Sing into Literacy

Research has confirmed that involving parents in children’s learning is one of the most effective ways of improving outcomes. This is why new support to help parents improve their children’s early language and literacy skills was announced this April by Education Secretary Damian Hinds.

Using singing and music to help build the confidence of parents to support their children’s early literacy development can be a great way to help build home‐school partnerships. Many parents do not realise the benefits of using music and nursery rhymes to encourage early learning. So what are these benefits?

Language development

Music and rhyme are the foundations of early learning. Nursery rhymes can effectively support the acquisition of language due to the connections created between both sides of the brain. Adding movement and music to language can assist memory and recall. Singing nursery rhymes also gives children plenty of practice in sentence structure, often leading to these becoming some of children’s first sentences.

Action songs and rhymes can help to build a child’s vocabulary and numerical skills, whilst also supporting listening development ­‐ an important part of language and learning. Regular recitation of nursery rhymes can also help to teach children simple concepts such as ‘over’ and ‘under’ as well as reinforce and consolidate children’s learning.

Reading development

Singing songs and rhymes is a really effective way to support children’s phonological awareness ‐ a really important auditory skill needed for learning to read and write. Singing nursery rhymes and taking part in musical activities offer regular practice and pleasurable repetition of the skills needed for phonological awareness to develop. Musical activities support children to become skilled at detecting variations in sound.

Musical activities such as those that involve matching corresponding musical sounds can be used as a prerequisite for matching letters with their shapes; whilst musical activities that encourage cross‐lateral movements will support children’s ability to scan from one side of the page to the other when learning to read.

Nursery rhymes are often some children’s first introduction to story. When singing nursery rhymes, babies and young children are aware that songs have a beginning, middle and end. This brings an early awareness to story structure.

Dance and music­‐based physical movement can also help children become aware of rhythm and pulse. There is some evidence that suggests that being able to find and keep a beat may be good for developing good reading skills.

Writing development

The physical skills that are essential for writing can be easily often overlooked and underestimated by parents. Gross motor skills dictate the rate at which fine motor skills are acquired. Nursery rhymes can inspire a great deal of physical movement which can support both fine and gross motor development.

Musical activities that encourage children to make large gross motor movements from the shoulder can help children to develop the control and stamina needed in the upper arm to write. To be able to write across a page children need to be able to cross their mid‐point, which can be developed through physical games and musical activities using alternate hands.

Encouraging children to play untuned percussion instruments can also encourage children’s hand-­eye coordination which is needed to help keep writing within set lines.

Through music and song, children can explore how their bodies move and express how they are feeling even before they might have the vocabulary to do so. Physical activity is not just what a child wants to do, it is what they need to do in order to gain control over their bodies. A strong movement vocabulary enables children to acquire the control over their body needed to sit at a desk, hold a pencil, and write.

Parents as partners

Children need to hear and enjoy music and nursery rhymes if they are to be encouraged join in. Recent years have seen a reduction in the amount of traditional nursery rhymes heard at home. Some parents are now spending more time engaging with technology than their children. This shift in social culture means that many children are not surrounded with the language that their parents were when they were young. This could be one reason that Research from the Oxford University Press (OUP) in April, 2018 found that half of five-­year‐olds in some schools were behind in their language skills. This statistic is a reminder of just how important it is to promote the importance of quality home interactions, including the benefits of singing and nursery rhyme play, to parents.

Sing into Literacy bags

www.littlereadersbookclub.co.uk

My own approach to this has been to develop Sing into Literacy bags which aim to give parents the confidence that they need to help their children progress at home. The bags focus on making learning fun by providing a range of activities that can support children at varying stages of literacy development. According to a study carried out by the Fatherhood Institute, some 70% of fathers who live with their children want to be more involved with their children’s education. The Sing into Literacy bags can help to engage dads through movement games and activities that help to give them, as well as other family members, the confidence they need to help their children grow into confident learners.

“These activities are a fun way of learning! We both had fun doing them, and as a parent I think they are a great idea…”

Through the early encouragement of parents to support their children’s learning at home, it is hoped that they will be more likely to continue supporting their child throughout their education.

@PrimaryMusicMag