Why rhymes and songs?

The value of rhymes and songs in a child's development

The clips of Madi below delightfully illustrate the benefits of using songs and rhymes with your baby or toddler every day.

Following the diagnosis of a permanent hearing loss and the fitting of hearing aids, Madi and her parents enrolled in an early intervention program that offers Parent-Child Mother Goose as an integral part of its services. Madi’s mother soon began adding rhymes and songs to her everyday routines, using them for nappy change, getting Madi ready for bed, travelling in the car, soothing her when upset, and generally for the simple pleasure of having fun together.

The clips immediately below were all taken before Madi turned two. Even before she was able to form her own sentences, Madi was increasingly able to approximate or repeat whole rhymes, which in turn supported her listening, language and speech development.

Rhymes are a powerful way to support the development of early literacy skills. They help to foster children’s love of rhythm and patterns of language in the use of rhyme and repetition. They’re fun, so children want them again and again, and will hear the same vocabulary and expressions on many occasions. Some rhymes tell a little story with a beginning, middle and end (e.g. Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick) and thus prepare children for following a story.

Some rhymes might make no sense at all, or have an unexpected ending. That just adds to the fun and increases your child’s delight in listening to and using language.

In Twinkle twinkle little star, listen how Madi is learning about the concept of rhyme, and think about how the rhyming (star/are, high/sky) helps her to remember the lyrics.

When heard often, rhymes become easy to repeat, and become some of a child’s first multi-word sentences.

Twinkle, twinkle little star is a lovely rhyme which expands Madi’s imagination as well as her vocabulary. She is learning to hear and use words that she wouldn’t come across in everyday language. She uses the phrase ‘how I wonder’, and makes the comparison of a star being ‘like a diamond in the sky.’

When slowed down, Twinkle, twinkle little star is also a very effective lullaby to soothe a crying baby or help her to fall asleep.

Here Madi is singing The Alphabet song.

Ok, she’s far from being correct yet, but listen to how much of the alphabet sequence she already knows.

Think also how this rhyme provides a great way of Madi learning to hear, identify and manipulate letter names quickly and automatically.

Here Madi sings Open, Shut them.

Notice how the use of actions supports her singing.

Notice also how her parent helps her remember a line, by joining in with her, but leaving a ‘blank’ for the rhyming word at the end of the line. Madi is enabled to remember the line and also to fill in the missing word.

How to introduce songs and rhymes to your child

Start with short rhymes, like these above.

Use actions, facial expressions and vary your voice to capture your child’s interest.

Change words to include your own child’s name, or your own name, or other family members’ names. Use them throughout the day to support your child’s understanding of common routines.

For more tips like this, and for some suggested rhymes to use with babies and toddlers, see our Rhymes page.

Postscript: Madi in her first year of school

Here is Madi preparing to recount the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to her prep class.

It seems all that time Madi was engaged in listening to, and responding to, rhymes, songs and stories earlier in her life may have really paid off!