Why we love songs or rhymes
Nursery rhymes aren’t just a bit of fun, a way to interact with your children and a quick and easy way to distract them. Nursery rhymes have both long and short-term benefits for your child and provide positive influence during pre-school development.
Speech development
By listening to the song, your child learns to recognise words and music. They imitate repetitive words they hear from the song. The more they listen to it, the more opportunities they have to practice articulating new words.
Cognitive development
Repetition in nursery rhymes is useful in developing a child’s brain by improving their memory skills and comprehension through exposing them to new words. It also develops their thinking skills.
Language development
Nursery rhymes expose your child to new vocabulary. They learn to understand the meaning of words and interpret words based on the context of the story. It gives opportunity to have conversations about what new words mean.
Nursery rhymes are also a great strategy for developing early language skills in children, or the skills they develop before they start to talk. These are skills like responding to people initiating interactions, joint attention and imitation.
Physical development
Some nursery rhymes have actions and dance steps that children can follow. This makes them move their little bodies, which helps to improve their overall coordination and enhances their gross and fine motor skills.
Reading comprehension
Nursery rhymes can help children improve their reading comprehension because a nursery rhyme is like a short story. This is where children first understand the sequencing of simple stories, and learn concepts like beginning, a middle and end.
Creativity
Nursery rhymes encourage acting out via dramatic play, so your child is further developing their creativity. This also can develop their sense of self and confidence as they express themselves without pressure. Many nursery rhymes are relatable to young children, but they can also sing about things beyond their own experiences. This will help them explore the world around them and in turn help them become more imaginative.
So now you know the many benefits of nursery rhymes, you might wonder which ones are appropriate for certain age groups. Here are some of our favourite nursery rhymes:
- For babies:
- Hush, Little Baby
- Rock-A-Bye-Baby
- Round and Round the Garden
- This little piggy
- If You’re Happy And You Know It
- Row row row your boat
- For pre-schoolers:
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- The Wheels on the Bus
- Five Little Ducks
- Five Little Monkey’s Jumping on the Bed
- Miss Polly Had a Dolly
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Itsy Bitsy Spider
- Heads, shoulders, knees and toes
- I’m a Little Teapot
Here are some tips for getting the most out of nursery rhymes with your child:
- Act out the nursery rhymes with props or explore nursery rhyme related items
- Utilise finger puppets while you sing the nursery rhymes
- Change up the words and see if they notice (or encourage them to have fun changing the words up themselves)
- Play fun videos from YouTube or Netflix
Learn more about speech pathology or speech therapy for kids today!