Granny’s Guide
By Yvette O'Dowd
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un fact: ABC’s Playschool has amassed more than 2000 songs in their playlist after more than 50 years on air. I have pretty good recall of the lyrics for all of them, having listened endlessly as a child, a mother and grandmother! Playschool has a song for just about any moment in daily life and the songs come to mind as I go about my day – with or without children around! Repetition is an important part of how children learn, and the combination of simple lyrics put to music is how we have taught babies and young children since prehistoric times. Every culture has a catalogue of songs passed from the old to the young, passing on oral history and teaching the life skills a child needs in everyday life.
Music is not just for the talented. Music is not just something fun and frivolous; it’s part of what makes our brains intrinsically human. Valuable musical experiences and education transform the ways brains grow, for the better. The simple act of singing stimulates a diverse range of networks associated with movement, listening, planning, memory, and language. Beyond this, music has the power to increase social bonding and empathy for others as it engages the emotional networks of the brain.” Babies don’t know or care about all this though! To them, music is fun! You can incorporate musical play into your everyday life, and you don’t need special equipment to do so. And if you are worried about your precious baby hearing your singing voice you might be surprised to learn they have been listening to it for months before they were even born! Every-time you sing in the shower, turn up the volume and sing along to your favourite tracks in the car or gym or sing happy birthday at a party, the baby in your womb was listening in!
“Bounces, rhymes, tickles and lullabies are you and your baby’s best ticket to highly engaging and valuable musical experiences.” However, modern parents are often unsure how to incorporate music Julie explains. Her classes for babies incorporate all these experiences into their infant’s life. Conscious of their own singing voice, many are and it is amazing how even pre-walkers soon learn the pattern and embarrassed about singing a lullaby or struggle to remember the lyrics rhythm of their favourites. You can introduce songs and rhymes into to familiar tunes. And when it comes to instruments for young children, your daily routine at home – not just lullabies at bedtime but songs how do you know what to buy amongst the noisy shelves of toy retailers? about driving in the car, eating food, and having a bath. Your baby will soon make an association between the song and the activity and Having grown up in a home where my father regularly played the even begin to mimic your sounds and movements. Pre-verbal babies organ – magically, without reading sheet music – I took for granted hearing a familiar tune will often become still and look intently in the what was a rich musical environment. I exposed my own children to as direction of the sound. wide a variety of music as possible and supported them learning an instrument in secondary school. When my first grandchild was a baby, Babies and toddlers don’t need expensive musical instruments. I looked at ways to introduce her to music. The answer was found in a Simple household items – like the classic wooden spoon and saucepan local children’s music session for babies. – will produce sound and your baby will naturally want to repeat the process. The important thing is that it is your child’s action which makes Julie Murray runs 'Sounds Like This' for kids and encourages babies the music. Passively watching an electronic toy repeating It’s a Small to participate right from the start. Some people wonder how babies World is not the same. would benefit from music at such a young age. “Actively making music has a profound effect on children's brains. Julie explains, “Human brains love information. From before we’re From developing their personalities, increasing their body’s ability to even born our brains are growing and learning. And guess what? move and spatially navigate, increasing their intellect and enhancing Our brains process speech as music. This is important because once we understand that musical comprehension is fundamentally integrated emotional intelligence. Music activates multiple areas of the brain both into the ways our brain functions, we begin to realise its true value. individually and simultaneously, like nothing else,” said Julie. 64 Peninsula Kids – Spring 2022