The 5 Baby Brain Secrets That Can Address School Readiness, Communication, and Neurodiversity
- May 3
- 7 min read
Julene Siddique is a recognised Thought Leader in Arts & Health. She's the Founder of Musical Nutrition Ltd. which brings together Neurological, Cognitive, Somatic/Sensory and Social aspects of Music for mental health and neurodiversity. As a composer, she creates psychological landscapes with orchestral music for Interactive Music-Wellness events.
Whilst a lot of good progress has been made to support children aged 0 to 3 years, the ages of 3 to 7 years constitute a key stage of brain development that plays a major role in their school readiness (and future academic potential), speech and language, and social skills. It’s also a key time to effectively address delays, neurodiversity, mood, and other challenges.
The ages of 0 to 3 are foundational, but the ages of 3 to 7 are the years where you can ACT, taking some of the most powerful actions for your child that can truly reap some of the longest-term, impactful results on their life.
Ages 3 to 7 years, according to Piaget, is the ‘motor stage.’ It's a key time for speech and language development, but as it’s the ‘motor stage,’ one of the key things is actually learning through movement. In Sally Goddard’s book Music and Movement: Your Child’s First Language, key age-specific evolutionary movements are outlined that are crucial to a child’s brain development.
The INPP Institute has also solidified the science of how to identify the physical causes that underlie learning problems, developmental delays, and neurodiversity, and how to effectively treat these issues through specialized movement programs.
Do you have a fidgety child who can’t sit still? It actually might mean that they need more movement. Do you have a child who is slow to learn language? It might mean they need a good music program. But what is a ‘good’ music program? Well, actually, that’s the KEY. The big secrets on how to support your baby's brain lie in how we go about (or how to better go about) our early years playtimes.
The 5 baby brain secrets revealed
These 5 baby brain secrets are more than just ‘secrets.’ They’re actually a framework for ensuring your child has a healthy brain, is school-ready, and has all the foundations for their best life potential.
You can use the list below as a checklist of great things you can do at home with your child, but also as a key reference of what you can ask for/check for from any childcare or specialist your child spends time with.
1. Music for language development
Music is directly linked to language development. According to Dr. George Halvorson, early experiences in singing directly affect speech and language. The two main things are singing and humming. You might want to start with just a few songs. Children, in fact, love repetition. Although you as an adult might think it’s boring to sing the same song over and over, you’d be surprised to know that children love repetition as it builds familiarity and confidence.
Being familiar with a song can help them to like it more... and potentially sing along with it more. So just start with a few simple songs, sing and hum them over and over, and after a few rounds, you’ll notice your child starts to pick it up. Developing their ability to sing songs correlates directly to their ability to learn language. So if your child is struggling with speech and language, singing is one of the best things you can do.
2. Reading and talking for cognitive development
During the ages of 3 to 7 years, children begin to develop the ability to describe emotions (rather than just identify them, as they did from 0 to 3 years). Read stories out loud to your child. Ask them to describe the feelings they notice. Ask them about the characters and events.
Reading and asking questions about the story helps them to develop their ability to understand and describe the world around them. This is cognitive development in action! Asking open-ended questions, such as “What do you think should happen?” or “How can this story end?” and letting them come up with the answer is excellent for helping them build both imagination and original thinking.
Development of vocabulary, imagination, emotional development, memory, and cognitive development are all things that can be supported through the simple exercise of reading and asking questions.
3. Making things and hands-on play
Whether it’s drawing, sculpting, making a costume, or building a playhouse, the process of ‘making things’ is crucial for getting more neurons firing in the brain. The process of ‘making things’ asks a child to pull together everything they know. We also ‘create from what we know.’ These principles have been scientifically formalized by assessments such as the ‘Drawing a Man Test.’
They found that children who move well tend to draw a man with all his limbs, whereas children who don’t move well tend to draw people with small or distorted limbs. The Drawing a Man test is built on the principle that we ‘make’ from our understanding of the world. In turn, neuro-developmental studies are increasingly finding that children can not just explore, but very literally develop their brains and understanding of the world through ‘making things.’
So think of hands-on creative activities. There is also great scope for making these hands-on activities more sensory, using clay, paints, or sandboxes. Allowing children to do creative, hands-on activities outdoors in nature and using nature as a sensory experience is also highly recommended.
