THE POWER OF MUSIC
“From “Rock- a - bye baby” to “Can’t stop the feeling””
The influence of music on our life is undoubted; there are melodies for each mood and for every event. A song has the power to take us back to precious moments, and to make us easily relate to the feeling we had at that time.
When does music start to influence us? At which age do we start feeling it, and reacting to it? Research has proven that babies react to music since they're in the womb. Then it's never too early to start making benefit from this great tool!
Music is a universal language, means it can even connect strangers. Then how about its power strengthening the bond between family members? Music can strongly improve parent – child interaction
Speaking about the power of music, did you know that associating words to a melody is a great way to boost language development too? Going from the famous part saying, "when you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything" – from the “Do, Re, Mi” song – The Sound of Music, it doesn’t really matter what you sing as long as it’s a nice tune and you and your child enjoy it.
Starting from there, repeating rhymes with your child can be a perfect time to improve the development of different communication and language skills, such as:
- Eye contact: getting face to face with your child encourages him to make eye contact and observe your facial expressions.
- Vocal and motor imitation: most of the rhymes can be associated with gestures (e.g. rock- a – bye, row your boat, itsy bitsy spider…) your child can imitate you making. He can also imitate, depending on his age and language skills, a range starting from simple sounds (e.g. /ee/ /oo/ in old Mc donald) , to syllable duplications (e.g. /moo moo/ (cow), /baa baa/ (sheep)) or even more complex ones (e.g. /Oink/ /Quack/).
- Receptive language and listening skills: In addition to using facial expressions and gestures associated with key words to help your child understand words and expressions, some songs make a great tool to teach your child following directions (e.g. if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands). Moreover your child can practice filling in; you can start the song and stop on repetitive words to give a chance to your child to fill in the word (e.g. five little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off, and bumped his head), pause and look at her/him expectantly; if she/he wasn’t able to say the word independently, you can always help by providing the first sound or syllable to encourage your child to complete it, or even make a gesture to prompt him to find the missing word.
- Expressive language development, from a sound to a verse, your child will start learning new sounds, words and expressions.
Discover the artist inside you; You can’t find the perfect song? Make up your own songs to personalise them to your child, or associate them with your child’s daily routine; make up a tune or pick a famous rhyme, choose your key words, keep it simple, add some rhyming words and there you are!
Repeat, repeat, repeat; when it comes to learning, nothing beats repetition. You can associate songs with different times during the day (in the morning, during routine activities, or while moving from a place to the other).
Add music to your days and it will give you back more life and joy.