Gymboree Play & Music

Published on April 10, 2017 at Myanmar Times Newspaper Written by Tin (Rubynar) Yadanar Tun

MUSICAL experience in early childhood has the power to impact every area of a child’s development, according to scientiﬁc research. Interest in the intellectual beneﬁts of musical experiences continues to be the subject of much research.

The impact of music on cognitive development points to two areas of learning, namely language development and memory. The beneﬁts of music in early childhood are perhaps most obvious in the area of physical development.

Research ﬁndings show that infants have memory for songs heard in the uteri and can perceive and recognise many aspects of music, including changes in melodic contours, temporal patterning, pitch and timbre. Moreover, infants as young as seven months can differentiate between a familiar piece of music and a novel one, indicating the ability to form long-term memory of the music they have heard.

The sequences and patterns of melody and rhythm found in songs, combined with interactive musical play between parent and child, stimulate brain activity and literally help to grow the brain. Songs support children’s language skills and memory by making it easier to learn and remember information such as the alphabet, your name and address or states of the Union.

Gymboree Play & Music Myanmar is the only school in Yangon that creates an environment of play and learning for kids by listening to music, singing, rocking, bouncing, dancing and getting involved in musical play activities together with their parents. Gymboree Play & Music began in 1976 when Joan Barnes, a mother from Marin County, California, started her own program with a safe, fun place featuring age-appropriate activities for parents and young children to play together.

It expanded to more than 700 Gymboree Play & Music locations throughout the United States and in nearly 40 countries in Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Gymboree Play & Music Myanmar School opened in February 2015 and is attended by children from over 300 families.

“The relationships and experiences children have in the ﬁrst three years of life have a profound impact on their future. “The brain is most active in the ﬁrst three years and it will grow to 80 percent of its adult size. It’s essential that parents and caregivers nurture a child’s development during those pivotal years,” said Xiao Wei Song, general manager of Gymboree Play & Music Myanmar.

Developmentally-appropriate activities, songs and games are designed to give freedom for individual growth and non-competitive activities in all class levels. Recognised for a unique approach to parent involvement, the centre’s programs encourage participation in and understanding of each child’s development, she said.

“Our program directors collaborate with national child development experts and have developed class curriculum to ensure our programs provide the best support and early enrichment education to children and parents.

“And we focus on the whole child to help children acquire the key ingredients like motor skills, social skills and self-esteem that they need in order to grow up to be conﬁdent, happy, creative and successful adults,” she added. Gymboree Myanmar opened ﬁve different classes named play and learn, music, art, school skills and sports which are open to children from 0 to 60 months. Almost all classes are held for only 45 minutes per day in a week.

“The most popular class in our school is play and learn classes and we encourage development through play and learning with our seven-level program designed to support your child’s growth at his or her own individual pace,” said Xiao Wei Song. Gymboree offers an array of developmentally-appropriate play, music and art classes to be enjoyed by parents and children.

Creative activities, equipment, toys and props change from class to class to ensure maximum challenges for children, whether four weeks or four years of age. Trained Gymboree teachers facilitate activities for parents to experience with their child and introduce children to parallel play activities that will eventually evolve into cooperative, self-initiated play.

Through theme-related activities, Gymboree supports the child that is beginning to pretend, and supplies the parents with ideas on how to engage in pretend play. Not only can a Gymboree slide and tunnel set-up provide space for motor activity in the child’s mind, it can become a submarine ‘under the sea’ to crawl through or a ‘monkey island’ at the zoo to climb on.

Gymboree toys and props like balls, hoops, scarves, beanbags and bubbles serve as tools to enhance a child’s pretend play and his ability to problem-solving and connect with peers. In that environment, children can learn social skills, practice sharing, explore new thoughts and make friends while parents also can develop networks with other parents and learn new songs and activities to share with the children.

Play is a powerful thing for children and parent involvement and guidance in playing plays an important role in children’s social and cognitive development, said Xiao Wei Song.

Music class is also one of parents’ favourite classes and children who participate in early childhood music classes have a unique opportunity to grow socially and emotionally through the intimate connections they make as part of shared music experiences with parents, caregivers and peers.

In music classes, the children can listen and also play more than twenty kinds of musical instruments including the wave drum, giggle gymbo, microphone, xylophone, scarves and play balls.

Nothing inspires the imagination quite like art. At Gymboree’s art class, children are able to enhance their creative spirit and have a positive means for self-expression. They can unleash their imagination in a world of hands-on discovery with painting, sculpting, drawing, collage, song, dress-up and other imaginative activities to provide self-conﬁdence and learn more artistic skills.

One class session for any subject can range from US$19 to $33 depending on the package. Gymboree offers an array of developmentally-appropriate play, music and art classes to be enjoyed by parents and children.

Recognised for a unique approach to parent involvement, the centre’s programs encourage participation in and understanding of each child’s development.