Rhythm For Kids 2.37

Rhythm For Kids is a branch of Drum Up Big, a mobile drumming school based in Hobart Tasmania. We provide opportunities for young children to engage in rhythm play, drumming, singing and movement to music.

The sessions are designed to develop the natural musicality of the child in a stimulating, non-competitive and joyful environment.

Fun, rhythm-based activities introduce children to general musical concepts such as pulse, tempo, rhythm, pitch and dynamics.

Children can discover and experiment with various percussion instruments of different materials, textures, colours, forms and sounds. They experience new sensations and develop new motor functions.

For accompanying parents and care-givers, Rhythm For Kids offers a novel way of spending quality time connecting with your child. It's an opportunity to learn ways in which you can enjoy rhythm together when you're at home. And a chance to come together socially with other parents of children of a similar age to your own.

Recreational rhythm play with others can help your child with the development of verbal and non-verbal communication skills as well as their creativity and self confidence.

In terms of development:
Sensory experiences, in this case auditory, visual and tactile sensations, lead to purposeful, goal-directed responses ('adaptive responses') which help the brain develop and organise itself. These responses aid the process of sensory integration, which forms the underlying foundation for academic learning, social behavior and emotional growth. As sensory integration develops, better organisation and more complex skills are possible.

Excerpt from 'Sensory Integration and The Child' - Dr A Jean Ayres
"Up until the age of about 7, the child's brain is a sensory processing machine. This means that it senses things and gets meaning directly from sensations. A young child doesn't have many abstract thoughts or ideas about things, he is concerned mainly with sensing them and moving his body in relation to those sensations. His adaptive responses are more muscular, or motor, than mental. Thus, the first 7 years of life are called the years of sensorimotor development.

As the child grows older, mental and social responses replace some of this sensorimotor activity. However, the brain's mental and social functions are based upon a foundation of sensorimotor processes.

The sensory integration that occurs in moving, talking and playing is the groundwork for the more complex sensory integration that is necessary for reading, writing and good behavior. If sensorimotor processes are well organised in the first 7 years of life, the child will have an easier time learning mental and social skills later on"

Drum Up Big's founder and director Tara Tucker has over 10 years experience facilitating children's drumming and percussion programs at Early Learning Centres, Primary Schools and on remote Indigenous communities.

She also teaches African drumming to adults in Australia and overseas and is certified as a djembe teacher by Grandmaster Mamady Keita (Guinea).