Browsing by Author "Männistö, Teemu"

This Bachelor's thesis deepens the study of the effects of musical activity. By means of a systematic literature review, how does music influence the cognitive and linguistic development of early childhood children? Earlier studies have shown that musical activity is promoting language development. This thesis clarifies the view on how musical activity in early childhood education supports the cognitive and linguistic development of children. The sources used were the latest scientific publications, dissertations, a few master theses and the underlying ground writings in themes of this thesis. The data searches were carried out in the databases of the University of Helsinki and the Google Scholar search engine. The studies included in the literature review were studied using the material based content analysis as the actual research method aimed at obtaining a condensed image of the effect of musical activity on cognitive development, and especially in its linguistic area. The compiled material was analyzed and only the information relevant to this review of the literature was searched. Regularly performed musical activities in early childhood education promoted and supported the linguistic and cognitive development of children. In the area of the linguistic development, especially phonological and phonemic awareness increased. From cognitive abilities, however, work memory, rapid use of long-term memory, and general intelligence developed. Music added brain plasticity and made the brain receptive to new information. All of this was based on the fact that music, singing and language is processed partly in the same areas of the human brain.