It is very important for children to learn how to work effectively with others. From encounters at school to later working experiences, they will be required to work with others in a respectful and appropriate manner. If they are unable to do so, they will struggle to maintain friendships and intimate relationships and their career choices will be severely limited. Clearly, learning to work with others as part of a team is something that every child must learn from an early age in order to avoid these negative consequences.

There are a lot of ways that children gain real world experience with teamwork. Oftentimes, they start learning from birth if there are older siblings in the home. They learn to share their toys, their food at mealtimes, and the affectionate attention of parents and other adults in their lives. Yet, working with others outside of the family environment is quite different because they will be forced to work as a team with people who are not intimately bonded to them. That is where the real challenge of teamwork comes into play.

The good news is parents and schools can use music to teach children valuable lessons in teamwork. It may start out with a children's musical program which teaches the little ones to listen as others make music. They learn to sit still and appreciate what others have to offer, while enjoying their turn in the spotlight as well. This teaches basic cooperation which will carry over into other phases of life as the child grows.

As the child grows, they may be encouraged through a musical program to play music along with others. They may be handed an instrument and taught to play one part of a song while others play other parts with other instruments. They may learn to sing while harmonizing with others and blending in with instruments. All of this is excellent training in teamwork. It shows the child that everyone brings something valuable to the table and when all skills are combined, beautiful things can happen.

Sharing can also be taught through children's musical programs. Children may take a liking to a particular instrument, but may have to wait their turn to use it or may have to allow others to use it at times. If the child really enjoys the instrument, it can take great restraint to sit patiently while waiting their turn or to play something different so someone else gets a turn with the instrument they love. There will be many other times that they need to do that in the adult world, so it's a great thing for them to experience as a young child.

There are many other ways for children to learn to work with others, but none of them are nearly as much fun as learning music. Whether it is a vocal lesson or an hour session banging on drums with mommy and daddy, children learn many things when encouraged to be creative with musical instruments. Teamwork just happens to be one of the things they learn, but there are many other things. For instance, children may learn how to make friends and how to interact appropriately with other children of different ages.

Helene Goldnadel (http://helenegoldnadel.webs.com/) observes that children also develop fine motor skills by using their hands to manipulate different musical instruments. There is even believed to be some emotional and cognitive benefit to early music exposure.