Sue Newman, Boogie Mites

There’s a football chant: “Sing when you’re winning, you only sing when you’re winning”. But we think they have it round the wrong way. At Boogie Mites we would chant “ Win when your singing, you’re gonna win when you’re singing! 

What We All Know 

We all know from our own experience that singing and dancing is fun, uplifting and energising, we play music to motivate us when we exercise, to calm our minds and be in the moment, we sing at football to excite and express our combined support! This can be explained by a little understanding of the neuroscience evidence showing us how participation in music making (singing, clapping, tapping, banging, stamping long to the beat) impacts our brains. 

Neuroscience Overview 

Music making is a whole brain activity it activates neural networks across the whole brain. Music is a whole brain workout. 

All of the following neural networks are connected to the 3 main cortices of the brain (the auditory, motor and visual cortices) and all are seen to be activated by music practice: 

• Super sense network – making sense of language – the brain processes music using the same neural network as it uses to process language  
• Reward network – giving a sense of achievement and motivation, re-enforcing positive learning experiences 
• Cognitive network – the engine room, figuring out how to do things, the steps or process 
• Perceptual network – predicting what comes next 
• Cognition network – figuring out what it all means, what we like or do not like 
• Emotional network – effecting mood, resilience, emotions and empathy 

In this article we will focus on the reward and emotional networks to explore the impact of participation in music activities on mental health and wellbeing, although really all benefits are connected. 

Pro-social Behaviours 

Research shows strong correlation between music practice and pro-social behaviour: 

• Kindness 
• Empathy 
• Agency 

These are skills that are modelled by significant adults but very tricky to teach. Music practice offers a great tool or teacher for pro-social behaviours. When we share music, clap together, sing and move together we are developing teamwork skills and learning empathy and agency. 

Children can start to learn pro-social behaviours from 14 months old. 

Social Cohesion 

Research shows that when a mother and baby/child sing together their heartbeats and body temperatures align. When we sing and move together or make music together there is a powerful bonding or connection created. 

Also, for a group of children making music together, the same emotional reaction promotes social cohesion for the group. 

Music is a powerful tool for developing the emotional network in a positive way to promote social skills and inclusive cohesive activity. With this comes confidence and happiness. 

Reward and Love of Learning 

Research studies show that music engages the reward-related regions through functional connectivity with the auditory system. The reward network is activated when we get something right and feel good about it. Music making often activates the reward network, with a far transfer effect of developing a love of learning, a love of getting things right. 

Neurotransmitters 

Neurotransmitters are the body’s chemical messengers. Four chemicals that are stimulated when we are involved in group music making and exercise: 

• Dopamine – plays a role in how we feel pleasure 
• Oxytocin – plays a role in social bonding 
• Serotonin – plays a role in modulating mood 
• Endorphins – trigger a positive feeling in the body 

Get your daily mood booster DOSE of music to stimulate happy hormones, motivation and bonding! 

School Ready Skills 

With all of these things going on in the brain it is easy to understand that music can play a powerful role in supporting mental health and wellbeing. 

As well as the effect that music has on the brain we can think about the group skills that children are learning when taking part in a music and movement active circle time, and the skills they are learning that will set them up a with a good start at school – vital for a happy education experience from the start. 

In a music and movement circle time, small or large group activity, with or without parents taking part, children will develop key school ready, group learning skills, skills that will influence their wellbeing as they move through school. 

• Listening and attention 
• Taking turns 
• Playing co-operatively 
• Sharing props and instruments 
• Following instructions 
• Contributing ideas 
• Regulating behaviour – when faced with the exciting prospect of music making! 
• Confidence and self-esteem 
• Emotional wellbeing 

So going back to what we know from our own experience, it is no wonder we all choose to have music at celebration events such as weddings, why we all love live music events, discos (showing my age!) and parties. It is no wonder that singing on the football terraces every Saturday, creates a tribal feeling of social belonging, a weekly ritual that is vital to the mental health of all involved. 

We haven’t even started to think of the impact of music on language and literacy development, another topic supported by a wealth of neuroscience research evidence. Of course good language and literacy skills impact confidence, self-esteem and hence wellbeing. Building strong foundation for language and literacy in early years can play an important role in children’s mental health and wellbeing throughout school. It will avoid them being behind from the start, often never able to catch up. 

As early years educators we play such a vital role in setting our children up with positive mental health neural networks and skills that support wellbeing through school. Neuroscience evidence show us that music is perhaps the most powerful of all tools that we have at our disposal. 

Boogie Mites Have collaborated with Children’s author Michael Rosen and storyteller Rohini Vij to develop a music videos webapp that harnesses the brain boosting power of music and uplifts all involved. The app has been tested with the help of many PACEY members and adapted accordingly. We are excited to launch the webapp final product this May 2023, coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Week:

Boogie Mites App: Building Strong Foundations For Language and Literacy Through Music  

Boogie Mites have collaborated with Children’s author Michael Rosen and storyteller Rohini Vij to develop a music videos webapp that harnesses the brain boosting power of music and uplifts all involved.

We are happy to offer PACEY members a special discounted subscription option rate. Details can be found on the new ‘Your mental health’ page in My PACEY.