Music, movement, dance and pretend play can stimulate a child’s brain, facilitating a multi-sensory learning experience as he/she comes to better understand his/her world.
The more a toddler can sing, dance, play music and role play, the more he or she can tap into his/her creative energies, learning to explore new ways of expression, communication as well as problem solving.
Look at ways music connects to each baby. Notice which songs and rhymes they seem to enjoy. Singing a lullaby while rocking a baby soothes very young children. At the same time, music can help toddlers that are upset or too energetic calm down. Music can help redirect children’s focus and help remind them of their emotional connections, helping them feel safe and secure.
Music also helps your little ones communicate how they are feeling, even before they have spoken their first words. Toddlers often do not have the words to express themselves and need positive ways to release their emotions. Singing about feelings helps babies and toddlers learn the appropriate words to describe their emotional experiences (“If you’re happy and you know it”).
Music and confidence
Young children thrive by learning through musical play, exploring different sounds. Musical activities help children gain confidence and self-esteem as they bang pots and pans or create rhythms on items founds in their environment. Fill homemade shakers with different materials, such as dried rice, beans, pebbles, coins and paper clips to explore these different sounds. Maracas, bells and chimes can also help toddlers investigate different options, allowing them to figure out how a particular object works.
The more experience your children can have with different instruments and types of music, the more they will become aware of the differences in pitch, timbre, tone and volume. Play these instruments softly (like a cat), loudly (like an elephant), quickly (like a mouse) and then slowly (like a tortoise) as changes in tempo and pitch also help refine children’s listening skills.
Toddlers enjoy singing and listening to melodic songs with repetitions and rhythms. For younger babies, pick songs and rhymes with a simple, steady beat and lots of repetitive language, and for older ones try more energetic songs with more varied beats, tones and rhythms.
Musical activities assist memory retention and recall, and can improve children’s focus and attention. Movement added to the music reinforces the learning experience. Music activities also support rhythmic awareness and the ability to keep a beat. When melody and lyrics are in harmony (syllables and notes match) the music reinforces the elements of language, helping children improve their language skills. Adding movement to songs further reinforces the rhythms in language, helps them learn where to divide language into units of sound and helps to support your little ones physical and mental wellbeing. For example, sing songs with hand gestures such as “Wheels on the bus” or “Twinkle little star”. As they become more confident, have them sing songs to expand their vocabulary and put words and phrases together. When singing songs together with your older toddler, you can pause and let him or her fill in the words to reinforce his/her language skills.
It’s all about the rhythm
Older toddlers can act out part of the songs with puppets. Encourage your little ones to move to the beat. This movement can be small, such as waving your hand or swaying from side to side. It can include the whole body, such as encouraging your child to crawl, march, stomp, skip, hop and dance to the beat. They can use props, such as scarves, hoops and pom-poms to help them better express their individuality.
The rhythm and repetition of songs may make it easier for very young children to remember the name and sequence of number patterns as they sing songs such as “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe,” “Five Little Monkeys,” “This Old Man,” and “The Animals Came in Two by Two”. Older children can sing songs that anticipate events (such as “Pop Goes the Weasel”) and tell a story (such as “The Farmer in the Dell”).
Learning songs and dances from different countries can also help promote diversity and inclusion, validate a second culture practiced at home as well as help young children grasp the similarities and differences between people from different backgrounds.
The magic of role playing
Role play may appear to be a very simple activity; yet within it, young children are learning to engage and make sense of the world around them. For example, at two months your baby looks up at you and begins to imitate your silly faces – eyebrows up and mouth wide open. Several months later as a toddler, they begin to hold the doll or teddy bear, pretending to feed and get care of their “baby”.
As your toddler’s make-believe play develops, props can facilitate role play. We advise you to create a dedicated creative play area for your children which includes a box of old shirts, jumpers, dresses, glasses, goggles, handbags and other things your child can use to act out different roles and express emotions that are based on what young learners find to be familiar. For example, an eye patch could turn your toddler into a pirate, a pair of goggles can have a young learner think he/she is a scientist, tap shoes can inspire a dancer and a paper roll can represent a rocket as your child pretends to be an astronaut about to blast off into space. Other props can include a sheet that can be a cape for a superhero, the night sky or “under the sea” where mermaids and sea creatures can explore.
Encourage your child to imagine him/ her to be parents, teachers, doctors, veterinarians, librarians and shop keepers. Join in the imaginative play by taking on a role yourself. Play with stuffed toys or puppets (make simple puppets by putting your hand in a sock). Use movement during role play, reinforcing your little ones communication skills. Change the end of your toddler’s favorite fairy tales. Persuade your toddler to change the story using characters he/she remembers from other stories. This activity will improve your little ones’ creative thinking skills as he/she explores an enriched fantasy life.
Dramatic play is a great way to practice math skills. For example, counting money for the cash register, a waitress adding up the receipt, and following a “recipe” in the play kitchen are natural opportunities for developing math skills.
Role play also increases your toddler’s self esteem and gives a child a sense of pride and accomplishment. Acting out roles and being in control of the outcomes increases your little ones feelings of safety and protection. Making choices in dramatic play helps your child develop a sense of self, individuality and feelings of purpose.
In sum, the pleasure of sharing music, dancing or pretend play develops indispensable social skills, such as encourages sharing and turn taking, practises negotiation skills, and learns how to communicate verbally as well as non-verbally. We hope you have learned how important is music, dance and role playing for your little ones, helping them thrive in their overall development. We encourage you to stimulate your toddler, so he/she can grow confident and develops key life skills.