Despite all our efforts to consciously teach them, children are constantly learning on their own from their environment. A key, therefore, to help them develop an ability is to create the proper environment. Children learn to speak and walk because everyone around them is doing these things. If children grow up hearing great recordings, seeing exciting performances, and making beautiful music together, they can become musically fluent as well. Beginning early and creating a good environment may fail if the child s natural learning process is not respected.
Children learn things in a step by step process, repeating each step until it is assimilated.
This is why they speak their first words many times before using phrases, why phrases lead to sentences, and why reading begins after basic speaking fluency is attained. Following this example, Suzuki Method begins music study through the ear, adding reading later on. Students first learn to play simple songs with good tone, rhythm, and body balance, and then move on to the separate study of reading. We should not ask children to do too many activities. It is good to expose them to a variety of things, but they should have the opportunity to have in depth training in one or two disciplines.