Singing With Your Little One

When we think about how to build a child's speech and language skills, we automatically think of toys, games, and learning activities, but one tool that can be super beneficial to promoting the development of these skills is singing. With catchy tunes and fun rhythms, music has a unique power to captivate young minds and encourage speech-language development. From nursery rhymes to made-up songs, singing plays a crucial role in fostering not only linguistic development but also emotional, social, and cognitive growth in children. Here's why incorporating singing into your daily routine can be beneficial for your child's speech and language development.

Benefits of Singing with Your Child:

• Exposure to new vocabulary: Songs expose children to a wide range of vocabulary in a meaningful context. The lyrics of songs often include words that may not be encountered frequently in everyday conversation. Through singing, children learn new words and meanings, expanding their vocabulary repertoire.

• Expressive language models through repetition: The repetitive nature of songs allows children the opportunity to hear the same phrases over and over to help reinforce language patterns and enhance their ability to comprehend and produce speech. Similar to the repetitive books that we love to read with our littles, songs encourage children to participate by repeating or filling in words that they hear in the songs. Songs can, not only, encourage children to start using one word but can also help toddlers begin to use phrase speech. Singing enhances their verbal communication skills and confidence in using language.

• Helps build cognitive skills: Singing stimulates various cognitive processes in children's developing brains. It improves memory retention as they learn lyrics and melodies. Additionally, songs often involve actions or gestures, promoting motor coordination and spatial awareness. Children can learn the gestures that go along with their favorite nursery rhymes. The gestures can help them to learn the meaning of words. These cognitive benefits extend beyond language development and contribute to overall cognitive growth.

• Social interactions that come with music: Singing encourages social interaction and turn-taking, especially in group settings or during interactive songs. Whether it's singing with siblings, friends, or parents, children learn important social skills like listening, sharing, and cooperating. Through singing together, children also gain confidence in expressing themselves in front of others.

• Models sentence structure and grammar: Songs often follow grammatical rules and sentence structures, providing children with models of correct language usage. As they sing along, children naturally absorb these patterns and internalize proper grammar without explicit instruction.
  

• Models correct sound production for speech: The slower, rhythmic pattern of nursery rhymes and children's songs is a great model for correct sound production. When we sing, we often use exaggerated movements including our mouth. This provides a great visual model for your child, especially for those early sounds like /p/, /b/, & /m/ which are made with your lips and easy to see.

Tips for Singing with Your Child:

• Make it a Daily Ritual: Incorporate singing into your daily routine, whether it's during bathtime, bedtime, or while driving in the car. Consistency is key to reaping the full benefits of this activity.

• Choose Age-Appropriate Songs: Select songs that are suitable for your child's developmental stage. Nursery rhymes, fingerplays, and simple melodies are ideal for younger children, while older kids may enjoy learning songs with more complex lyrics. My daughter is 15 months old and loves popular adult music as well, so we let her dance to those songs. From an expressive/receptive language standpoint, adult songs are typically faster and have more challenging vocabulary, so children are going to be more motivated to verbally participate in songs that are more age-appropriate.

• Allow Your Child to Fill In Parts of the Song: Try leaving off the last word or words to a line in a song and see if your child tries to fill it in for you! (E.g., "No more monkeys jumping on the _____!" or "E-I-E-I-____")
  

• Be Interactive: Encourage your child to actively participate by clapping, dancing, or using hand gestures. Engage their senses by incorporating props or musical instruments to enhance the sensory experience.

• Model speech sounds: Use exaggerated mouth movements to model correct sound production especially when producing animal and environmental sounds (e.g., "moo, vroom, beep, wee-ooo") and letter names/sounds (e.g., "E-I-E-I-O").

• Embrace Creativity: Don't be afraid to get creative and make up your own songs or adapt existing ones to suit your child's interests. Personalizing songs adds a special touch and makes the experience even more memorable. We have a "dirty" song where I just repeat "dirty" in a song pattern. My daughter now knows that when we sing the dirty song, she shouldn't touch the object that she is trying to get. She even dances and sings along at this point. She has begun to tell me when she finds something dirty on the ground because of this silly song.

• Make Real-life Connections: If your child is familiar with a song about driving in the car, then sing that song while you are driving in the car. I don't know about you, but my daughter's songs are always stuck in my head, and so many of her songs can be associated with our daily activities. By showing them the meaning behind parts of their songs, you are helping to build their vocabulary and show them how to make associations.

Singing with your child isn't just about making music, it's about nurturing their development. By integrating singing into your daily interactions, you're not only enriching their speech and language abilities but also fostering a deeper emotional connection and laying the foundation for lifelong learning. So, let's raise our voices and embark on this musical journey of growth and discovery with our children.

Below are some of my (and my daughter's) favorite repetitive learning songs for children:

• Old Mac Donald Had a Farm

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider

• Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

• If You're Happy and You Know It

• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

• The Wheels on the Bus
  

• Row, Row, Row Your Boat

• If You're Happy and You Know It
  

• Hop Little Bunnies

• Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

• Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed