From the author: This article was published on the website of the children's development store "Line of Growth" Why are children so attracted to musical instruments? To be more precise, it must be said that children are attracted not so much by the instrument itself, but by the variety of sounds of these very instruments; they like to listen closely, observe how this sound appears with their help and how it changes under the influence of various manipulations. Well what drives this interest? The thing is that at an early age the most favorable period begins for the development of the senses; at this time, all the diversity of the surrounding world opens up to the child through tactile sensations, visual and auditory perception, taste, and smell. The child actively explores the world, showing interest in objects of bright colors, various shapes, sounds. Many adults believe that musical toys are just fun, “well, what can they develop, strum and abandon.” Let's find out what benefits musical instruments can bring to a child and toys? To answer this question, I would like to talk in more detail about auditory perception, because in the process of playing with musical instruments and musical toys, the baby actively develops this important mental process for him. What is its importance? By developing his hearing, a child learns not just to hear, but to listen, focus his attention on sound, highlight its features - this ability expands the child’s capabilities. Without this, it is impossible to learn to listen carefully and hear another person, to understand him, to navigate the world around him, to enjoy music, to understand the voices of birds and animals. The whole difficulty lies in the fact that sound cannot be represented in the form of any object that we can play with, hold it in your hand and see its color and shape. That is why it is much more difficult to compare, recognize, and understand sound. Let's look at the example of a drum to see how we can play this toy and what it can give to a child. We can introduce the child to the sound of the musical instrument itself, as a result of which an associative connection will be formed between what the drum looks like and how it sounds (that is, having heard the sound of the drum, the child imagines the drum itself, remembers what it looks like, and also gets acquainted with the specific sound of this instrument). We will introduce the child to the concept of “loud-quiet” using the example of a specific musical instrument. Tap the drum quietly and say “Quiet”, let the baby listen to the sound, then knock loudly and say “Loud”. The child will establish a connection between the word and the sound itself, acquiring the skill of distinguishing a loud sound from a quiet one. We can also introduce the child to the concept of “fast-slow” tempo, and teach him to distinguish one from the other. Thanks to musical instruments, the sense of rhythm develops, and it is important have movements of the arms, legs, and entire body. Thanks to movements, the child understands the rhythm much better, grasps it better and orients himself in it. For example, knock slowly on a drum (top-top-top) and walk around the room with the sound, then speed up the rhythm and start running, and back again. Tap out a certain rhythm (you can start with the simplest one) then ask the child to repeat it . You can put verses on rhythm, read the verse and tap the rhythm. The ability to move to the beat, the ability to feel rhythm, develops children’s attention, coordination of movements, memory, forms internal composure, and contributes to the development of dexterity. The development of a sense of rhythm helps the child’s speech itself become clearer and more expressive. Thus, the more diverse the sound environment around the child (knocks, noises, melodies, etc.), the more refined his hearing will be, the more accurately he will catch the difference in sounds. It must be remembered that the formation and functioning of his speech depends on how developed the child’s auditory perception is, and.