How Music Supports Learning Across ELOF Domains

How Music Supports Learning Across ELOF Domains

Amelia Bachleda: We've talked a little bit about the benefits of music and singing, but we wanted to spend a little bit more time talking about how music supports learning and development across domains. We've heard a little bit, but we really know that music supports learning across domains. As we go through the Early Learning Outcomes Framework, we're going to share some videos and strategies to support development.

You might notice that some of these videos have strategies that overlap with each other and overlap across domains, and that is really the beauty of our interconnected systems, right? We don't learn in isolation, right? It's actually kind of hard to pull apart all the different things that young children are learning, because they are so overlapping and integrated. You're definitely going to see that in the music videos and strategies that we talk about today. Let's start with the Approaches to Learning domain.

This domain focuses on how children learn the skills and behaviors they need to learn. It's like learning about learning. It incorporates emotional, behavioral, and cognitive self-regulation, as well as initiative, curiosity, and creativity. There's a ton in Approaches to Learning. One of the simple things to do to help promote children's initiative, curiosity, and creativity is to make sure that children have choices for instruments that are easily accessible to them, so whenever children want to use them, they're there. They can go get to them.

Make sure that this location is easy to crawl, cruise, or walk to, and that there's different options for different types of music-making objects that children can use based on their abilities. Right? Maybe a child can't hold a rattle or a shaker, but maybe they could roll a ball with beads in it. Or maybe a child wants a musical experience, but they want an instrument that makes sort of a quiet, gentle sound.

For example, the opposite is true – my kiddo went at home this morning, and he got a drum and started beating on it. Maybe I wanted a quiet musical experience at that moment, but he did not. He wanted a loud musical experience. Making sure that there's opportunities for children to choose the musical experience that they want. Home visitors can also talk to parents about what music or music-making objects that children might have access to and think about how they might use those together.

Back-and-forth musical interactions and songs are also a great way to help children build those creative skills, right? Children love simple nursery rhymes that include motions and gestures, like "The Wheels on the Bus." Think about modeling how to customize those songs in creative ways. For example [singing] "The kids on the park go down the slide, down the slide." You get the idea, right? Create opportunities for children to use their imaginations and include sounds and gestures and finger plays. We talk about that a lot.

Finger plays are like a song, going, "Ribbit, ribbit," or "Bounce, bounce," using your fingers to help tell the story. Music is also a wonderful way to help children build emotional, behavioral, and cognitive self-regulation skills. You've mentioned some of using music to support this already in the chat. Let's look at some great examples of this in the next video. As you watch, think about what strategies you notice.

[Video begins]

Caregiver 1: [Singing] Bye-bye, Lydia. Bye-bye, Kate. Bye-bye, Lydia. We're glad you came to play. Yay!

Caregiver 2: Yay, Liv!

Teacher 1: [Singing] Time to come to circle, to circle, to circle. It's time to come to circle, to circle right now.

Teacher 2: [Singing] Come and follow Emma. Follow, follow, follow and see what we can see.

Child: [Coos]

Teacher 2: How many friends do we have? Ready?

Teacher 2 and Students: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

[Video ends]

Amelia: Things you might have noticed – I see them in the chat, too – like mentioning their names, including their names, using goodbye songs to help regulate their emotions of leaving a space. We saw songs helping with transitions, where we see the little kids walking out to the door and the counting as they're going outside. Again, using music for cues for transition is really helpful for kiddos that might struggle with that, as well.

Of course, you can match the music to what might be coming next, right? You might play some soothing music when it's time to rest. You might sing some exciting songs to get them to go outside. There really is a lot of options. There. Oh, and I also saw someone say the tone of voice. Yes, absolutely. Using that really calm, sweet voice for the little baby. Time to come to circle – more energetic. Yes, definitely, changing your tone is supportive, too.

Marie Baeta: Now let's talk about the Social and Emotional Development domain, which focuses on children's abilities to create and sustain meaningful relationships with adults and other children, and also focuses on their ability to express, recognize, and manage their emotions, as well as responding appropriately to others' emotions – lots of good stuff here. One of the goals for this domain is for children to imitate and engage with other children in play. Very young children, they're just starting to do this.

