Language Development in Kindermusik class

How do children grow their vocabulary? When do babies really learn words? When do babies understand words?

If you want a child with a big vocabulary you have to use your words! Talk to your baby morning, noon, and night!

Last week in our Kindermusik Village class we worked with little nursery rhymes: Hey diddle diddle, This little cow eats grass, (and more). The home activity was to play with words, tell stories, recite more rhymes, play with your voice (squeaky or low, fast or slow etc) . What does all this mean to a 5 month old?

Well, they are making brain connections for language from the day they are born. Drawing conclusions on the rhythm and melodies of what is spoken. Patterns of phrases, repeated words, the connections of words to your facial expression and body language. The give and take of conversation. So much going on here.

First time parents may feel awkward having one way conversations about diaper changes, folding laundry and reading the newspaper but that's the key for helping a child figure out this whole language thing! When you take this seriously, they take it as positive reinforcement for being curious and communicative. (What's important to you is definitely important to them.)

In class last week for the Kindermusik Our Time children (18 months to 3 1/2 yo) we introduced "scaffolding" which is a parenting technique for encouraging exploration and also for getting children to do what YOU want them to do. First you observe and affirm what they are already doing (we were working with the rhythm sticks and the musical element of fast and slow), we imitated them (imitation is a sure form of affirmation for children) and describe and label everything, giving informational feedback. Then we suggest a variation to their action...we challenge. The whole activity is dependent on conversation. Talk, talk, talk.....

Click on the picture above to watch a video from How Stuff Works about some of the research they've done on the language-IQ connection. I'm not advocating a word counting assessment software...I'd rather talk to my babies because I love them not because my goal is a certain IQ. But I do want to give my babies what I can to increase their potential...who doesn't want the best for their baby?

So....snow day today (no classes).

Hey, Baby! Talk some, sing some!
Reminds me of a song I haven't sung in ages:

Chatter with the angels, soon in the morning.
Chatter with the angels all day long!
Chatter with the angels, soon in the morning.
Chatter with the angels all day long!
I want to join that band and chatter with the angels all day long.

Have fun,
Yvette

When my children grow up I want them to be:
Happy
Healthy
Intelligent
Compassionate
Hard working
Creative and imaginative
Kind
Trustworthy
Confident



Courageous
Forgiving
Joyful
Worldly
Striving
Connected
Appreciative
Story Tellers

Our list grows. Please add your hopes for your children to the "comments".

Infinite Potential

Several years ago I spoke at a child care providers that was sponsored by Children's Resource Network/4C. The key note speaker was Charles Ill who was head of early childhood development for Ottawa County. He put a slide on the screen that struck me so profoundly. I wish I could find him and ask for a reproduction of the slide... I've drawn it up to the best of my ability to use the computer. It shows how we invest in the amazing potential of the brain.


The blue line roughly represents the the brain's potential for growth and change. There are biological events around 7 years and 13 years of the chemical (hormones) pruning of unused neurons in order to streamline and focus on the well connected neural pathways the child's experiences have deemed necessary.

The red line roughly represents the financial investment made towards the child's potential.

I believe there is always potential but I also acknowledge the vastness of an infant's possibility.
I also believe that the parents are the child's best teacher. I am not an advocate of early childhood education without the close involvement of the parents' participation. What would our society be like if we really invested in nurturing the infant family with financial and emotional support?

I commend all the grandparents, uncles and aunts who've given Kindermusik gift certificates or who've even brought their grandchildren to classes. I believe that's a very meaningful investment in their potential.

Find out more about gift certificates or to enroll

Come and dance in the well tended garden of our children.
Happy New Year.

Gift Giving

"The judgments, criticisms, complaints, encouragement, joy and love that we think we are giving to others, are really gifts we give to ourselves."

from Conscious Discipline by Becky Bailey

More Important Brain Developments....

Today Emma, in my Kindermusik Our Time class watched me carefully as I sang our good-bye song. I reached out and touched each child on the arm and looked into their eyes. When I was finished and about to turn away I saw her go around the circle, touch each child on the arm, look into their eyes and sing good-bye.

"According to neuroscience and child development research, brain development proceeds at a faster pace between conception and the first day of kindergarten than during any subsequent stage of life. In the early years, basic capacities such as trust, self-confidence, empathy, and curiosity are established. How people think, learn, reason, and relate to others throughout their lives is rooted in their early relationships, experiences, and environments."

Common Vision, Different Paths: Five States' Journeys toward Comprehensive Prenatal-to-Five Systems"

Where will children find early relationships, experiences and environments that will lead them to be the kind of people we dearly wish our children to be?

With people they love and who love them...unconditionally.

Kindermusik is a great place to BE together.

Thank you for sharing your children with me. I take it seriously. I know this is important work and that we are shaping the future.

Syncopation

Syncopation is a "jazzy" rhythm that really gets us toe tappin'. In Kindermusik Village we dance our feet to this rhythm in "Water Come a Me Eye". For weeks we do this dance! Some parents do the dance at home everytime it comes around on the CD. Kaylin can do it with her feet all by herself!

