Using Music and Movement to
Help Little Ones Develop Language
Joyce Bibzak, M.Ed., M.S.
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Introduction
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My background:
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School Counselor
Graduate Degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Elmhurst College
Currently a Developmental Therapist Working with Toddlers and Their Families
Last But Not Least, a Mom and a Grandmother
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Our topics will include:
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Part I: Effective (And Fun) Language Teaching = Singing and Moving. But
Why?
Part II: The Ear/Brain/Body Connection that Makes It Work; and What
Happens If It Doesn’t
Part III: How It All Comes Together for Young Children
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We know that movement and music seem to help children
learn---especially language. WHY?
What is it about this particular combination of activities
that fosters the development of language in young children?
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Finger Plays!
YOUR Favorites???
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What Do ALL Finger Plays
Have In Common?
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•Common Elements of Finger Plays Using
Music and Movement:
•Rhythm
•Rhyme
•Often Melodic
•Movement of Body
•Usually Memorized
•Often Passed on Orally
So, how do all these elements come together to teach language?
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Listening to (and processing) music
involves
discriminating timbre and pitch and
recognizing familiar melodies.
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Timbre: How we hear the differences between the
sounds of different instruments or voices
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Pitch: How we hear the tones
move up or down as we
listen
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How we remember familiar songs and
melodies
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Right Frontal Lobe = Timbre
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Brain Posterior=Pitch Perception
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Left Frontal Lobe=Recognition of Familiar Song or
Melody
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When there are auditory/language processing
problems they may present as:
•Child having difficulty following directions
•Difficulty rhyming words at an early age
•Comparatively underdeveloped vocabulary, grammar,
syntax and sentence structure
•Difficulty separating meaningful sounds (i.e. language)
from background noise
•Tendency to confuse similar sounding words
•Difficulty remembering and reproducing letter sounds
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Did you know?...
•Language-learning difficulties (both receptive and expressive)
tend to run in families, especially among male family members
•Research has found that many children with auditory/language
processing delays also have a higher frequency
of sensorimotor difficulties
So…
Using multiple sensory channels and movement
will be especially helpful in fostering their language development
as well as help in sensorimotor development.
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OK…
Now we know how our brain hears.
How does our brain move our fingers,
arms and legs to music?
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Brain Synapses: Connections and exchanges
of information from brain cell to brain cell
This is how the different parts of the brain
work together
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To move in a coordinated way, we need two
main elements:
Vestibular (balance) skills
and
Propioceptive skills
(awareness of where our bodies are
in the space around us)
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If all the systems work together
as designed,
this is what it looks and sounds
like…
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Video of “Days of the
Week” and/or “Head,
Shoulders, Knees, and
Toes”
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Three Main Problems That Can Slow Down
Language Acquisition Using Music and Movement
Activities :
•Vestibular (balance) problems
•Motor planning problems
•Auditory processing delay
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Physical Therapists can help children with balance and
motor planning difficulties.
Speech and Language Therapists and Learning Specialists can help with
auditory processing delays
BUT…
WE can help children put all these pieces together to
help them learn language.
HOW?
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By teaching them to use music
and movement
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In 1949, Dr. Donald Hebb determined
that when many senses are used at the
same time to learn a skill, there are more
synapses firing simultaneously in the brain.
The more synapses fired, the more brain
connections are made and the more learning is
retained.
This is referred to as “associative learning”.
In other words,
“Cells that fire together, wire together”.
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Remember the elements of a finger play?
Rhyme
Rhythm
Often Melodic
Movement of Body
Usually Memorized
Usually Passed on Orally
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Of all those elements,
which do you think
is the most important
to the learning of
LANGUAGE??
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IT’S…
RHYTHM!
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Dr. Jenny R. Saffra:
“Both music and language require the ability to track
consistent patterns of sound and rhythm.”
Dr. Phyllis Weikart:
“Being able to keep a steady beat helps a
person to feel the cadence (rhythm) of their
particular language.”
Dr. Weikart found that using rhythm sticks to tap out
syllables in words helped children develop language.
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What is it about rhythm sticks and kazoos?
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Phyllis Weirkart: Tapping and acknowledging
each word’s syllable is one important part
of helping children develop language. The other part is
the incorporation of the movement
of the child’s hands and arms.
Brewer and Campbell (1991): “Movement and rhythm
stimulate the frontal lobes and enrich language and
motor development.”
That’s the rhythm sticks part… now for the kazoo!
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Factoid:
One of the very best ways to facilitate rhythm and movement is to
stimulate the balance (vestibular) system.
One of the very best ways to stimulate the vestibular system is
the use of…
Children as young as 10 months can produce sound with a kazoo.
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Video of Small Children Playing
Kazoos
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Remember us?
/
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The vestibular system is also crucial
to the development of language for
another reason…
It enables us to move from side
to side in a coordinated fashion
AND
also to move our eyes from
left to right in a functional
and coordinated way.
As in READING.
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Neurophysiologist Dr. Carla Hannaford states
that,
“the vestibular (inner ear) system and the
cerebellar (motor activity) areas are the first
sensory systems to mature. These systems
interact,
conveying information back and forth from the
cerebellum to the rest of the brain, including the
visual system and sensory cortex…This
interaction helps us keep our balance, turn
thinking into actions, and coordinate moves.”
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Here’s an example of children using
associative sounds, pictures, and body movements to
help them remember letter sounds.
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Video of Jolly Phonics
Here.
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And this method of helping little ones
learn language
is not limited to English-speaking
countries…
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Video of Pakistani children and
teacher here
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Video of Asian children with music and movement here
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So, to pull it altogether…
We need to involve as many senses as
possible to help the brain and its
interrelated systems stimulate
language development in our smallest
learners.
As more parts of the brain are being used,
more synapses are being fired, links are
being made, and senses, information and
experiences remembered.
This is learning.
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Human beings learn:
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we observe
50% of what we see and hear simultaneously
70% of what we discuss
80% of what we experience
and
95% of what we’re taught using all channels.
Dr. Carla Hannaford, 1995
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References and Acknowledgements
Campbell, D. & Brewer, D. (1991). Rhythms of learning.
Tucson, Arizona: Zephyr Press.
Hebb, Donald. (1949). Quoted in online article, Hebbian
Theory. Biotiny.com, 2012.
Hannaford, C. (1995). Smart moves: Why learning is not all
in the head. Arlington, VA: Great Oceans Publishing.
Saffran, J. (2003). Musical learning and language development.
Annals, New York Academy of Sciences. NY.
Tallal, P. & Gaab, N. (2006). Dynamic auditory processing,
musical experience and language development:
Trends in Neuroscience (2006).
Weikart, P.S. (2009). The Movement Foundation for Music:
A Brain/Body Connection. Presentation delivered to
Missouri Music Educators Pre-Conference.
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Illustrations and Photographs
All illustrations and photographs used in
this presentation are available at
googleimages.com
All videos used as part of this presentation
are available at googleimages.com or You Tube.
The Jolly Phonics video featuring Victoria
Carrolton is available for viewing at You Tube
under the search heading, “Jolly Phonics”.
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