In the past children learned to sing from siblings, parents, and extended family, in a process that parallels learning how to speak words.

Nowadays (yes, I used that word) it’s a purple dinosaur who teaches us that it’s much easier to “clean up, clean up” with the help of background singers.

As more children and their families consume media-generated sounds or songs, traditional music might be getting less attention.

I think it’s important for parents to reclaim music in all its forms: songs, poems, fingerplays, chants, and nursery rhymes.  Music can help you entertain, soothe, and reminisce with your young child.  As an extremely useful tool in the parenting kit, music can be employed to signal or ease the transitions from active time to nap-time.  Then back again.

Ages and Stages of music:

The Lullaby – according to Amy Robbins-Wilson, an award-winning expert on music for babies, a lullaby is a” soft and soothing song, usually sung to an infant or small child.” Our blogroll has a link to Amy’s enchanting work.

The Chant – most appropriate for and most appreciated by babies under a year old.  A chant is usually a rhythmic song or poem that is spoken rather than sung to music.  Like Parentese, it often involves exaggerated facial expressions or gestures.  Pat-a-cake is a prime example.

The Fingerplay – involves the hands and fingers to act out the message of the music. Ubiquitous example:  Itsy-Bitsy Spider.  Babies will love to imitate the hand movements, toddlers will almost accurately execute the movements, and preschoolers will teach you a thing or two about repertoire and manual dexterity.

Musical toys – age-appropriate xylophones and keyboards.  In some cases, high-quality recording/playback toys are a good choice.  I prefer to use the recording feature of these toys to capture the child’s voice for playback.  Amy Robbins-Wilson concurs: “The real magic happens when the child is actively making music.  It teaches the child that they are creators — not just consumers of sound.”

Musical toys give multiple benefits in other develoopmental domains:

• Xylophones: upper body development (the large muscles, aka gross motor ability).
• Keyboards: eye-hand coordination (and smaller muscles, aka fine motor ability).
• Playback songs: memory, attention span, and sequencing ability (math skills someday).

Music also helps you encourage your child’s emerging, perhaps tentative, talking skills.  The driving beat of a poem, chant, or song lets little ones smoothe over any verbal bumps in the road and just keep up with the music of it.

One of our family’s favorite photographs shows my Army veteran dad in his new uniform: pajamas and bathrobe.  The photo shows Dad perched at the edge of the sofa that dominated our den, as he dutifully fed a baby doll.

He had barely awakened and poured his coffee one Thanksgiving morning when a higher-ranking officer, my toddler daughter Nia, gave him his orders.

Having served as designated doll sitter on a previous occasion, he knew the drill.  Nia allowed Gramps to carry on with his joke telling and bonding with grandsons, as long as he tended to her doll.  If a burst of laughter or a raucous knee slap threatened to displace “Baby,” Nia approached and righted the bottle’s aim at her doll’s perpetually parted lips. If voices rose at the delivery of a punch line, my daughter admonished Gramps by pressing a dimpled index finger to her pursed lips that had only recently abandoned their own pacifier.  My dad always responded to her supervision with a good-natured smile, and by renewing his attention to doll duty.

Gramps might not have known how to explain the child development theory at work that morning, but he knew the importance of participating.  By playing along with his grandaughter, he clearly conveyed that her ideas were worthy of his efforts.  Joining in pretend play gives parents and other important people an opportunity to practice narration techniques like parallel talk.  When my mother offered Nia a running commentary on her activities by saying, “You wrapped your baby so carefully in her blanket,” or “You carry your baby on your hip like your mother carries you around,” she gave even more validation to the importance of the pretend play scenario.

Questions serve the same supportive purpose —  they stimulate more thinking, more creating. Extend the possibilities of playtime by asking your little one to tell you her baby’s name, which car can go faster, or why the lion is so quiet.  The spontaneity you add will demonstrate your attunement .  She knows you are paying attention when you wonder out loud where the pirates have hidden the marshmallows or why the teddy bear needs a Band-Aid.  When important adults become part of the setting for pretend play, they make it easier for children to immerse themselves in it.

Ways to boost the developmental benefits of pretend play:

• Add music.  Regular exposure to music has been correlated higher SAT scores, higher reading scores, elevating the mood of children, and even reducing misbehavior on school buses!

• Add dance.  Your kinesthetic learner will thank you.

• Add costumes (more on that in part 3 of this series on Sociodramatic Play).

• Add food.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a terrific multi-age book that promotes healthy snacking — until day 6, that is!

• Add art.  The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats’ is a lovely starting point for making paper snowflakes and watercolor painting.

• Snap pictures for later discussion and memory enhancement.  Make a book of them.

• Ask your child for instructions on how to participate, or play a role.  Talk about planning skills!

Remember:

• Dramatic play strengthens every area of development.
• Pretend play empowers children to re-visit (and re-write the ending to) difficult or challenging events.
• Pretend play supports every area of future learning such as language and literacy; abstract thinking skills that convert into math and science ability; the bodily awareness that promotes physical fitness; and social skills.
• Adults and siblings participate in the play when they accept invitations to join in