Benefits for Children

Benefits of Singing Karaoke for Children

     As we have read there are many benefits of singing karaoke. We have begun to think of these as generally being gained by the adult. However, children can also gain from the benefits of singing karaoke. These benefits often do not fit into the medical or psychological benefits of singing karaoke categories, although they certainly could. Being a teacher and working with children, I have seen actual evidence of some of the following benefits.

Social skills, Self Confidence and Empathy

     Right from the time children are very little, they watch TV. If they have older siblings they probably see music shows and listen to the music of these older siblings. They grow up seeing people holding microphones and singing into them. Children learn through play. They mimic these actions. I have seen tiny ones just barely able to walk, dance and make noises into the fake echo microphones you buy at the dollar stores. Without even knowing there is such a thing as karaoke they are in essence gaining benefits of singing karaoke. Self confidence and the ability to be creative and outgoing with voice and movement are huge steps in a child's development. Parents thinking how cute they are when they are doing this are not usually even aware that their choice of toy is helping their child gain some very important skills.
     Older children do know what karaoke is and can often be 'caught' staging their own little star performances in the privacy of their rooms or with their friends. However, you can bet that neither child nor parent are aware that any benefits from singing karaoke type play is occurring.
     I find that if there is a microphone around, fake or real, kids love to play with them. They get comfortable holding them and speaking or singing into them. Later they tend to want to hold 'shows' for their family and friends. I know this can be seen as a generalization but as a teacher I see two main benefits of singing karaoke stemming from this sort of play.

First, the child practices speaking or singing into the microphone making it a more natural thing to do. They know that people use microphones when in front of audiences. This type of beneficial play strengthens their self confidence. They become more comfortable with someone watching them. In school, right from kindergarten on up children are encouraged and even expected to present various pieces of work. The benefits of singing karaoke type play helps children develop some of these skills and become more comfortable with using these skills". Children nowadays take part in leading assemblies, making announcements and helping in the office. Those children that have the experience of 'performing', even in play, when they are young, have shown they are much more comfortable doing these tasks. Clearly benefits of singing karaoke related play at the very least introduces them to the equipment and at the most helps make them more comfortable, confident and creative when using it.

The second main benefit of singing karaoke that I see tends to happen when children become more

conscious and concerned with what others may think. In the child's development a stage is reached when a 'reality mode' starts to kick in and children begin to see the comparative world. (I usually see this around the ages of 9 or 10) I find that children who perform in front of each other have more empathy for others who perform. They begin to realize how hard it is to get up in front of an audience for the first time. Social skills start to be developed. Consideration and open encouragement of those that try, become the norm. These social skills that are displayed tend to strengthen more in those that perform in front of their peers, than in those that don't. As adults these benefits of singing karaoke can be strongly observed through the acceptance of all singers within the karaoke community.

Public Speaking

It has been documented that many people who have a fear of public speaking have been helped by singing in front of an audience. In school, I sometimes will see outgoing children tend to get very nervous on stage. Many times it boils down to being afraid of the microphone. Once they get used to the microphone, they are much more relaxed. In the case of actual public speaking, the microphone as well as the audience are there during karaoke. It is often such an empowering feeling being front and center that people tend to be more comfortable, quicker in this setting than in front of an audience giving a speech that they have been stressing about. Once the comfortability factor has begun to be established, being in front of an audience for speaking becomes at least a little easier.

English as a Second Language

In this day and age travel to other countries is very common and families are immigrating more and more. One of the common links between all countries is a love of music. This brings me to the last benefit of singing karaoke that I will cover here. Karaoke is used as an educational tool for English as a second language classes.

I had a young boy from Korea in my class last year. When he came to me in September he could speak and understand very little English but he loved music. He would often have his mp3 player and earphones on,before school and during breaks. He was constantly listening to the local, popular tunes. He knew every word to his favorite songs. He did not always understand them but his vocabulary and pronunciation were becoming stronger and stronger. At Christmas time I brought my karaoke machine to class as a treat. My son was home from University and had come to class to help out. My young student wanted so badly to sing but was very nervous, singing in front of his English classmates for the first time. My son offered to sing with him if the young lad would choose the song. He was elated. The song was sung much to his delight and the delight of his classmates. He talked of this thrill until he went home to Korea in June. Seeing the smile on his face and the effort he put into pronouncing every word made it very obvious to me that this was definitely one of the benefits of singing karaoke.