Language development – HDFS 331 – Blog Posts for Families

Creating an Engaged Environment with Children Through Song

Written by: Bella Seymour (Spring 2020)

In this range of activities, your child will be able to experience music through their body, as well as through cognition, and emotional regulation. They will also learn independence as they make their very own instruments!

What will children learn? Children will practice fine and gross motor skills, pattern building, and emotional awareness and regulation.

Preparation

— Instruments

Drums: can include Tupperware, pots/pans, metal containers, cans, and boxes (*These can be muffled with a towel for any child who is hearing sensitive*)
Drumsticks: wooden or plastic spoons
Shaker: dried foods (i.e., beans, popcorn) or pebbles in a container with a press-on lid OR a bottle with a twist-off cap (*Twisting a bottle can be a beneficial fine motor skill for a child to develop, with scaffolding*)

— A Speaker/ Phone to play songs

Dancing + Movement

Compile lists of songs you know that are “sad” and “happy” sounding. These factors usually have to do with whether the song is in a major or minor key. Major key is happy sounding, cheerful, and peppy. Minor is gloomy, sad, and sorrowful. It is innate to hear emotions in a song.

Some recommendations:

Ode to Joy by Beethoven
Prelude in C Major by Bach

Minor song examples:

Summer by Antonio Vivaldi
Fur Elise by Beethoven

During these songs, I would take time to have the children physically express how the song makes them feel. Leading by example might be helpful; dance to whatever your heart’s content. Leading this with moving words, such as “gallop, smooth, fast, slow, small, and big” will aid in expanding their musical vocabulary.

Making Music

I find that using rhyming words is a smooth introduction for children to create music. For example, a phrase to begin questions like “biggity biggity biggity bance, how do you like to dance?” and then repeating it a few times. The easy thing about this phrasing is that you can change the end word for it to rhyme. Like replacing it with ‘bing and sing!’

Making music will become even more thrilling for the child with the instruments you have already created. It can involve:

Singing, with the child playing an instrument to your voice
Child leads by playing a beat on their instrument, and singing could be added onto that

The syllables in words can really be focused on here during song-making. Tapping, playing, or clapping to the syllables of a string of words can stimulate the child’s further awareness of syllables later on in their development.

Play Back to Me

In order to introduce these new and unheard vocabulary words that come from music, a good way to have the child feel autonomous and learn new words would be a playback sort of activity.

Have the child, using their instrument of choice, play a rhythm.
Say, “I am going to play the rhythm you just made!” and replicate it with your hands, or your instrument.
Go back and forth, with the child giving you rhythms and you playing them. Maybe switch off and ask them to play a rhythm you create!

How are these activities going to benefit my child?

For parents at home wondering what dancing and banging drums has to do with their child’s overall development, here are a few helpful tips!

Firstly, a helpful guide for you to know the overall goals of your child and their peers in their development is a guideline called the Creative Curriculum. This was developed by a company called Teaching Strategies and is an over-arching list of some of the achievements you should strive for your child. Many schools will be using this in their classroom to meet the needs of their students. There is a list of goals for every grade, however, the one I use is the preschool Creative Curriculum. They are numbered and are clumped together by development types. Social, physical, cognitive, and language development are covered by this curriculum.

Here, I have listed some of the verbatim goals from the Creative Curriculum, so parents and family members can see the ease of using this to format activities at home!

For their cognitive development: they are recognizing patterns, as well as repeating them. They explore cause and effect with instruments. They also are, through music, taking on pretend roles and situations.

For the child’s physical development: they are demonstrating basic locomotor skills through dance. They also show hand-eye coordination when using instruments. They will also show balance while moving.

For the child’s language and social development: the child shows they can listen to and follow oral directions. The child also demonstrates care for materials.

Rhyming is a pivotal point in a child’s early literacy growth. A study done by Laurie Harper from the University of Rhode Island (2011) suggests that children who have been amply exposed to rhymes (specifically nursery rhymes) show higher phonological awareness and a sensitivity to individual phonemes (which are distinct sounds in words).

References

Dodge, D. T., Colker, L. J., & Heroman, C. (2008). The creative curriculum for preschool: College edition. Washington, D.C.: Teaching Strategies

Harper, L. J. (2011). Nursery rhyme knowledge and phonological awareness in preschool children. The Journal of Language and Literacy Education [Online], 7(1), 65-78.

