The survey of over 1000 people found that 74% of British parents felt that their children learning an instrument was very important. Research has shown that exposure to music from an early age can benefit a child's reading age, concentration levels, IQ and even brain development. This research is backed up by Susan Hallam, Professor of Education at the University of London, who commented: - "There is growing evidence that active involvement in music making can have positive benefits for children's intellectual and social development, it is important that as many children as possible are provided with the opportunity to actively engage with music making at an early age."
A shining example of this is 4 year-old Lauren Douglas from Bangor in County Down. Lauren began learning the violin four months ago and her Mother has already noticed a dramatic increase in her concentration levels as a result, she said:
"Lauren started playing the violin in September of last year and when she first picked it up she could only manage ten or fifteen minutes before her focus began to wander. She is now managing to concentrate fully for 30 minutes without interruptions."
Cathy McCallum, early music expert and Founder of Musical Steps said: "Listening to music is good for children, but actually making music is even more beneficial and should start as early as possible. Singing simple songs, playing musical games, and experimenting with percussion instruments are absolutely crucial to children's all-round development - emotional, physical, linguistic, social and cognitive.
"What's more, brain development continues to be stimulated in children who go on to learn a musical instrument.
Repeated musical activity - i.e. taking part as opposed to just listening - actually improves mental functions. The right and left sides of the brain do different things, but information usually needs to be processed simultaneously by both sides. Musical activity strengthens the pathways between the two, which promotes cognitive development, enhances abstract thought processes and improves the ability to multi-task and think creatively."
The survey also found that Mothers feel learning a musical instrument is more important than Fathers and that the age range that felt the most strongly about this was those individuals of Grand parenting age between 55 and 64.
Adam Ewart, Founder of Karacha said: "Research has shown that music has untold benefits on child development and at Karacha we have been overwhelmed with enquiries from parents eager to begin engaging their children with music. As a result, we have introduced early years percussion starter packs and quarter size violins to enable children as young as six months to get involved with music.
"We have also recently introduced brightly coloured musical instruments to help encourage children to engage in music and these are outselling traditional ones by as much as fifteen to one in some cases."
Karacha.com makes learning to play music more fun with a creatively designed selection of instruments, with many available in a wide range of colours.
For more information, please visit www.karacha.com or call 0845 200 8343.