Providing some scaffolding through a shared musical experience is actually a really great way to start developing this skill. We also know that moving in sync with one another, doing the same physical movement, like clapping, dancing, drumming, actually increases what we call "prosocial behavior," or just that behavior that is really focused on those good social interactions. Playing music together can encourage those good social, positive peer interactions and help promote the beginning of first friendships, which kiddos are just starting to develop in this really early time. Music can also help with other goals in this domain, like expressing a range of emotions. Right?

Managing and managing emotions with the help of a trusted adult. We've learned how soothing music is for infants and toddlers, and so you can think about including songs with feelings to help children start to sing about and recognize those feelings. And just the type of music that you're playing, right? Are you playing soft music? Are you playing loud music? Can you play energetic music to help get those wiggles out or maybe some anger out? These are things that I've also seen you mention in the chat, as well. OK. Now we're going to watch a video of educators using some songs to support social and emotional development. Again, take note of what you observe in these videos.

[Video begins]

Caregiver: [Singing in native language]

Teacher 1 and 2: [Singing] Emma is special. Emma is special. Yes, she is. Yes, she is. Everything about her. Everything about her. She is special. She is special.

Teacher 1: Yay, Emma!

[Video ends]

Marie: I love those videos. They are so cute. I see that folks are responding to some of the things that they saw here. Some of the things you might have noticed was the soothing song, the patting on the back at naptime to help that baby calm down and regulate their emotions. You could use the same technique to help a crying child, of course. We see those personalized songs, too – using the baby's name, supporting their identity development, and copying some of the behaviors that they're doing, as well, and supporting the children's engagement together, thinking about eye contact, the drumming together, and building on the child's little hand gesture together.

Amelia: For older babies and toddlers, you can try incorporating a call-and-response. If you're singing a song, maybe pausing and waiting for the child to fill in the gap or using words and motions can support turn-taking, as well. If you're talking about Old MacDonald, each child can choose what animal comes next. This really helps their growing abilities and their confidence, which is also part of this domain, as well.

Mixed-age groups can sing together. The older children or even siblings, if you're home visiting, can help model finger plays and taking turns, too. Under this domain, we also talk about identity, right? We saw them use her name in the song, and I'm sure they go through each child that they're taking care of, too, and generally, we want to make sure that the songs that you're choosing really align culturally with families that you're serving. Like we mentioned earlier, you can have families record or share a song to share, as well.

You can also ask for translations of songs, too, if you don't know, or you can maybe learn one or two songs from a language you don't know that maybe a child in your care speaks – lots of different ways to jump right in there for social and emotional development. Okay. What about Language and Literacy? We've already talked about how music can really support children's language learning – moving to the music, keeping a steady beat – all of these things help young children prepare for literacy and learning language.

Singing also helps children learn the components of language, because we really stretch out those long sounds when we're singing – really helps children kind of narrow in and focus on these little differences between speech. Because songs are so catchy and fun – as adults, we can – and as children, we can learn songs of different languages, even if we don't know what the words mean. Right? But music provides a bridge in order to start learning the language and making sense of it already. 

Home visitors, you could talk with families and kind of really encourage using these types of songs that really encourage language and literacy. We want to try to incorporate songs with rhyming. You don't have to be afraid if you can't find a rhyming word. Sometimes that's really silly and can really engage kids to be like, "Wait, you said the wrong word. No, that's supposed to be this word.” It's a really fun way to get kids involved, as well. 

I just wanted to have a quick little note here that we use songs and nursery rhymes to help children learn language and social interactions. I just wanted to share a cool little insight that in American Sign Language, in Deaf culture, they also use language rhymes and rhythms, and the children who are deaf and hard of hearing, who are exposed to these, get the same benefits that hearing children get from singing rhymes. It actually extends beyond spoken languages, but also extends to nonspoken languages like American Sign Language, which is really cool. I will show you a very short example. OK. Are you ready?

OK, you may not know sign language, but you could see the rhythmic usage of my body and of the signs. It's just really interesting that it really expands to nonverbal languages, as well, these benefits. That's a really fun way to really engage children more in moving their bodies and incorporating sign language. We've also included a link in your viewers' guide to learn the ASL manual alphabet, too, which is a great support for kids who are just learning their ABCs. There is a link in your viewer’s guide that you can learn after this webinar.

