The Government guidance on the teaching of phonics, Letters and Sounds, features music extensively in its early sections.
There are many good activity ideas in the document and I particularly like the part about listening to children. It does, though, focus on more formal activities. Amidst all the debate about the appropriateness of formal and informal activities for young children, I think it's important that we continue to trust our instinct when developing children's language skills and look to nature's ways of facilitating language acquisition.
One example is the way babies and small children gurgle, babble and experiment with vocal sounds as they learn to take control of their voices. Older children love made-up words - as do adults - and we have a rich tradition of 'nonsense' poetry. Simply being aware of the pleasure children derive from experimenting with their voices can help us enhance the playful way in which we use songs and rhymes.
Another important aspect of language to consider when approaching music with young children is 'motherese' (or Infant Directed Speech) - used intuitively by all adults the world over when speaking to children. It is language with the musical elements (rising and falling pitch, rhythm, sound quality or 'timbre') exaggerated.
Research (see References) has shown that children prefer listening to motherese over normal speech and, interestingly, motherese changes as children grow older to meet their developing needs.
In the early stages it is aimed simply at attracting the baby's attention, and for soothing and comforting. Later, it is used to communicate the adult's emotions and intentions. A baby will grasp the meaning before it is able to understand the words. In the final stage, motherese involves separating words more than we do in the continuous stream of normal speech, which helps infants hear different words more easily.
It's easy to see that we can use these techniques to improve the way we share music and stories with children. We can:
- make the most of opportunities to really relish the sound of words and other vocal sounds
- dramatise the voices and sounds in stories we tell and read
- make up words that sound right for a song or story character
- play with rhymes - using names is one starting point, for example, Amy, Bamy, Camy, Damy (of course, this helps focus on initial sounds too)
- exaggerate the sounds of words and have the children copy our mouth shapes as we sing them
- make a deliberate mistake. I enjoy putting a silly word into a familiar song, such as 'Thank you, said the banana' (instead of master) in 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', as this can lead to a whole discussion about the words and a burst of linguistic invention from the children
- hum, lah-lah, gurgle, burble, growl and purr through familiar songs.
Musician Steve Grocott works as a trainer and artist-in-residence in early years settings. Visit Steve Grocott's Pages at www.dronesmusic.net. Steve is currently running courses in some London boroughs on using music to implement the early stages of Letters and Sounds. For more information, contact steve.grocott@btinternet.com
References and more information:
- Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics - Notes of Guidance for Practitioners and Teachers can be viewed at: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/local/clld/resources/letters_and_sounds/00282_ 2007BKT_EN.pdf
- Anne Fernauld's research, quoted in: Mithen S (2005) The Singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language,mind and body. Weidenfield and Nicholson, London.
