listening

Your voice will be the most significant musical instrument you can use with your baby throughout the stages of early childhood. This demonstrates singing as natural human expression.

As you sing to your child, vary the tempo, the softness and the loudness. Make your voice go up and down from low sounds to high sounds.

On no account should you have music playing all the time. Anyone exposed to a constant musical background will find it more difficult to attend to music or to become sensitive to sounds.

Aural or listening skills will be developed as your child listens to the varying pitch, rhythm and harmony of a multitude of songs and various pieces of music.

We can help bubs’ listening skills by directing their attention towards what you want them to listen for.

Plays songs that include a change rhythm. Draw bubs attention to this variation by doing different movements to each rhythm. Recognising patterns lays down mathematical foundations.

Encourage bub to mimic the musical sounds and songs you sing. Infants as young as two months olds are able to imitate the pitch and intensity of the songs their parents sing them.

Play musical games and fingerplays. Clap the beat as you sing, and take bub’s hands and clap the beats. There are many wonderful fingerplays, such as:

• Where is Thumbkin
• The farmer in the dell
• The brave old duke of york
• The wheels on the bus
• Trot, trot to Boston
• Where is the beehive.