Marie: There are so many ways to help children learn language and literacy skills. Let's watch a video and see what you might notice from this video.

[Video begins]

[Rhythmic percussion plays]

[Indistinct conversations]

Educator: There you go. Oh, I see that. Whoo! [Singing] A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, S, T, U, V. Yeah! W, X, Y, and Z. Yeah! Now I know my ABCs. Next time, won't you sing with me? Yeah! Isn't this ...If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. [Rhythmic percussion] If you're happy and you know it ... Oh, look at her! Oh, what? [Laughter] Oh, my goodness. [Tambourine shaking] [Singing] If you're happy, if you're happy, if you're happy ... You like that? The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round.

[Video ends]

Amelia: Okay. It is so hard not to want to move and dance along with that educator. We might not all have those same rhythmic skills, but there are so many things here that that educator did, I'm sure you noticed, that supported children's language and literacy – thinking about moving along to the beat, reinforcing those patterns that we hear in music and language and, of course, in this interaction, too, the educator was noticing what the child was doing and building off of them. Just remember that those rhythms and beats – super great for supporting language learning, just like Marie was showing us earlier with that really amazing rhythmic musical piece, as well.

Marie: Within cognition, we really think about the Cognition domain. We're using numbers. We're using sequences and patterns in music. These all really help children build these cognitive skills. Songs like "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" or "Five Little Monkeys" that incorporate numbers, these are all really great ways that help children anticipate patterns and place objects and events in sequences.

Also, we saw in a couple of videos repetition. Kids love repetition. It helps them learn more, and even telling the different sounds of talking about how instruments sound different: "This instrument uses strings. This one shakes. This one you blow into.” Talking about all those differences really help support cognitive development, as well. Let's take a peek at a video. 

[Video begins] 

[Teachers clapping rhythmically] 

Teacher 1: [Speaking Spanish] [Singing] One, two, three friends. Four, five, six friends. Seven, eight, nine friends. There are 10 friends.

Teacher 2: Bravo!

Teacher 1 and 2: [Laughter] 

Teacher 2: Bravo!

Teacher 3 and 4: [Singing] ... eating the most delicious bugs. Yum, yum!

Child: [Laughs] 

Teacher 3 and 4: [Singing] One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool. Now there are only ...

Teacher 3: How many? Now there's how many left?

Child: Two.

Teacher 3 and 4: [Singing] Two green speckled frogs. Yum, yum!

Amelia: In the first group, we saw that group of young babies singing in Spanish and using counting, as well. That's a great tool for helping babies learn to wait. Then in the second clip, we saw them also using numbers that reduce down and just such quality connections for cognition.

Marie: Right. Last but not least, of course we have Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development. There are so many ways that music can help support this, and I think that all of them are ones that you probably know: moving, dancing, picking up instruments, playing with them, and it can also help some build some of those physical skills that are in this domain, as well. Let's watch a video for another example.

[Video begins]

Educator 1: [Singing] Wash, wash, wash your hands. Wash them every day. If you wash them very well, the germs will go away.

Educator 2: [Singing] The wheels on the bus go round, round, round.

Child: [Grunts] 

Educator 3: [Singing] Round, round, round. Round, round, round. The wheels on the bus go round, round, round all through the town.

Educator 4: [Singing] If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet. Boom, boom! If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet. Boom, boom! If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet. Boom, boom!

[Video ends]

Marie: We saw a song for washing hands, which is really great, keeping kids engaged to do those important tasks. We saw those expressing emotions. "If you're happy and you know it" –moving your body around, using the physical motions. One thing we didn't see in this video was using your hands to operate instruments, as well, but that would fall under this category, too, just like a lot of great options with music using your physical body.

Amelia: OK. We hope that you enjoyed exploring the many benefits of music as much as we have today, from supporting language development to promoting bonding to building cultural identity – music is such an important part of children's development. Really, we could all benefit from incorporating a little more music into our everyday lives. As you're leaving here today, I'd love for you to think about what is it that you can do to incorporate more music into your work with infants and toddlers?

Please share in the chat if you would like to, as well as any song or resource that you love that you use to share music with infants and toddlers – share that so that we can all learn from you. Thank you so, so much for joining us today. This is our last Baby Talks webinar of the year. We'll be back in 2025 with more research and practices to share.