MUSIC MANIFESTO OFF KEY FOR PARENTS OF SCOTTISH PRE-SCHOOLERS

1st February 2008

Leading pre-school music and movement group, Jo Jingles has launched a call to action to get Scottish families with pre-school children singing in the home and for both parental
and child participation in music groups to be seen as of equal importance to swimming classes and gym tot activities.

This move is in direct response to groundbreaking research into the music and singing habits of 1000 UK families with pre-school age children, which shows that many are being bombarded with a cocktail of advertising jingles, TV theme tunes and pop music, whilst parents' knowledge of far more beneficial traditional nursery rhymes is declining to such an extent that there is a serious risk that this cultural heritage may die out completely.

The Scottish Parliament's Music Manifesto can only succeed at the critical pre-school stage with parental support. And the Jo Jingles survey shows that music is just not a
priority for parents.

40% of Scottish families who took part in the Jo Jingles study believe music is already given enough priority in pre-school and primary provision.

'It is widely accepted that the first three years of a child's life are vital for development,' says Jo Jingles MD and founder, Gill Thomas. 'In the seventeen years that Ihave been running the company, I have witnessed first hand the benefits of music in the young, in terms of improved confidence, language, numerical and social skills.'

This is borne out by swathes of research such as the three year long Youth Music funded study by Northumbria University which explored the effect of music making on 400 under 5s who attended Sure Start Nurseries in two Youth Music Early Years Zones. It found that children as young as two are able to memorize and learn long sequences of words, phrases and sentences when they are attached to music long before
they can master the same skill in speech. The study concluded that though there is no proof that passive listening to music can affect a child's intellectual capacity, active participation in a progressive, expertly delivered music curriculum can greatly improve a young child's capacity to develop skills in language, communication, mathematical skills and a range of social, musical, physical and cultural areas.

And the Music-One-to-One study by Exeter University concluded that mothers report the value and purpose of musical activity for the regulation of mood and physical state and described the under 2s as responding actively to music.

But the problem lies in convincing parents.

Despite leading busy lives, many parents make the effort to take young children to classes such as swimming and Tumble Tots, which they believe will benefit their development and equip them with life skills, yet only 13% of Scottish parents include music and movement classes on this list of priorities, saying it is either not necessary, they don't have the time, or it is not their kind of thing. Pop and chart music, TV and radio now take predominance over nursery rhymes amongst young children, with 31% of children exposed to these forms of music, compared to 10% who are listening to chiefly to traditional nursery rhymes. According to the Jo Jingles study, only 5% of children in the early years are exposed to musical instruments and over 1 in 10 (16%) of parents say they sing to their children rarely or not at all. A reflection on modern society, 18% either feel their children lack the concentration for a music and movement class or believe nursery rhymes are too old fashioned for today's children.

As a result knowledge of the most popular traditional nursery rhymes is extraordinarily patchy. 83% believed they knew second line of 'Incy Wincy Spider,' but when put to the
test a quarter of these respondents could not recite it correctly. Only 68% of parents with pre-schoolers who took part in the survey even thought they knew the second line of
'Three Blind Mice' and again a quarter of them got it wrong. Even when it came to the old favourites the results did not improve that much. 85% were confident they knew the second line of 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' but a fifth of them got it wrong. There were similar results for 'Humpty Dumpty.'

The bottom line is that today's children are not being exposed to the sort of music that will have the most impact and benefits.

Most nursery rhymes adhere closely to the pentatonic scale (a musical scale with five notes in an octave) and it has been shown by countless studies that children all over the
world, no matter what their language or culture, respond innately to this time-honoured structure. Across the continents children can be heard singing out the instantly recognisable pentatonic 'na, na, na-na na.'

While many pop songs are based loosely around the pentatonic scale they do not follow it so closely and so do not generate the same innate response in youngsters.

'Today's children are surrounded by noise, but it is not constructive noise that will provide beneficial stimulation and aid learning and development,' comments Gill Thomas. 'Any music is not necessarily good music.

'Music and singing was an integral part of the lives of previous generations. This is unlikely to be because they were more knowledgeable about its many benefits, but simply because life in the past was more geared around music. But we do not gather to sing around the piano anymore or sing in church choirs. Music has been squeezed out of modern life and despite efforts by the Scottish Parliament, today's busy parents are not making the effort to squeeze it back in again.

'The real tragedy is that singing is something that can be done at no cost in the home,' says Gill Thomas.' Unlike many other activities, there is no mess, no fuss and no
preparation or equipment required. You can sing to kids while you are waiting for a bus or having a bath.'

About Jo Jingles
Jo Jingles is the leading UK provider of music, singing and movement classes for children aged 6 months to 5 years. Jo Jingles classes first started in 1991 and are carefully structured with an educational slant. Each week different themes are introduced using well-known nursery rhymes and action songs. Over 20,000 babies and young children currently enjoy the Jo Jingles introduction to musical learning. Jo Jingles has over 100 franchisees operating in more than 500 centres throughout the UK and Ireland and is expanding every day.

Web Site www.jojingles.com