“Repetition is the mother of learning.”—White Mountains Apache saying

My daughter’s favourite word as a little one was “more!” – more bouncing, more singing, more dancing. You may have noticed it too – your child wants to read a favourite book or repeat a favourite activity over and over again… even long after you may have tired of it!

There is a very good reason for this – your child’s brain KNOWS that it needs repetition – it is a necessary building block of your child’s learning and development.

Repetition Fosters Learning

A one-time experience is not enough for a neural connection to form and stabilize and research shows that learning, or the growth of neural connections in the brain, is strengthened through repetition. Each time a child is exposed to a new object or experience, new neural connections are made in their brain.  Through repetition, these connections are strengthened and learning occurs. 

This is the reason we repeat activities over several weeks in our Kindermusik classroom. Repetition of the essential elements of any activity allows your child to have mastery of an idea or concept before we add a new one. And when we add a little twist to the repetition, such as adding a new verse to a song or a new prop to a favourite activity, the neural pathways that form are strengthened and become super-highways of learning for your child’s brain!

Repetition Creates Predictability

Repetition is the key to creating rituals and routines and routines help us to make sense of our environment and feel safe. Ritual and repetition are important components of a predictable and nurturing home life and it is the same in our Kindermusik classroom.

Every Kindermusik curriculum is designed with a predictable flow of class activities – a hello and goodbye ritual, a bounce, a steady beat, rocking time, and story time etc. – routines that are repeated each week and help your child to feel comfortable in our Kindermusik class community. When the environment and routine is predictable, your child feels safe and is open to new experiences, priming their brain for learning.

Repetition Builds Confidence

Repetition is not only good for your child’s brain; it’s highly beneficial for your child’s overall development. Your child enjoys the repetition of activities in our Kindermusik classroom – it gives them confidence and a feeling of self-control when they are able to anticipate what will happen next.

Review and repetition also allow your child to experience pride and joy in their accomplishments. In our Kindermusik classes we support your child’s musical growth and overall development by providing many opportunities to be successful and proud of what they are learning.

In our culture we are often on a quest to constantly move our children on to the next thing – what this does is eliminate their opportunity to sit in mastery.  We never rush your child’s progress at Kindermusik – this allows them to be masterful and to enjoy their accomplishments.

And did you know? It also increases the release of serotonin in the body (the body’s natural anti-depressant). Allowing this periodic release throughout the early years will help your child’s body to balance this critical chemical throughout life. 

So go ahead! Read that book one more time, roll that ball back and forth again and enjoy witnessing your child’s amazing development unfold!

Find out more ABOUT KINDERMUSIK and how music foster’s your child’s development or go to our CLASS SCHEDULE and ENROL for a class. We would love to welcome you to our Music2Grow family!

Compiled and written by Verna Hewitt (Grad Dip Ed., MA), Licensed Kindermusik Educator