Today’s world presents our children with a different growing environment. The availability of devices and the internet is not what we grew up around. Yet, it is a present reality in our current generation. However, this doesn’t mean that our children can not grow up with the many joys that we did. One of those joys were learning and singing nursery rhymes. Admittedly, they were a defining part of life when it comes to language development. Kids songs made learning easier and were a fun way of passing time.
Nursery rhymes have been in existence since time immemorial. Moreover, it goes without saying, that these poems and songs are here to stay. They offer value and are a critical part of our culture and society. Below, we take a look at a few reasons why nursery rhymes are beneficial to babies. Let us take a look.
Speech Development
A lot of nursery rhymes are repetitive and short in structure. Their repetitive nature helps children to learn individual words. Moreover, it allows them to notice the units of sound. A child’s ability to discern individual sounds is referred to as phonemic awareness. Also, these songs and poems expose your children to the rhythmic pattern of words. Hence, they are able to associate words with sounds easily. This, in turn, increases the child’s ability to categorize words into syllables. Their ability to do this will, therefore, helps promote language development at an early age.
Brain and Memory Development
Developing a child’s cognitive ability is important at an early age. Nursery rhymes offer a fun and easy way to do this. Their repetitive nature tends to help the child learn the child learn the song faster. The way the words rhyme as well makes it easy for them to remember the song. Children will then associate repetition with learning and memorization. In turn, your child’s cognitive and memorization abilities will increase and improve over time. Moreover, studies reveal that nursery rhymes lead to the development of inferencing skills. According to TeacherVision.com, inference skills basically allow one to read between the lines. It is the ability to figure out what is being indirectly communicated by the author or reader. Inferencing skills are important as they improve a child’s critical thinking and judgement. Hence, improving cognitive development as well.
Develop A Love of Reading
Reading is something everybody should engage in, regardless of age. Reading helps us to constantly learn new vocabulary, phrases, and in turn, our language. Starting children off early on nursery rhymes will help cement their love for books.
Baby Rhymes aren’t just poems andkids songs. They tell a story, and more often than not, a story your child can relate to. This will help love the art of storytelling and develop a love for books and literature. Granted, nursery rhymes often present short stories. However, as they get older, progress to much longer books.
Development of Listening Skills
Listening skills are important in the maintenance of a relationship. However, it can dictate a person’s success in their academic performance, as well as their professional life. Hence, this skill is very important and should be cultivated during the early years of a child. Nursery rhymes help babies and children alike develop listening skills. The child often has to sit down, and listen to the teacher or parent read to them. Of course, the nature of nursery rhymes helps to draw and capture the child’s attention effectively. The more they listen, the more they learn, grow and develop language wise as well. It will help them learn about proper pronunciation and intonation of words. This also helps complement their speech and language development.
Development of Social Skills
This is especially true if your baby/ child is learning rhymes together with other children. Nursery rhymes are a great way of getting a large group of kids together. Have them sing the songs as a group to make the activity even more fun and engaging. By doing this, you will help improve their social skills. They will feel like they are a part of a community and learn how to interact with others. Moreover, this will help them improve and develop their emotional humour and capability. You can also have them sing or read the kids songs in turn. The other kids will learn how to listen to others and wait for their turn. This is a very important social skill. Turn-taking and having them learn rhymes together will help develop their conversational skills. In conclusion, nursery rhymes are often poems and songs that children can relate too. They depict the everyday life and struggle of a child. Moreover, they implement the use of repetition and sound.
