Singing to children helps them bond with you and your voice, making it the most important voice in their lives. Ultimately, singing is a way to express love; children do not care about your singing ability, only that you are singing to them. Singing also helps babies learn about words, language, and communication, fostering language comprehension. Below are nine ways you can build literacy skills through singing with your child or in your classroom.
1. Bonding
When you sing to children, they bond with you and your voice. Singing makes yours the first and most important voice in her life.
2. Transitions
Children feel safe when life is predictable. A song for waking up, sleeping, and other routine transitions and activities helps them know what comes next.
3. Language
Language is in itself musical, and when you sing and speak, your baby learns about words, language, and communication. Through your singing, baby’s language comprehension begins.
4. New Words
While you sing and hold your baby, you introduce new vocabulary. When you hold up a stuffed dog as you sing about a dog, your baby learns to associate the name of that toy with the words you sing. When you sing about parts of the body and kiss your baby’s feet or tickle his tummy, he learns new words.
5. Rhythm and Rhyme
Music includes rhythm and rhyme, again, part of our language. In time, children will recognize rhymes and rhythms.
6. Play
Singing is one of many methods of play, and “sing-play” is a fun way to interact with children.
7. Singing Names
A baby can learn his name by hearing it in songs. Try substituting a baby’s name for other words in songs so he hears his name sung over and over again.
8. Listening Skills
Like reading, singing is an activity that requires listening. It’s another opportunity for children to begin to understand language and feelings expressed through language and sing-play
9. LOVE
All of the above boils down to using your singing voice as a way to express love. Children don’t care if you are a great singer. They only care that you are singing to THEM! In their eyes (and their ears), you’ll be a star!
Join Birth to Five Literacy Journey
Families who participate in Birth to Five Literacy Journey strengthen bonds with their child, help build academic confidence for kinder and beyond and are equipped with the tools and strategies to help support their child’s reading development at home.
*This article was adapted from: 10 Ways Babies Learn When We Sing to Them | NAEYC
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