Music and movement activities for infants and toddlers provide the crucial and beneficial exposure to skills, such as speech development, that young children need to grow. Many parents may question the true benefits of integrating infant music activities into their home environments, often finding themselves asking just how music can help develop their child’s speech.
Music and movement activities for infants and toddlers provide the crucial and beneficial exposure to skills, such as speech development, that young children need to grow. Many parents may question the true benefits of integrating infant music activities into their home environments, often finding themselves asking just how music can help develop their child’s speech.
Music activities for infants and toddlers have been proven to contribute to the all-important brain stimulation children receive from their environments. Babies and children who enjoy an engaging and stimulating home environment learn better and more quickly than those that don’t. Music and movement activities truly help children learn through their sense of curiosity, as playful activities stretch their imaginations and let them develop new skills in a way best fit for them.
Shake, Rattle and Roll, by Abigail Flesch Connors, is a wonderful resource for parents looking to see the full benefits of music and movement activities in their young children. The book contains a wide range of activities to do with your child, all with numerous benefits. In particular, rhyming games that incorporate movement help children with their level of phonemic awareness, helping them to build their language skills.
Here are a few music and movement activities that will let your little one have fun while improving their speech development.
Quiet as a Mouse
Learning Benefits:
- Cognitive development (soft and loud)
- Curiosity
- Improvisation and creative thinking
- Phonemic awareness (rhyme)
- Rhythmic awareness
- Science (using light force to make quiet sounds)
- Social skills
1. While tapping the sticks together, chant or sing very softly to the tune of “Hot Cross Buns”:
Quiet as a mouse,
Quiet as a mouse,
In his little mouse house. (tap the stick together very softly)
2. Repeat the chant while quietly scraping the sticks, hammering, drumming on the floor, and any other movements the children come up with.
My Friend Shaky
Learning Benefits
- Curiosity
- Fine-motor skills
- Improvisation and creative thinking
- Kinesthetic awareness
- Movement vocabulary
- Phonemic awareness (adding -y ending to make silly names out of movements)
- Social skills
1. Shake your shaker to the beat, and sing to the tune of “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah”:
My friend Shaky likes to shake, shake, shake
My friend Shaky likes to shake, shake, shake
My friend Shaky likes to shake, shake, shake
That’s why I call him Shaky!
2. Additional verses:
My friend Roly… (roll the shaker on the floor like a rolling pin)
My friend Jumpy… (hold the shaker by the stem on the floor and make it “jump”)
My friend Stirry… (hold the shaker like a spoon and pretend to stir)
My friend Rubby… (rub the shaker along your arm)
My friend Tappy… (gently tap the shaker on your shoe or knee)
3.Ask the children for more silly friends. You may want to try Spinny, Swimmy, Hoppy, Walky, Kicky, Circly, and Dancy!
Bendio
Learning Benefits
- Curiosity
- Gross-motor skills
- Improvisation and creative thinking
- Phonemic awareness (making nonsense words by adding io to each movement word)
- Social skills
1. The children should be standing in a circle. Put your hands on your waist, and bend your knees to the beat while you sing to the tune of “The Acorn Song”:
Bendy, bendy, bendio
Bendy, bendy, bendio
Bendy, bendy, bendio
Bendy, bendy, bendio!
2. Then make swimming motions with your arms and sing:
Swimmy, swimmy, swimmio
Swimmy, swimmy, swimmio
Swimmy, swimmy, swimmio
Swimmy, swimmy, swimmio!
3. Additional verses:
Shruggy, shruggy, shruggio… (shrug shoulders to the beat)
4. Let the children think up their own movements that can be made into silly words to the pattern of the song.