In Kindermusik Our Time we play the rhythm sticks to a steady beat while with our voices we sing "Tinga Lay-O": Run, little donkey, run! (There's the syncopation!)

Syncopation comes and goes through out all the Kindermusik levels...then in the "big kid class", Kindermusik Young Child, we layer it in again with the "Canoe Song": dip, dip, and swing...... In the last semester (#4) we'll finally see what it looks like. The children will be able to read syncopation and use it in their composing.

With all this those Kindermusik graduates won't be afraid of playing those "Jazzy" rhythms when they sightread new music in orchestra and band. How cool is that?

I just love this curriculum.
Yvette

Oh, those blest baby siblings of Kindermusik families!

I've been thinking about the pregnant mommies in my Kindermusik classes! I often will ask the "big" brother or sister if they think their baby can hear the egg shaker or jingle bells. I know they can hear it all and are familiar with the voices of mom (especially) and dad and siblings.

I know, moms, that talking to your unborn baby is really important for language development and emotional well being. And I've heard of people taking classes in music before the baby is born or putting earphones on their belly so the fetus can hear music. Sorry, I thought that was a bit much! Well, maybe not!!! And why am I not really surprised?

In the past, women all over the world have sung lullabies to their babies.
These were very important because as we now know the fetus is having first language lessons in the womb. The inflections of the mother tongue are conveyed not only through speech but most importantly through song. The singing voice has a richer frequency range than speech. In fact, studies in other disciplines such as linguistics and musicology (e.g., David Whitwell, 1993) point out that there was a time when speech was song and therefore singing is the older of the two.

Here's more.

So blest are those families who bring thier first to Kindermusik while expecting #2! That new baby really is getting the royal treatment. AND those songs will be your new baby's favorites! The auditory system of the fetus is fully functioal about twenty weeks after conception. Researcher Alexandra Lamont of Keele University in the UK shows that they are developing memory for those sounds they hear. One year old children recgonized and prefered music they were exposed to in the womb even when they had not heard it during their first year.

That information I found in Daniel Levitin's book: This Is Your Brain On Music. (I am looking forward to hearing him speak at the Kindermusik Conference in October!)

Shin'ichi Suzuki the founder of the Suzuki Method of private lessons for violin, piano etc. knew this first hand from observing the baby who reacted joyfully on hearing the familiar music of the sibling playing on the violin.

So, before birth the babies are working on their brain: language development, memory, pleasure in music, .......

Don't stop there. At Kindermusik of Holland babies under 5 months old will receive 5 classes free (materials not included). Let's keep up the great momentum.

Yvette

How Early?

"What scientists say at the moment is that music instruction will make you
smarter about music, and that for music to help children they need to
begin instruction really, really early."

I've thought long and hard about this. Traditional Suzuki method wants you to start children playing violin at 3 years old. When my older children, Ben and Claire, were finished with Kindermusik we signed up on a local violin teacher's waiting list....and waited and waited. Hey! I'm the Kindermusik teacher! What if we've missed the music boat??? Ben was ten and Claire was eight when we finally found a different violin teacher who's waiting list was not so loooong. Now Ben is 19 and plays with the Keewenaw Symphony and Claire is concert master for the Holland Area Youth Orchestra. One might argue that they didn't start very early but I say they didn't physically hold their instrument very early but they've been in music since the beginning!!! They've gone to all my Kindermusik classes!

And Kindermusik has the prefect early class. Kindermusik Village. Now we offer 5 weeks of Kindermusik free for babies who are 5 months old or younger.

You can begin instruction really, really early. There's no waiting list for this.

Thanks miss Jamie in Kansas...
ps...our prayers are with you all in Kansas struggling in the tornado aftermath.

Brain Dance!

I worry, worry, worry about the babies who spend so much of their day in the carseat. In and out of the car, into the grocery cart, back in the house, back in the car, in church, out to lunch, back in the car, back in the house and never leaving the car seat except for a quick change. Does that sound even a little bit familiar?

"Movement is the key to learning! Movement and dance activities such as crawling, creeping, rolling, turning, walking, skipping, reaching, and swinging are essential for baby's brain development. These specific and intensive motor activities make full use of babys complicated nervous system and follow a plan. The nervous system of each new human being must go through a series of developmental stages before the brain can operate at its full potential. Using her whole body, her movements, and all her senses, the baby "programs" her motor/perceptual equipment, her nerves, and brain cells."

Please click on this link http://www.llli.org/NB/NBMarApr01p44.html and read the rest of this fascinating article! Author Anne Green Gilbert is a creative movement specialist consulted by Kindermusik for the creation of several units of curriculum. She explains the developmental stages and gives ideas for fundamental movement activities for baby. We are so mobile baby doesn't have a chance to do the floor work they need to develop. Their drive to move is constant, that is their need!

Sometimes we need a prescription for the simplest action for our health and well being and that of our children. Your perscription for babies newborn to 18 months: holland.kindermusik.net