Participating in nursery rhymes with your children can support listening and language development! As children listen to nursery rhymes, they soon begin to imitate with vocalizations and/or gestures, repeat and then sing with independence. This is a great way to develop memory skills through listening and an opportunity to connect with your children (e.g., bedtime, in the car, at the dinner table, etc.).
Who can do it?
Children who are new to hearing aids or cochlear implants, early listeners, preschool/school age children and family members.
Why do it?
Children often like listening to music and participating in actions; they learn about rhythm, new vocabulary and language structure. Nursery Rhymes also support the following skills development:
- Auditory Memory
- Rhyme awareness (through repetition and filling in the rhyming word)
- Loud vs quiet voice
- Low vs high pitch
- Listening carefully
- Turn taking
What else can we do?
- Listen to one of our APSEA Itinerant teachers and her daughter doing nursery rhymes together.
- Check out the website Planes and Balloons for a list of nursery rhymes and other activities.