STORY FROM A MOM
Last week, a mom came to class and told me that her son responds the most to the songs that have no words (you know, the ones that go, “doo-doo,” or “dee-dee,” or “la-la”). “He’ll try to sing along with them,” she said, “Or start singing them on his own.” This almost-two-year-old is in the thick of developing language skills, and he’s therefore naturally distracted by the words in the language-filled songs. So, when a song without words comes on, his language processing can take a break and he can just enjoy, and participate in, and play with the music. Sure enough, in class that day he “la-la’d” and “baa-baa’d” along when we started singing a “doo-doo” song (and I don’t mean a song about poop–I leave those to the grown-ups to make up at home!).
How great it is that this mom noticed the difference in her son when he heard the two different types of songs. She’s started singing more “doo-doo” songs to him at home, too, which is a beautiful honoring of what her son needs developmentally. Our children get tons of language reinforcement all day long in our language-filled culture. Being able to relax into the music of the songs without words is a wonderful musical gift to offer to our children in the middle of a “talky-talky” day.
