It is widely accepted in the scientific community that music enhances the brain’s neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to learn and adapt). Singing nursery rhymes and chants that incorporate meaningful movements in time to the rhythm of the rhyming words boosts the benefits for your child.
So much learning takes place during our nursery rhymes and chants because rhyming alerts the brain and rhythm is very organizing! As we return to a consistent set of rhymes week after week, the familiarity is exciting and beneficial for your little one. The movements that accompany the rhymes bring meaning to the sounds through motor patterning with contextual cues and multiple sensory pathways aid memory and comprehension. As your little one becomes familiar with the words and movements of their favorite rhymes, you might notice them anticipate the movements (motor patterns). They will also begin to shape individual keywords with their mouths long before being able to say them in rhythm. These are such exciting accomplishments for your little one and for you - their first and favorite teacher!
Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.
~ Reading Magic, Mem Fox (2001)
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