Why sing with young children?
Singing is fun but it has an educational value too.
Literacy
Research has shown a clear relationship between how well children know nursery rhymes before they go to school and the progress that they make later on when learning to read and to spell. They learn about rhyming sounds, which helps when they are learning that letters represent sounds.
Language
Singing lullabies and songs to babies and children before they can speak prepares them for speech. Songs have the sounds and inflections of the language they are learning. Babies respond well when being sung to by their parent and this is good for the development of reciprocal communication.
As they grow older, children are interacting with other adults too, singing about colours, parts of the body and daily activities, all contributing to language development.
Numeracy
We regularly sing counting songs, counting forwards and backwards, using fingers as an aid. This reinforces young children's counting skills and concept of numbers.
Imagination
Many songs stimulate the imagination - buying buns, making a cake & thinking of ingredients, putting on raincoats, being a tiger, getting ready for bed, brushing teeth, driving a bus ... the list goes on and on.
For more information & articles, just follow the links:
Communication, Language & Literacy:
Early Years Learning and Development - www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DCSF-RR176Guardian article:
Singing to children may help development of language skills.How music, song, lullabies and nursery rhymes prepare the brain for language:
The Genius of Natural Childhood by Sally Goddard Blythe
