How does music help toddlers to learn?

When babies are born, they have a natural ability to appreciate music.  There is even theory that babies like music in the womb.  As your baby gets older, it's a  great idea to expose them to a variety of music styles to begin their learning journey. 

Singing nursery rhymes and songs can help develop your toddler's language and communication skills. Creating a fun and engaging experience using toy instruments or clapping along with music will help to keep your toddler involved in the learning process.  

Introducing toddlers to a wide variety of nursery rhymes can help them to understand and learn different sounds and will show them that changing a letter will make a rhyming word with a new meaning (e.g. 'cat' could become 'sat', or 'bee' become 'see').

This is an important part of developing early literacy skills. Listening to different sounds in their environment, as well as in nursery rhymes, provides toddlers with the foundation to help them read and write.

You can use rhymes at any time, not just at playtime - they're a great way of keeping your toddler happy in the supermarket queue and a helpful trick to have up your sleeve when boredom strikes!

Singing nursery rhymes can also help develop toddlers' social skills. Toddler and parent music groups are a great opportunity for children to make friends. As children develop at different rates, using nursery rhymes will support children's communication and language development at whatever stage they are at.

You can also use toy instruments or pots and pans to teach your toddler the meaning of loud and quiet and fast and slow by tapping the 'instrument' and then encouraging your toddler to copy you. In this way, they are discovering how to make different sounds and will learn to associate the sound with the word.

Encouragement and praise are so important at this early stage of development and will help to build their confidence and a lifelong love of learning.

Take a look at the Jo Jingles website where you can search for music and movement classes in your area. https://www.jojingles.com