Benefits of Reading Aloud

Reading to a child on a regular basis benefits him in several key ways. Reading increases his knowledge of the world, his vocabulary, his familiarity with the written language, and his interest in becoming literate. In fact, the larger the variety of fluent readers a child hears, the better.

Ideas for parents: Even if other special adults in your child’s life do not live nearby, it’s still possible for your child to hear them reading aloud. Hallmark has recordable books. Skype offers free video calls. And MailVU makes it possible to record and send a video email. The possibilities are endless!

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Recognizing Pitch and Early Language Development

Language Development in Children

Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk

New research, reported this week in Science Daily suggests that babies who are able to recognize pitch could also detect language rules, even better than adults. Scientists found that “when it comes to extracting complex rules from spoken language, a three-month-old outperforms adult learners”.

By monitoring babies’ brain responses, scientists were able to determine that infants detected discrepancies with language rules just by hearing changes in syllables or pitch.

“These findings not only help understand how children manage to learn language so quickly during early development, but also point to a strong link between very basic auditory skills and sophisticated rule learning abilities.”

So, next time you’re at Kindermusik class with your little one, think about all the different changes in pitch and tone your child is exposed to – this is actively supporting your child’s language development skills.

from Minds on Music

Again, again!

Photo "Have you ever wondered why a child will ask you to read the same book over and over or perhaps never tires of rolling the ball back and forth? A newly published study may shed some light on this learning technique of young children. Nicknamed the “Goldilocks effect”, the study examines the attention span of infants in relation to the complexity of the world around them. The results showed that infants focus only on situations that are neither too difficult nor too easy. 'The study suggests that babies are not only attracted by what is happening, but they are able to predict what happens next based on what they have already observed,' says Kidd, lead author on the report. 'They are not passive sponges. They are active information seekers looking for the best information they can find.' Children who are engaged in a sensory rich learning experience are best equipped to receive and retain new information. The repetition of a fun activity likely yields new information each time for your child and provides an opportunity for them to test their predictions based on their latest observations. 'Parents don’t need to buy fancy toys to help their children learn. They make the best use of their environment. They are going to look around for what fits their attention level. Kids learn best from social interaction,' reminds Kidd. -Source and study link

Hearing Patterns

Photo "When children drum along to the rhythms in a song or to their own name, they practice careful listening and pattern recognition. This is one way children hear sounds in words – a skill necessary for word recognition, speaking, reading, and writing. Each time a child is exposed to a new object or experience, new neural connections are made in his brain. Turn a plastic bowl or empty oatmeal container into a simple homemade drum. Let babies learn the cause and effect by just banging on the drum. Allow your toddler to drum away – to a favorite recording or just to the song in his heart. You can also play an easy “Echo Me” game where you chant a short, simple rhythm and they tap it back to you on their drum. You can up the challenge for your preschooler or big kid by asking them to tap back the rhythms in a favorite song or the rhythms of some fun words. -Theresa Case

Unusual recipe for learning success!!!

Photo Carla Hannaford (award winning author and eductor) writes, “Movement is essential to learning. Movement integrates and anchors new information into our neural networks. Every time we move in an organized manner, full brain activation and integration occurs, and the door to learning opens.” "Combine movement, which fully activates the brain, and creates and strengthens neural networks, with music, which is the only activity that simultaneously stimulates every area of the brain, and you have a recipe for successful learning. As a home schooling mom, here’s some things that we’ve done that combine music (or the components of music like rhythm and meter) that assist in learning. (You don’t have to home school to do these things. You are your child’s first and most important teacher!) 1. While singing learning songs or poems and chants, we have a small indoor trampoline for jumping on... Jumping really seems to make the just inputted information stick in brains better. 2. My children all sit on exercise balls. I’ve noticed that when new or more difficult concepts are being learned, their ability to sit still decreases. All that electrical energy in their brain is going towards creating new or stronger neural pathways. An exercise ball allows them to have the movement they need, without being distracting, so that brain energy is spent focusing on learning, rather than using that brain power to sit quietly.... 3. When learning to spell difficult words or ... counting by 2’s, 5’s, etc., we get up and bounce a ball back and forth, taking turns counting or giving the next letter in a word. The kids love it, and they learn faster and better. 4. Playing background music is great, too. One suggestion – during homework or school time, the best music to listen to has no words. 5. Be sure to give your children plenty of get up and play breaks to rest and refocus eyes, and allow the brain to process everything they just learned. Otherwise, the information really will be in one ear and out the other." Source What a revolutionary learning technique for academic information!!!

Singing our way to speech!

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“Singing ability is related to the ability to control speech fluctuations, and speech activities appear to help develop tuneful singing skills. The ability to sing and the ability to converse with expressive speech are closely related. Playing with rhythm speech (chants, poems, rhymes, etc.) as well as simple tonal melodies helps the child develop both singing and speech skills.” (adapted from McDonald and Simons, 1988)

"Tips for parents: So what is the best resource for learning (or remembering!) those all-important songs and chants that help your child become a better speaker and a better singer? You’ll learn a ton of great music and activities in your Kindermusik classes, but you can also borrow from Mother Goose, pull from your childhood memories, or make up your own songs and chants. Piggyback songs, where you adapt a song by substituting your own words, are also lots of fun." -Theresa Case

Words and more words...