4. Age-specific music and movement
Music and movement activities are generally good to do for early years, especially at the ages of 3 to 7 years, when children very literally need movement for their brains. But if we’re talking about utilizing movement to support child brain development, then we need to get much more age-specific. The ages of 3 to 7 years constitute one of the most rapid phases of brain development in a person’s lifetime.
What happens in the brain at age 3 is different from what happens at age 4 and is different from what happens at age 5, etc. ‘Evolutionary Music and Movement,’ researched by Michael Lazarev, is about understanding what ‘should’ be happening in a child’s brain and using music and movement to simulate it and train it to make sure that it does happen.
Lazarev’s research correlates directly with the INPP Institute’s age-specific programs that use specialized movement to correct learning problems, developmental delays, neurodiversity, and more. So yes, to general music and movement activities for children 3 to 7 years, but a much bigger YES to age-specific movement that simulates and trains the evolutionary developmental process that (should) be happening in a child’s brain (to make sure that it does).
The Sonatal Institute has researched and developed music for these evolutionary movements. Music that enacts the character of the specific movements needed. Here at Musical Nutrition KIDS, we’ve digitized all the age-specific music and movements into fun animated programs that parents can do at home with their child. Why should parents/carers do this at home with their child? That’s the next point.
5. Social interaction is key
You are their social learning. One of the biggest ways that children’s brains grow is through interacting. Interactions enable them to learn how to respond; it asks them to read tone of voice and expression, and it provides tactile interactions, which are crucial for their sense of safety and connection.
These are the kinds of things that really get a child’s brain firing. Interactions can be games you physically play together, talking or laughing together, or even just having a hug and cuddle time. The long and short is that all of the above 4 Baby Brain secrets should be done with you and/or a family or friend rather than a device. A digital device is not interactive, it is passive; a child receives information but can’t interact with it, and it lacks tactile physical stimulation.
When I say children ‘learn through movement’ and that ages 3 to 7 are the ‘neuro-motor’ stage, I mean movement, but I also mean physicality. Do all 4 Baby Brain secrets together with your child. Include family and friends as well. Including different people enables them to understand and learn how to respond to different kinds of personalities, they develop social skills.
But most importantly, you as their parents are their biggest medicine during these years, so enjoy these baby brain secrets for fun, but also knowing that you’re building the connection and relationship with them that can last a lifetime.
The question of how to create meaningful and ‘more effective’ playtimes was something I thought about deeply, both by myself and with a team of experts. It became very clear, both in research and in practice, how much children develop from well-designed, developmentally supportive playtimes. Children and their parents! Because their child is happier, and everyday life gets a lot easier as a result.
So I created Musical Nutrition KIDS to pull all the above Baby Brain Secrets together, providing fairy tales, games, and age-specific music and movement that can be done at home between parents/carers and their children. A lot of our work tends to go toward the children who desire more specialized versions of our program, for neurodiversity, for speech and language, and for developmental delays. But what I’d like to say here is that this kind of work is not just for when there is a problem.
The Baby Brain Secrets of specialized music and movement are for all children to have the best start in life. So we can avoid mental health and school/employment challenges later in life. So we can build the social skills that enable healthier and happier relationships. So we can build the foundations for their best life potential.
If you ask me personally why I do this work, here’s why. When I look at the state of the world and the problems we have, I genuinely believe the people that are going to be able to live through, be resilient, and have the capacity to change it in a positive way are the children who do these kinds of programs. I do this work with that kind of love. It’s for children’s future, and it’s for all our futures. If you’re a parent/carer who can resonate with that, then this work is for you.
Read more from Julene Siddique
Julene Siddique, Composer, Therapist, and Thought Leader
Julene Siddique is a Composer, Creative Therapist, and Thought Leader innovating across therapies, wellness, and music entertainment. As a Classical Composer trained at The Royal College of Music and a Therapist trained in Neurologic Music Therapy, Neuroscience Coaching, Neuro-Art, and Trauma-Informed Expressive Art Therapy, Julene creates unique Neuro-Creative Experiences designed to transform Mind, Brain, and Behaviour. She founded Musical Nutrition, which provides creative therapies for mental health and neurodiversity, but also interactive wellness entertainment. She developed 'The Musical Nutrition Method' so Neurological, Cognitive, Somatics/Sensory and Social Aspects of Music could be applied across therapy and performance settings.
