Much more than the ABC song!(Webinar)

I have attended a webinar on March 28, 2016 that was presented by Devi Borton ( early

childhood music specialist, Outreach Mentor, and teacher trainer at music). This webinar highlighted the numerous ways in which playful and developmentally songs can naturally supports children's development of essential language and literacy skills. These skills include phonological awareness, active listening, vocabulary development, print  awareness, and narrative skills. So there is a musicality to the ways in which children communicate, beginning in infancy. The natural rhythms and essential elements of spoken language are made more obvious and concrete through the words, sounds, rhythms, and repetition in songs. Singing provides for a fun way to gain an enriched vocabulary. Researches supported that when singing, two areas in the brain essential to language ability are engaged. Incorporating music into curriculum helps to improve the listening abilities of students. The presenter introduced the Biddy Biddy song which didn't contains word. She claimed that these songs support phonological awareness as children practice hearing and articulating different sounds and syllables. Also repetition in songs helps children to decode and to have access to paly around with those sounds. Then she introduced the Mississippi cats song. This song can support rhyme awareness, initial

sounds and phonemes, active listening, spelling, and having fun with songs which support language development. Sandpiper song help in the articulation of muscles in mouth, rhythm and phrasing of language, narrative storytelling, and pitch exploration. The she sells sea shells song can support tongue twister (practice with phonemes and alliteration), repetition of sound letter associations, vocabulary development, coordination of breath with speech, and print awareness if sung with book. As a conclusion your toolbox (music activities you can use in your classroom to support children's language learning) should contain: songs without words, songs with rhyme, tongue twister, call and response songs, variation and substitution opportunities, songs with movement, songs in other languages, songs with storybooks, and songs with repetition. so I hope that you understand the importance of songs for children language development and you incorporate them in your planning and in your classroom.