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"Exposure to a variety of movement words helps children link movement and language at a time when word acquisition is occurring at a fast pace. Between the ages of 18 months and 4 years children are comprehending an average of one new word for every hour they’re awake. By age 4 most kids know around 10,000 words." -Cheow Yu Yuan

Nothing can replace your role as a parent in talking to your baby or child. TV does not even come close to teaching words and language the way your conversations do. Don't let life get too busy that you don't make some time regularly to sit eye-to-eye and talk with your little one - but mostly LISTEN (and help expose them to a few new words at a time)! Dancing together also accomplishes great strides in vocabulary acquisition if you describe the movements you are making together - it is priceless!

So many choices!

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Giving Choices: "Despite appearances to the contrary, toddlers wield very little power. Allowing them to make decisions in the course of the day's events helps them feel independent, proud, and in control. Whenever possible, give choices - but not open-ended ones...You'll sharpen decision-making skills and avoid minor battles of will." -Christina Frank, "How to Talk to a Toddler", Parenting. April 1999.

Would they like peanut butter and jelly or macaroni for lunch? Never ask them a question in which "No" is unacceptable, such as: "Shall we go to bed now?" Instead ask them which book (from an acceptable pile) would they like to read before bed. Which sleeper do they want to wear to bed? Asking the question tells them they have an option. When we don't allow options the child can be frustrated. Offering choices demonstrates respect and strengthens the relationship, which counts for a lot when the child has to accept a choice the adult must make.

Literacy

So much of the intelligence children will ultimately have is developed before they even go to kindergarten.  When you read to them, you are building pathways in their brains needed for successful reading experiences.  They will develop auditory perception that allows them to think about how words sound.  Listening to stories helps children enhance their vocabularies and use longer sentences.  Another wonderful benefit of reading to children is that it increases their attention spans and ability to focus on what is being said.  More than anything else, reading to young children gives them a desire to read (Gisler and Eberts). 

Vocal play

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"Playing with vocal inflection – the intonations of melody of language – is a critical part of early childhood vocal development, which may begin as early as 5-7 months of age, and provides older children the opportunity to explore the complexity of communication. Vocal play allows children to practice the precise coordination of lips, tongue, and breathing necessary to speak words." (Adapted from Furuno et al, 1997.)

You can invite an echo or start a song so your child can sing the rest in the car, at bathtime, or any time!

Memorization

One fabulous way to help children memorize facts is to put them to music! You can teach the days of the week, months of the year, your address/phone number, countries, steps to doing laundry, words in a foreign language, of course the alphabet, etc. Try inventing a song or two or find them on Youtube.com. You will be surprised how much more your child can remember when a song is coupled with difficult words. It's really fun to impress family and friends with your child's singing and memorization. And they see it as a game that they get lots of great attention for playing!

MOVE IT!

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"Children are naturally on the move most all of the time. You can help focus their movement “practice” by encouraging them to dance along with some favorite music and suggesting that they try different ways to move. Or play a game [like Simon Says] where you call out a movement word (like creep, run, tiptoe, or slide). Your child gets to move (creep, run, tiptoe, slide, etc.) until you say “Now let’s stop!” Not only will their movement development be enhanced, but you’ll also help contribute to their creative self-expression, language development, and self-control!" - Theresa Case

I am an artist: this is my movement picture

 The best way for your child to learn is through the kind of integration represented by this activity. In this one activity there was an integration of movement, music listening and art (symbolic drawings). Drawings and paintings communicate your child’s thinking and often display early attempts to create symbols, a step toward literacy. This weeks family activity #8 continues this experience by suggesting other movement verbs and other fun art projects. 

Choose a movement word to draw on a 3x5 (or larger card) One nice thing about drawing a verb is that there is no "right or wrong" way to draw it. The child can draw how it feels to them and it will be completely accurate. Write the word on top of the drawing and the child will begin to associate the written word with the movement. When you have a few made, break out your CD and choose a card and get moving!

“A profound connection exists beween experience and ability in drawing and interest in and ability to write. Drawings and paintings not only communicate children’s thinking (when they reach the level of drawing that is representative of the enviornment) but also often display early attempts to create symbols. Some of these symbols may be recognized by adults, but others seem to be unique and represent the world in the child’s own way. Children often want to talk about their work and create stories to accompany graphics (Kane 1982)” Early childhood Experiences in lanugage Arts: Emerging Literacy, by Jeanne M Machado, p 347

Foundations in the Brain

In Village this week you spent a few minutes face to face with your baby copying and repeating sounds.

Making bird noises and waiting for your child's response is a great way to encourage language skills.
In Our Time we labeled and contrasted our movements with words and signs.
In Imagine That!, we took written movement words and illustrated them on paper.
We then choose some of those words and applied them to our circle dance.
All of this is great for your child's development.

Harvard has produced this video which explains exactly what is happening in your child's brain
and why this kind of activity is so important: