How to Easily Improve Your Child's Language Using Songs and Music
Today let’s talk about why music is a powerful tool in early intervention and how to use songs in speech therapy (and at home!) to improve your child's language.
As a speech therapist in early intervention, my favorite therapy activities are the ones that don’t feel like therapy to your little one. These activities are fun, low-pressure, and child-directed, and they also improve your child’s language.
The kids participate more. I spend less time trying to maintain their attention. Everyone is happy.
Topping the list of fun and sneaky therapy activities?
Songs!
The advantages of music on learning and development are well documented. Songs are stimulating to the brain, and they can teach countless new skills to improve your child’s language (and other areas of development).
And songs don’t have to stop when the speech therapy sessions ends! They are ideal for almost every scenario. Even the hard moments.
Think:
You’re at the pediatrician’s office, and you’re waiting for the doctor. Your child is squirming in your lap. He was ready to leave ten minutes ago.
Bust out the silly songs and visuals.
You’re sitting in the bathroom, waiting for your child to pee on the potty. He’s bored, but you’re committed to potty training.
Break out those lyrics and hand motions.
You’re driving to see the grandparents, and the little one in the back of the van has nearly reached his car seat limit.
Belt out a jingle and crank up the music
Let’s dive into the benefits of songs for early intervention.
All the Benefits of Songs for Development
Just as kids are unaware of the therapeutic “work” they’re doing when singing, you might be unaware of the many benefits of using music for child development. But the numbers are in! Research says that music is an important, valuable tool for early intervention. Here’s why.
Music Captivates Children
If you recall, we chatted previously about the importance of communication fundamentals to improve your child’s language. One of those fundamentals is attention. And it can feel hard to grab and maintain a young child’s attention.
But research says that music helps. In fact, children tune into their mothers’ singing voices more readily than their speaking voices. (1) Infants like the musical intonation of “baby talk” more than adult speech. (2) Even before they’re born, babies react to songs! (3)
In short, music is pleasing to kids’ brains and gets them ready to learn.
Music Targets Various Areas of Development
Studies have found that music doesn’t just grab children’s attention and benefit their musical skills. It can support the development of all kinds of skills, and not just in the area of communication!
Here are the highlights:
Children exposed to music have better verbal memory than those who don’t. (4)
They show improved early listening skills. (5)
Brain activity in areas related to motivation and enjoyment increases with music input. (6)
Young children who are taught music show improved motor skills and sensory functioning. (7)
Music is thought to create a social experience for kids. (3)
That’s the why. Next, let’s chat about how you can implement songs with your little ones to maximize progress in communication.
How to Use Songs in Speech Therapy and at Home
Songs are a go-to for early intervention speech therapists because they are versatile and accessible. No fancy tech needed! You need yourself and your voice, and ideally some visuals.
(P.S. It doesn’t even matter if your singing voice makes you cringe!)
Teach Requests With Favorite Songs
Requesting is an important reason for which we communicate. In the speech therapy world, we consider requesting one of the main “communicative functions.”
Music provides the perfect opportunity to practice requesting! A request will look different depending on your child’s abilities. If they’re using speech, they might make a verbal request (a word or a sentence). If not, don’t worry! You can work up to verbal requests, starting first with making choices.
Check out Speech and Language at Home’s free Early Song Picture Cards which help a child choose a song by selecting a picture (preferably laminated). They might point to it, gaze at it, or give it to you to request. Be sure to reward all attempts at requesting, even if you don’t hear any sounds! Sing the song your child asks for right away. Pay attention to whether your child appears to intentionally select certain songs (as opposed to randomly).
Teach Gestures Through Song Movements
We know that gestures are important for early communication. Gestures help kids understand that actions, words, and other symbols have meaning.
Songs are a prime way to teach gestures! Our Early Song Visuals and Rubrics package comes with descriptions of hand movements for favorites such as The Wheels on the Bus. And some songs are fool-proof, telling you exactly what to do in the lyrics (e.g., “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands…”).
When teaching gestures through songs, always model the gesture yourself. See if your child imitates you or, eventually, gestures spontaneously! If your child seems interested but does not yet make any movements, he might need a little gentle support. Try prompting him physically by taking his hands in yours and gesturing with him.
Improve Your Child’s Language and Speech With “Fill in the Blank”
Because children’s songs are so predictable, they make excellent tools for teaching new speech sounds, words, and phrases. If I sing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” you’ll get an impulse to blurt out “E-I-E-I-O.” If I say, “Twinkle, twinkle little…” and pause, you’ll want to say “star.”
With enough practice, your child will want to participate in this way, too.
This strategy is called “cloze phrase procedure,” which is a fancy phrase speech therapists use to say “fill in the blank.” The strategy is a great one for getting kids to begin vocalizing and verbalizing.
You can try it at home! Practice singing a song lots of times, with or without musical accompaniment. Don’t worry if you’re the solo singer and your child simply wants to listen, dance, bob, or hum along. Once you think he’s familiar enough, try singing just part of a line and letting him “fill in” the next sound, word, or phrase. Celebrate any attempts!
Use Songs as Opportunities for Language Modeling
It’s important to model language for little ones, and the best way to do this is to combine verbals with visuals!
With our Early Song Visuals and Rubrics, you’ll get visual pages to go along with each song. These colorful full-page graphics help children visualize aspects of the songs. And they help you give lots of good language modeling!
Let’s take The Itsy Bitsy Spider for an example. Begin singing the song and point to elements on the page (e.g., “spider,” “water spout,” “rain,” “sun,” etc.) as you say them. Pairing each word with its visual helps build brain connections and improve your child’s language.
Play Around With Music
Sometimes I sing through all the favorite songs so many times in one day that I lose count. I even catch myself singing them in the absence of kids on occasion. Are you getting sick of them? That’s okay, but don’t stop singing! Just play around.
When you think you can’t bear to hear them any longer, take the songs and change them up. Sing about your afternoon to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb or Baby Shark. The novelty will keep your child (and you) entertained.
Whatever you do, keep making your home a musical. Your child will love it.
