Why sing?
We sing for many reasons: to express identity and emotions, to recount stories or events, to enable specific tasks or work or movement to happen, or just to enjoy ourselves. It is part of being human.
The belief behind Tot Tunes is that singing together is the main way of encouraging early musicality in children. We use our own voices as these are the easiest for children to imitate. Babies are programmed to do this from an early age. Recent research has shown that babies cry with the accent that they hear most in the womb and in the very early period of life outside. Therefore, for example, a French baby cries with different intonation and rhythm -stress patterns from a Chinese baby, because that is what they have heard and learned.
However tuned instruments such as the piano do not embody this relationship and do not provide the same kind of sound for a child to imitate. In fact they can be less helpful in enabling children to sing as they can obscure the melody of a song.
Among adults, singing communally has, in our society, been a dwindling experience over many years. In addition, too many children have been led to believe that they are either “musical” or “non-musical”. It is more likely they have not had the right kind of possibilities or opportunities at the right time. Unfortunately a sense of one's own lack of musicality is often carried into adulthood for many years and can be a formidable barrier to singing, self expression and self esteem.
Your own voice is good enough!!
Singing with young children
Engaging children actively in music making through singing and singing games is a key way of developing early musicianship skills in children.
Tot Tunes aims to provide a foundation for musical learning in a fun and games-based way using singing together as the back bone. We are planting a seedbed out of which musical learning might grow, presently and also later on in childhood. While CDs are occasionally used, during these sessions, everyone is invited to engage in making music, rather than simply listen to someone else’s. The sessions encourages musical interaction between child and parent/carer, covering a variety of topics using a range of musical resources and props. We use traditional nursery rhymes, modern songs for young children, percussion games to encourage beat-keeping, and action songs and games. Children are more likely to sing if their accompanying adult sings and encourages them. Engaging in musical activties together also helps parent/child bonding.
Percussion instruments are wonderful for involving the body in keeping a beat and feeling rhythm. Simple actions with percussion instruments can often be an easy way for young children to create music, as well as promote spatial awareness and movement exploration. Young children learn by doing!
Much more than a sing-song
Singing games supports the development of the whole child.
Although musical objectives are key at Tot Tunes, there is awareness of the role of singing games and music in enabling the development of the whole child, tying in with the new Pre-birth to three national guidelines (0 - 3yr classes) and linking to the new Curriculum for Excellence (3 - 5 yr classes).
Research has shown that engaging in singing songs and speaking rhymes with movement can, in many ways, affect positively childrens development.
Lucinda Geoghegan, educational consultant for the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS) identifies these key benefits :
Singing with your child can:
© Develop your child’s speech – songs and rhymes are pronounced more clearly – the speech is slower and therefore easier for the child to imitate.
© Increase your child’s understanding of language - research has shown that a child with a greater knowledge of nursery rhymes is more phonemically aware; the greater a child’s phonemic awareness the more fluent the reader.
© Enhance the child’s ability to memorise through the constant repetition of rhymes/songs
© Create a sense of security – intellectual skills are all linked to a child’s emotional growth (heart – head connection)
© Help develop the child’s motor skills (clapping, moving to music, stamping etc)
© Help to develop listening skills – the child is concentrating ion the song/rhyme and is focussing on you and will respond more readily to instructions
© Enhance social interaction – the child will try to communicate with you from a very early stage: even before you can recognise what s/he is saying, s/he will babble and coo in response to your singing.
Your baby's growing brain: the science
The first three years are crucial.
Your baby is born with a brain that contains thousands of millions of brain cells. Early experiences and developing relationships cause the connections in the brain to increase rapidly. Brain development takes place through interaction with others, being active and involved and through exploration and discovery. As babies and young children revisit and practice skills and language, they return to previous connections (neural pathways) in the brain. Every time a pathway is revisited, it is strengthened and the link speeds up. The result is that the strongest pathways survive and those carrying no signal wither and die. The brain "prunes" itself.
[2] Extract from 'Pre-Birth to Three' national guidance, published by Learning Teaching Scotland for The Scottish Government, 2010
This is special, creative, fun, play time.
Laugh and sing and make music with your child. Hug them and tickle them. Help them move to the music and do actions. Praise their efforts to join in. Look into their eyes and smile at them. See the smile on their face, and the glint in their eyes as positive hormones flood their system and give them feelings of wellbeing and emotional security.