Why music?
Learna explains: When my daughter was in physical therapy for neck torticollis as a baby, I would always chat with her therapist to learn more. She told me a story about a young boy who could not follow simple verbal directions; however, when she sung these directions to him, the boy could instantly perform the task. This got me thinking about the power of music, including its positive effect on the brain and how it can be used to facilitate learning. If I think back to my own childhood, I can’t remember most of the facts that I learned in high school, yet I can still remember the melody and lyrics to so many of the songs I grew up with. I even learned the prepositions and helping verbs through song. That is powerful!
Why movement?
Learna says: Movement, coordination, and gross motor skills are so important to kids. I feel like screen time tends to minimize movement, and I wanted to maximize it instead! With my children in occupational therapy, I see just how important it is to incorporate coordinated movements and motor planning in a fun and engaging way, and I had trouble finding enough videos that do this. Let’s bring the ‘physical’ back to education.
Why early reading skills?
According to Learna: I wanted to introduce letter recognition, phonics, and early reading skills in an engaging, approachable, and meaningful way. I don’t want to pressure kids to learn skills they may not be ready for or interested in, but I wanted to familiarize them enough with the letters and their sounds in a fun way so that when they are ready, they realize their toolbox is already filled with all the tools they need!
It’s clear that exposure to reading skills through video can be beneficial for children. One study even found that kids can learn as much from Sesame Street as from preschool (link).
And why the outfit?
Learna explains: My daughter was first prescribed glasses at two years old, which she must wear at all times to be able to see. We started to become aware that there are very few female characters that wear glasses, and of those that do, most are viewed as “nerdy” or “goofy.” I really wanted to show that you can wear glasses and be/feel beautiful. I had to make that role model for my daughter.
My daughter’s favorite color is blue even though she told me that it’s a “boy color.” I wanted to make sure I showed that anyone can love and wear any color, and thus I chose to do a play on the traditional pink and blue as a nod to breaking gender boundaries.
As a singer, songwriter, scientist (with a master’s degree in chemical engineering), and teacher with over 12 years of classroom experience, Learna felt like she was ready to take on this task and bring these videos to life! Learna embraces teachable moments, quality of life, and meaningful learning. She hopes you enjoy!
Who Is Learna?
Learna is a teacher, singer-songwriter, and mother who helps kids sing and dance their way through learning!
As a mother of a four-year-old and two-year-old, Learna was excited to find fun educational videos for her kids to watch during screen time. But she quickly found that what she wanted her kids to watch and what they wanted to watch were completely different. She resolved to harness her musical talents to create videos herself that would merge the two wants and make everyone happy!
Learna set out to combine her children’s interests with three of her own: music, early reading skills (letter recognition and phonics), and movement/physical coordination. She wanted to make education a full-body, musical experience. Further research for this project revealed many studies that cite the benefit of music on the development of a child’s brain and language development.
Who's on the Team?
Creator, Songwriter: Laura Cascioli
Producer, Engineer, Musician: Kenny Cash
Director and Video Editor: Guzman Gonzalez
The Research: Benefits of music on child development
- “Rhythm perception and production were the best predictors of phonological awareness, while melody perception was the best predictor of grammar acquisition, a novel association not previously observed in developmental research.” “We also found that informal musical experience at home contributes to the development of grammar.” (link to study)
- “Music playschool significantly improved the development of children’s phoneme processing and vocabulary skills.” (link to study)
- “Children enrolled in [music classes] showed better self-regulation than those who were not currently enrolled, and they also used more relevant private speech during the selective attention task, a verbal strategy that was positively related to performance.” (link to study)
- “Attentive listening to music recruits neural circuits underlying multiple forms of working memory, attention, semantic processing, target detection, and motor imagery.” (link to study)
- “Taken together, these studies provide evidence for the causal role of formal musical training and less formal musical activities in shaping the development of important neural auditory skills and suggest transfer effects with domain-general implications.” (link to study)
The Research: Benefits of dance on child development:
- “We engage in dance for the purpose of intrinsic reward, which as a result of dance-induced increases in neural synchrony, leads to enhanced interpersonal coordination.” (link to study)