Bookbug webinar: Singing, music and mental wellbeing

Watch our webinar with musician and wellbeing coach Kelly Laing, who discusses the benefits of music and singing with Scottish Book Trust's Early Years Community Engagement Project Manager Ruth Boreham.

The webinar covers:

• Techniques for introducing music and singing to the families as part of their activities
• How music can support bonding, attachment and speech and language development
• The benefits of music and singing on the mental wellbeing of families

About the webinar

The webinar was recorded on 29 May 2024.

Thanks to funding from Creative Scotland's Youth Music Initiative (YMI), Scottish Book Trust have been working in collaboration with The Cottage Family Centre in Kirkcaldy to run an Early Years Musician in Residence project. The residency ran for nine months, finishing in May 2024. 

The aim was to work with a targeted group of children (aged 0–5) and their caregivers to sing and make music together. We wanted to focus on the benefits of music on mental health and wellbeing, bonding and attachment and speech and language development. Together with the group, we tasked the musician with creating a new song for the wider Bookbug community. 

We appointed musician and wellbeing coach Kelly Laing to this project. Kelly already had a wealth of experience of working with children and families from leading music and singing in community groups, and mindfulness sessions.

In this webinar, Kelly talks to Scottish Book Trust's Early Years Community Engagement Project Manager Ruth Boreham about her time during the project, how she introduced music and singing to the families as part of their activities, and the mental wellbeing benefits to both children and adults.