MANILA, Philippines - Studies that show how music can enhance a child’s intelligence are practically playing it out at a UK-based international preschool that offers music classes for babies three months to three years old.
The music class dubbed “Baby Tunes” and held at Tumble Tots in Libis, Quezon City is a parent-child music and movement class for newborns to preschoolers.
This unique class, which develops a child’s musical sense at a very young age, is based on studies that show how music can make a baby smarter, according to Tumble Tots managing director Dyan Bian Cortez, a graduate of child psychology.
“Certain studies, which focused on older children, even showed that learning to play an instrument could make kids good in math. For instance, one study found that children’s spatial reasoning, or the ability to figure out and perceive things on a three-dimensional scale, could be enhanced by piano lessons. The subjects for this study, however, are three- and four-year-olds,” Cortez points out.
Nonetheless, she cites a study where babies seem able to tell a melody from speech.
“Norman Weinberger, a cognitive sciences and psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, says in one study that babies as young as four months old seemed to know when researchers played the Happy Birthday song incorrectly,” Cortez explains.
“Thus, exposing your child to a variety of genres will help him appreciate the diversity of music. At Baby Tunes, children’s songs are interspersed with jazzy tunes, dance beats, classical music, and lullabies. The children get to enjoy an assortment of songs while having fun with their parents,” Cortez adds.
Baby Tunes at Tumble Tots is an innovative program founded on the most current research on early childhood development. The class provides families a special place for learning and connecting with other parents and babies through music and movement.
Baby Tunes also provides parents a guide to their babies’ unique development to further enhance their parenting skills.
For inquiries and enrolment, Tumble Tots can be reached through telephone numbers 687-6793, 687-6375 or 09177010097.
Other unique programs offered by Tumble Tots for babies and preschoolers are Gymbabes, Artrageous Art, and RightStart.
This UK-based international pre-school, which has more than 500 centers all over the world, also has a branch in Davao City and other parts of Southeast Asia.