The musical child Using the power of music to raise children who are happy, healthy, and whole

Koenig, director of Paris's L'Ecole Koenig conservatory and kindergarten, debuts with an enthusiastic take on music being central to early social and creative development. "Musicking" should be encouraged even in the youngest children, Koenig writes, and her approach centers on exercises that match a child's cognitive stage. Developmental neuroscience bolsters her case that aural fine-tuning and imaginative improvisation aid developments in musical, linguistic, and social skills, and she shares developmentally appropriate activities for each year from ages one through six (parents can sing "movement songs" to babies, for example, while alphabet songs can help five-year-olds learn to read). Koenig makes a convincing case that music can be used to teach nonmusical topics (songs to help memorize time tables can help with math, for instance), and while her assertion that educators should invest in early music education rather than classroom technology may feel old-school, her research is solid enough that even parents who may not think of themselves as particularly musical will be persuaded to incorporate song into their child's routines. Educators ready to approach music as a core skill will find these ideas easy to implement and worth exploring. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, the Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. (July)