Early childhood researchers have developed a fun rhythm and movement program to support young children’s brains.

Associate Professor Kate Williams designed a low-cost preschool program focussing exclusively on rhythm and movement activities linked to pathways in the brain to support attentional and emotional development.

«Think heads, shoulders, knees and toes but do the actions backwards while you sing forwards. It tricks the brain into gear,» Assoc Prof Williams said.

The Queensland study, involving 113 children from lower socioeconomic communities, measured the effectiveness of the program to boost self-regulation skills.

«Being able to control your own emotions, cognition and behaviours is an important predictor of school readiness and early school achievement,» Assoc Prof Williams said.

«The aim is for regular sessions to be introduced into daily activities of young children to help support their attentional and emotional regulation skills, inhibition and working memory. We want all early childhood teachers to feel confident to run these fun and important activities.»

The findings have been published in the international peer-reviewed journal Psychology of Music.

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