Auditory-Verbal Strategy
January
Sing with Your Child
I’m really excited to share this strategy. I include songs in all my lesson plans and encourage my parents to sing a lot! When they report back to me, I often feel that the strategy is being under used. I’m thinking I should provide more specifics about all that singing can help us accomplish. Here are the top eight on my list arranged to fit the word “practice.” Practice singing throughout your day!
- P Prosody is the melody of language: pitch, rhythm and duration. How do we work on this? By singing!
- R Rhyming is an important pre-literacy skill. How can we work with our babies and young preschoolers on this skill in a way that is natural and age-appropriate? By singing!
- A Auditory memory for longer and longer utterances is important for developing more complex language, following directions and filling in gaps when information is missed. How can we help our young listeners to build auditory memory? By singing!
- C Combining words into increasingly complex structures is our long-term goal. We want to create a language-rich environment. We also want to use repetition and provide opportunities for auditory closure. How do we work on this? By singing!
- T Take your time. Make sure you are using a slow enough pace to fit your child’s listening level. You can provide more opportunities for them to listen and learn, by singing!
- I Increasing vocabulary is also important to prepare your child for enjoying and learning from literature. Children need to hear words over and over before they can understand their meaning and use them in their own speech. How can we provide multiple opportunities to learn theme-based vocabulary? By singing!
- C Create opportunities to sing the same song over and over. This provides your child the opportunity to learn and participate. Repetition and redundancy are accomplished naturally, by singing.
- E Engage more senses by using fingerplay gestures or props. Your child will be even more interested in the activity which increases the impact of your song.
Singing is fun. PRACTICE. If you want to know more, contact crobinson@wehearhere.org to find out how you can participate in learning opportunities.