Singing the Praises of Music to Literacy

Early Literacy | Jul 21, 2011

by Susan Ramsay, Early Literacy Specialist

Sometimes it happens in the car; sometimes in the park. Kailey’s mom breaks into song:

Down by the bay where the watermelons grow; back to my home I dare not go.

For if I do my mother will say, “Did you ever see llamas eating their pyjamas, down by the bay?”

Kailey’s mom enjoys singing, especially with her 3-year-old daughter. Just a few days ago Kailey began creating new verses to ‘Down by the Bay’. Kailey’s verses don’t always rhyme, but her eyes sparkle with excitement when she sings. It hasn’t occurred to Kailey’s mom that singing silly songs with her daughter is educational, but research is proving that music has many benefits to literacy learning.

Music has been shown to improve children’s listening and reading comprehension skills. Children’s abilities to distinguish musical pitch and rhythm are linked to phonological awareness skills too.

Listening skills are foundational to learning language. We talk a lot to our infants and children, assuming their listening skills are inherent. But hearing and listening are not synonymous. Active listening skills need to be taught. Music helps. An experiment with children between the ages of 4 and 6 showed that only 25 minutes of music training over a seven-week period changed children’s brain functioning related to listening. (Flohr et al, 1996). Musical activities (such as games that echo clapping or drumming patterns; group games such as musical chairs, or action songs) are effective in helping children develop listening skills, including children with special needs. (Humpal & Wolf, 2003).

Sharing books with children introduces them to new words. Singing boosts children’s exposure to new words too. When lyrics are combined with illustrations, vocabulary learning is enhanced even more. (Medina, 1993). Children’s picture books like Raffi’s “Down by the Bay” or Iza Trapani’s many verses of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” are good choices for encouraging children’s vocabulary development.

As long as the melody line of a book that can be sung is simple and the tempo moderate, music boosts children’s vocabulary when learning a second language too. (Medina, 2000).

Listening skills and knowing more words clearly link to hearing and telling stories. It may be less obvious, however, how music helps children understand the code of print. Yet this is where music excels. Before children are able to match printed letters to sounds they have to be able to hear that words are made up of smaller sounds and syllables. This is called phonological awareness. Music accentuates word in parts through rhythm, pitch and rhyme. The syllables in ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, for example, are much easier to hear when sung than spoken.

Extensive research links phonological awareness with children’s exposure to music. In one study, grade one children were tested to see if their phonemic awareness (awareness of the smallest units of sound found in words) varied with their ability to discriminate musical pitch. The study revealed a high degree of correlation. Researchers believe that the ability to notice varying frequencies in music strengthens children’s abilities to hear different frequencies in speech and written words. (Lamb & Gregory, 1993).

Playing a musical instrument, singing new and familiar songs, sharing books that can be sung, and playing musical games throughout the day are fun for children... and helpful to their literacy learning too.

Susan Ramsay is the Early Literacy Specialist for Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. You can contact her at 613-354-6318 (ext 32)