Exploring the World: Design & Diary your own Path

Create a Map with Me

Exploring Development

This activity allows children to foster literacy, mathematics, and cognitive skills while creating a map. Through this activity, children will learn the importance of written language, the purpose of print, several components of mathematics, what maps are, what a map is used for, and how to use a map.

Introducing Geography

Help children create a map. Use blocks, recyclable parts or a paper and pencil. Create a route from a neighbor’s home to your own. Explain that symbols represent real objects (Montessori Mapping Activities, 2012). To better explain a symbol, create a map key (Fig. A).

Figure A

Notice that a compass rose may be found on a map, labeling North, East, South, and West. To remember North, East, South, and West remember the phrase, Never-Eat-Sour-Worms.

Words to incorporate:

Map Equator

Globe Ocean

Compass Rose Country

Latitude Nation

Longitude Hemisphere

Nourish a child’s interest by watching the short film below.

How Does their Mind Work?

Cognitive development allows children to make sense of the world around them (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2008). Through an exploration of mapping, children will:

Learn and problem solve
Think logically
Represent and think symbolically

Have you heard a child repeatedly ask, What will happen if? Why? Why? Why? That is because children are fascinated by cause and effect; they want to know why things happen (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2008).

Learning and Problem solving

Creating a map will require children to draw on everyday experiences and apply their knowledge to similar situations (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2008). Ask child, how would you get from our house to ___’s house? Allow them to demonstrate.

Logical Thinking

Creating a map is a great opportunity to encourage children to show awareness of position in space. Use phrases like, put this next to, place this blow this, write this above this…

Use numbers and counting. In my map there are five cars and four houses (Fig. B). Encourage children to use one number for each object. Practice counting five objects on your map, then ten objects. This will help children to understand numbers, practice one-to-one correspondence, and to classify objects (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2008).

Figure B

Representation and Symbolic Thinking

Through this process, children are learning to make and interpret representations. They practice:

Drawing or constructing and then naming what it is
Drawing or building a construction that represents something specific
Planning, then creating increasingly elaborate representations

Are they Listening?

Help children to understand and follow oral directions. Integrate one-step directions and two-step directions. Ask child simple questions. What color is that polka-dot? (Fig C)

Figure C

Encourage children to add their own writing to the map. Adults can assist language development by writing letters and words on a separate page for children to copy. If there is something a child has to say but is not able to communicate that through written language have them tell you what they would like you to write. This creates an opportunity to follow the text from left to right with your finger when reiterating what you’ve written to help your child gain knowledge of print (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2008).

Comprehension can be fostered by asking open-ended questions and encouraging children to retell stories. Encourage child to retell a story about a time they used a map.

Tip: Pausing at the end of a sentence to let children join in, asking open-ended questions, and helping children make connections to prior experiences are all effective teaching strategies for developing comprehension skills (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2008).

Children may demonstrate comprehension by:

Asking questions or making comments
Explaining, “We use a map when we go on a road trip,” after doing Explore the World: Design and Diary your own Path activity

This is Enjoyable

Maps can be used to discover new things! Maps provide direction. They have even helped miners find gold. Who uses maps?Everyone. Maps are a universal tool used by people across the world despite their language or culture.

Audience: Families, Teachers, Center Directors, College faculty, Students, Policymakers, Researchers

Age: Preschool

Topics: Cognitive Development, Language Development, Art, Mathematics By Kaylei Lewis, B.S. Human Development

By Kaylei Lewis, B.S. Human Development and Family Science: Child Development Anticipated graduation: June 2021

Once, I use used a map to plan a camping trip that led me down the Eastern Coast of Australia. I traveled 1,109 miles using my map every step of the way. I found it rewarding to do away with technology, using a printed map to the best of my abilities.

While navigating the waters steering a commercial fishing vessel in Southeast Alaska, I used a map to plot my way.

References

Cunningham, S. (n.d.). Taking Time to Grow Series: Writing Letters to Loved Ones. Retrieved May 8, 2020, from http://pinenutsmusings.com/taking-time-to-grow-series-writing-letters-to-loved-ones/

Dodge, D. T., Colker, L. J., & Heroman, C. (2008). The creative curriculum for preschool (College ed.). Teaching Strategies.

Montessori mapping activities Intro to geography for kids. (2012, September 23). Retrieved May 8, 2020, from https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/montessori-mapping-activities-intro-to-geography-for-kids/

The Geography Song Globe vs Map Song. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pOKoIAnybg