Sing with me
Do you love music? If so, then you probably listen to music often, maybe even everyday. You sing along to the music. Maybe you try to imitate the singer, definitely memorizing the lyrics, and confidently singing the melody (even if you’re not pitch perfect). Well, here’s a little secret: you just conducted some impromptu speech therapy on yourself!
A little skeptical of what music has to do with speech therapy? I don’t blame you. Let’s take a closer look.
Music and speech therapy
First of all, combining speech therapy with music is nothing new. Speech therapists and music therapists have been collaborating for years now, and the results are very encouraging. Right off the bat, music is a great way to attract the interest and gain the cooperation of babies all the way to preschoolers (and beyond). Almost everyone responds to music, whether it’s by singing, or moving to the beat, or just becoming more relaxed and receptive to being taught.
Any of these outcomes is a step in the right direction towards better communication. Singing encourages vocalization, recognizing rhythms and patterns, learning new words, and better articulation. Being comfortable with movement, especially to the point of dancing, helps with nonverbal communication and easily checks off one of the prerequisites teachers look for in kindergarten preparedness. A child who is more engaged and ready to learn is open to the worthwhile but sometimes difficult days of speech therapy.
Song choice
The next consideration would be, what songs work best? There are so many to choose from. Let’s start out with some oldies but goodies. There’s a reason why songs like “Row, row, row, row your boat” and “Twinkle twinkle little star” have never gone away. They have simple melodies and are easy to learn. Also, they are good examples of rhymes and patterns. Next, consider what you want to teach. The ABC song is an obvious choice, as is “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” because it teaches parts of the body as well as how to incorporate movement. Finally, what songs are you okay listening to, hundreds, if not thousands of times? Because that’s how many times you’ll be listening to the songs that your child loves.
A disclaimer
So if you want to sing and maybe include an instrument or two at home, please be my guest. It’s great fun for you and your kiddo, and you’ll see, if you use it to go over some speech therapy lessons you’ve been given to do at home, they’ll be even more effective. But music therapy in no way replaces speech therapy. Speech therapists are professionally trained to do things like help children with autism who are experiencing speech delays, help those with fluency disorders, apraxia, and the list goes on. But there’s no denying that mixing speech therapy and music can be a powerful and effective combination. Try it out and see for yourself.