How Musical Theatre Benefits Children

Learning musical theatre requires studying acting, storytelling, singing and dancing. It’s an interdisciplinary field that helps children with their rapid brain development. 

Why musical theatre is good for children 

In the children’s early years, they undergo rapid brain development. This is the time when their brains start to form critical neural connections and their core brain architecture is being built. As a result, the children’s early years and experiences can actually have a lifelong impact on their success and happiness. That’s because experiences, especially the traumatic and stressful ones, can actually turn on or off certain genes. In other words, early experiences can alter gene expression and affect long-term development. 

As a result, it’s critical for children to gain positive experiences during their early years. It’s also critical that they’re being exposed to a variety of environments and experiences. After all, children’s brains are busy absorbing and processing information as well as making sense of the world around them. They require a variety of inputs in abundant amounts so they can get a better picture of the world they live in. This can help them better navigate the future challenges and opportunities they will face in the big school and beyond. 

One way to provide children with rich experiences is by allowing them to learn musical theatre. As mentioned earlier, musical theatre is an interdisciplinary field that involves acting, storytelling, singing and dancing. Notice that in this field, children will be able to further develop their communication and musical abilities. In addition, children are able to practice discipline and even use their bodies more because of the required movements in dancing (a crucial part of musical theatre). 

In other words, through musical theatre, children undergo further physical, cognitive and creative development. It’s also a good way for them to hone their language and social skills because they will interact with other kids. 

Musical theatre can support children’s holistic development and expand their comfort zones (as children get immersed in different experiences and disciplines such as singing and dancing). It’s a great way to further help children better prepare for big school and beyond.