Some of our earliest and fondest memories from childhood come from being read to and singing along to nursery rhymes. There’s a reason that “Wheels on The Bus” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” come so natural to us. The repetitive nature of these sing-a-long rhymes makes them easy to memorize. Above all, Nursery rhymes pave the way to many different developmental milestones of children starting as early as infancy.
What some don’t realize is that nursery rhymes are providing a lot more for their children than just a simple past time sing along. Here are some of the many benefits of nursery rhymes that relate specifically to language development:
- Memory and recall: The repetitive nature of the rhymes provides anticipation for children and allows them to figure out the patterns of what word comes next.
- Early Literacy skills: The patterns and structure of nursery rhymes provide integral parts of phonological awareness (early reading skills).
- Exposure to new vocabulary: Some nursery rhymes have less familiar language in them that they might not be exposed to as often (i.e. “fetch a pail”, etc.)
- Increasing speech production: Some nursery rhymes even provide segmenting and blending of words and sounds (piecing together and taking apart each individual sound) so that children can isolate each word in order to articulate it more clearly.
- Increasing sentence length: We all know that people can sing longer sentences than speak them due to the melody and intonation of songs. Nursery rhymes allow the learner to speak or sing in longer sentences.
List of some of the Most Common Nursery Rhymes
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Old McDonald
- I’m a Little Tea Pot
- Ants Go Marching
- Rain Rain Go Away
- Baa Baa Black Sheep
- Row Your Boat
- Jack and Jill
- Alphabet Song
- Humpty Dumpty
- Happy Birthday Song
- Itsy Bitsy Spider
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Wheels On the Bus
- Hot Cross Buns
Link to More: https://allnurseryrhymes.com/
If you feel you haven’t been singing or reciting nursery rhymes to your child enough, it might be the time to refine your old school nursery rhyme skills! These catchy tunes continue to impact a child’s development in multiple ways, especially as it relates to their overall language development.
If you have further questions or concerns regarding your child’s language development, reach out to our highly trained speech pathologists at Chicago Pediatric Therapy & Wellness Center at 773-687-9241 for more information!
