Nursery Rhyme as a Tool in Children’s Literacy Skills and Language Acquisition
Old McDonald had a farm… e-i-e-i-o!
You might have sung to the tune of this classic song! Ever wonder why this kind of songs had been centuries-old but is still making impacts on today’s generation of young minds? Sure, these nursery rhymes are undoubtedly catchy for every child and gets them grooving or dancing along the song. However, the benefits of a nursery rhyme does not only revolve around its “fun” description.
This simple and classic tool has been contributing to a number of developmental domains – spanning from cognitive to socio-emotional areas of development and a lot more. One of the most significant benefits of nursery rhymes is their impact on a child’s speech development and early literacy skills. Here are some key factors of nursery rhymes that could contribute to these areas of development.
- Alliteration: Nursery rhymes often contain repetition of the same sound at the beginning of several words in a row. This can help children to recognise patterns in language and build their phonemic awareness.
(e.g. “Baa, baa, black sheep…)
- Rhythm and Rhyme: The distinctive rhythm and rhyme in nursery rhymes can help children develop their listening and speaking skills. Learning to recognise and respond to these allows them to improve their ability to understand and use language effectively.
(e.g. “Hickory, dickory dock
A mouse ran up a clock…”)
- Phonemic Awareness: Nursery rhymes also contain repetitive patterns which makes memorisation easy for children. Repetition helps in developing phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words. This is a crucial skill for early reading, as it helps children to recognise and decode words when they encounter them in print.
(e.g. The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah.
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah.)
- Pronunciation: Through modelling clear and accurate speech patterns in nursery rhymes, children gets help with practising proper pronunciation. It allows children to learn the sounds of the words and translate this skill to producing those sounds accurately.
- Vocabulary Development: Nursery rhymes present opportunities for children to have an expanded vocabulary. Exposure to new words and concepts make way for stronger vocabulary and acquiring more confidence in their language ability.
This tool is indeed old but gold! A nursery rhyme doesn’t just open doors for children to be entertained. It actually leads the young learners to a journey of learning and building foundations for a stronger literacy and language abilities. Let your child have these learning opportunities even outside the walls of the classrooms and early intervention centres. Seize moments of interaction and utilise the vast resource of these nursery rhymes whenever or wherever. (And yes, you don’t even have to worry if you’re out of tune!)