Not Just Entertainment, Listening To Music From An Early Age Affects Children's Brain Development

JAKARTA Introducing music from an early age has a positive impact on children's development, especially in the cognitive, social, and emotional aspects.

Music is often considered as an entertainment medium. For most people, music is believed to generate mood or mood, relieve stress, and improve sleep quality.

It turns out that music does not only have benefits for adults. Children who are introduced to music from an early age, even from the womb, can feel the impact from a cognitive, emotional, and social perspective.

Chairman of the Central Executive Board of the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) Piprim Basarah Yanuarso stated that music can stimulate the activities of various brain areas and encourage the development of neuroplasticity in the child's brain.

Neuroplasticity is the neuron and neural network capacity in the brain to change connections and behavior as a response to new information, sensory stimuli, development, damage, or dysfunction.

"And this also increases connectivity between neurons, especially in golden age, age 0 to 6 years, yes, we know the first thousand days of life," said Dr. Piprim Basarah Yanuarso, Sp.A, Subsp. Cardio(K) in an online seminar entitled Benefits and Music Role for Child Development, Tuesday (24/6/2025).

The development of the brain at an early age is about building connections through input from the outside world, and music provides a rich source of input when the young brain develops.

Music presentation allows young brains to absorb various tones and words that they will use later. Thus, building a neural pathway that can affect and improve cognitive capabilities for life.

Doctor Piprim said, music also increases the volume of gray and white matter in the brain. Both are important for thinking, emotions, and muscle movements.

"When a child sings or plays musical instruments, there is cross-comprehensity integration, which strengthens fine and gross motor development, eye-hand coordination, rhythmic perception," he explained.

On the same occasion, Dr.dr.Lisa Pangemanan, SpA added, parents can start listening to music that has a calming effect on children.

The doctor, who is also a member of the IDAI Social Pediatric Growing Development Coordination Unit, said that a number of studies showed that music could be introduced to children under the age of six, even starting from the womb.

"From the womb, the fetus can already provide a response to the voice," said dr.Lisa Pangemanan.

However, dr. Lisa reminded parents to keep an eye on how children consume music, including about the volume and duration of listening to it. One of the important things that are often ignored is the intensity of the sound or volume of the music that is played.

Listening to music too loud can have a negative impact on children's hearing, especially when using devices such as large speakers or headphones.

"Normatively, it can't be too fast," he explained.

Apart from volume, the types of sound and rhythm of music also have a role in providing positive impacts. Music with certain rhythms has proven to be more calming and optimally stimulating the brain.

This means that parents should listen to soft, regular, and less voice complex music, especially for early childhood. Music like this can help children feel comfortable and focused, as well as not burden their hearing system.

There are many assumptions that music can help increase children's intelligence. In the 1990s, there was a study showing that listening to classical music can make children smarter, especially the work of haphazard. Those who believe this even call it the effect of fire'.

However, a number of other studies have shown that almost all types of music have a positive effect on brain development.

"Do children have to listen to my voice? Not really, any music is okay. Do you have to play the piano? Not really, anything is permissible," dr. Lisa explained.

Citing School of Rock, there is no special music for children's development that will make children smarter.

However, there is evidence that learning music has a positive effect on the development of children's brains. Even children can enjoy many benefits from music education if they participate from an early age.

Pediatricians remind parents to pay attention to the volume of music children listen to. (Unsplash)

Although it does not make children smarter, music exposure will affect children's behavior. Music exposure strengthens the kalusum corpus, a network that connects the two brain hemispheres. With the strengthening of this relationship, a child will be better prepared to regulate his mood, emotions, and behavior.

The benefits of music, said dr.Lisa, come from active musical activities, and can be done since the child is two years old. Playing musical instruments, singing, or following the rhythm directly is much more effective in stimulating brain areas related to children's intelligence and social skills.

For starters, children can be taught to know the tone and rhythm and play music.

The benefits of listening to music from an early age to adulthood and even old age are because when the brain builds more neural pathways from an early age, the brain is better able to store new information and restrain memory loss.