Nursery World - Music corner (5)

Songs and rhymes and learning to communicate Babies and very young children learn about music and language by taking part in playful song and rhyme activities with adults. Songs and rhymes help them:

Songs and rhymes help them:

* To get to know and bond with other people in their lives

* To hear the sounds and rhythms of language

* To explore the meaning of words

* To play with sounds expressively

* To learn about time and phases in time, such as the way events follow each other

* To experience different emotions and to either 'wind up' or 'wind down'.

Learning to communicate is about learning to share meanings with others, to recognise the intentions of others. Songs and rhymes are valuable because they have a fixed structure with which babies can become familiar. Then they begin to recognise and anticipate what comes next - in other words, to sense what the adult 'has in mind' and is communicating to them. This is a very important step. This is why the simplest children's rhymes, such as 'round and round the garden, like a teddy bear', are often the best.

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