Music matters

We all speak rhythmically. Without any rhythm, our speech would be dull and monotonous. You can encourage rhythm in your child’s language by:

• beating the syllables of your child’s own name/family names on a drum
• clapping along to music with a strong beat
• copying rhythmic patterns with clapping, or hitting pots/metal lids/plastic tubs with wooden spoons
• patting knees, shaking arms, clapping hands, rocking from side to side, walking, running – or even galloping like a horse…

Actively listening to the presence and absence of sound encourages good listening skills. You can promote your child’s sound awareness by:

• jumping from one mat to another on a given signal (such as shaking a shaker, banging a drum, clapping, or saying ‘go’)
• playing musical bumps or musical statues (on/off of music) – move to music and then sit or stop when music stops – you can even play musical chairs with family/siblings/friends
• placing a play-brick or toy in a bucket on a given signal (shaker, drum, clap, ‘go’)
• exploring household sounds – such as switching the vacuum cleaner on and off and focusing on the difference between the noise and the silence

Helping your child improve their breath control will help your child to develop a strong voice, which will improve voice quality. You can improve your child’s breath control through:

• blowing bubbles
• playing with party blowers
• using any form of ‘blowing’ instrument – toy trumpet, recorder, horn, etc – practice copying rhythms such as continuous and abrupt/short

There are many traditional nursery songs with lovely rhyming words which are fun to sing and also part of natural childhood.

Make a picture book with a picture along with a song title on each page to represent traditional nursery songs so your child can choose a song – you can build this up over time as your child learns new songs.

Use props/pictures/actions to give additional clues about the language that goes with the song – for example:

• toy bus – Wheels on the Bus
• toy sheep – Baa-Baa Black Sheep
• star – Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star
• toy spider – Incy-Wincy Spider

You can use songs, music and nursery rhymes to explore differences in sound and to improve gross motor skills and co-ordination. You can encourage movement and sound discrimination by:

• singing action songs – e.g. the Hokey-Cokey, Ring-a-Ring-of-Roses
• moving to sound – e.g. fast to fast sound/music; slow to slow sound/music; big movements for loud sound/music and little movements for soft sound/music
• making movements appropriate to the sounds: for example, jumping like a frog to abrupt sound (e.g. a horn) and slithering like a snake to a continuous sound (e.g. a shaker)

There are lots of lovely and easy-to-find or easy-to-make “instruments” you can use. You and your child can experiment with these instruments to ‘feel’ the sound of drums and chimes and explore pitch and rhythm. For example, you can:

• play along to taped music and stop when music stops
• explore new instruments – how is the sound made – plucking, shaking, banging, etc
• discover ways of making sound with household objects – such as pots and bans or empty plastic food containers/bottles
• make musical instruments – plastic bottles made into shakers with different things inside to make different sounds – rice, pasta, beans, etc

Use elements of singing and music (pitch, rhythm, speed, loudness, etc) when reading books with your child (and any siblings):

• Billy Goats Gruff – big, medium, small – loud, medium, quiet
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears – low pitch, medium pitch, high pitch/big, medium, small/loud, medium, quiet
• The Three Pigs – rhythm (“I’ll huff, and I’ll puff and I’ll blooooow your house down!”)
• The Gingerbread Man – rhythm (“Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!”)
• Jack and the Beanstalk – pitch moving up; pitch moving down; loud/quiet; fast/slow