Baby Talk: Resources to Support the People Who Work With Infants and Toddlers
Issue No. 24, May 2013
Music as an Instructional Resource and Support
Music can play a role in setting the tone of an environment, developing skills and concepts, helping children make transitions, and building a sense of community. In recent years, we have begun to examine and redefine the valuable role singing songs and reciting chants and rhymes play in laying the foundation for reading readiness. We know, for example, that these activities can help build vocabulary and develop sound discrimination. Both skills are crucial to the development of literacy. The size of a child’s vocabulary and his or her ability to discriminate sounds are strong predictors of how easily a child will learn to read when exposed to formal instruction. To read more, go to http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_home.aspx?ArticleID=478
Free Applications (Apps) for Linking Music to Learning and Fun
Here are some free, high quality music apps that may be used to address appropriate learning goals for young children who have different ability levels. iPads, iPod Touch, and iPhones can turn into vibrant musical instruments, an animal band, or sing-alongs that teach basic academic concepts, language, motor, social and emotional skills, or simple musical ideas.
Laugh & Learn–Shapes and Colors Music Show for Babies by Fisher-Price®
Level one of this app provides five colored shapes that bounce around with a unique melody when the screen is tapped or tilted. Each object announces its color and shape and motivates children to play by talking or giggling as a well-known children’s song is activated as the children tap on it. Level two puts on a music show featuring each colored shape with a little rhyming song and dance. Children can learn basic academic concepts such as identifying colors and names of shapes with this app. https://itunes.apple.com/app/id490650819
Baby Touch & Hear–Musical Instrument by Open Solutions
In addition to animal sounds and other categories, this app offers images of musical instruments with corresponding sounds, verbal and text description. Young learners can use the app to familiarize themselves with names and sounds of instruments in various languages.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-touch-hear-musical-instruments/id506608787?mt=8
Mixeroo Lite –Songs for Kids to Mix by Kirk Wheeler
This mixing tool encourages children to explore the musical arrangement of a children’s song by manipulating four colored faders. Moving the faders up and down isolates the different instruments and melody lines, allowing children to create their own mix of sounds.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mixeroo-lite-songs-for-kids/id422800199?mt=8
Kuhl Constructs: How Babies Form Foundations for Language
Here’s a great summary of significant findings about language development in infants from the work of Dr. Patricia Kuhl’s. The summary was created by speech-language pathologist Sarah Roehrich.
http://eibalance.com/2013/05/03/kuhl-constructs-how-babies-form-foundations-for-language/
Baby Talk is a free, one-way listserv that is distributed every other week. Each issue features one or more resources, the majority of which are available to download at no cost. To join the listserv, send an email with no message to subscribe-babytalk@listserv.unc.edu. To suggest resources, please contact Camille Catlett at camille.catlett@unc.edu or (919) 966-6635.