Training Modules Children and Youth Module 8 Rhymetime and Togethertime; Why do we have these programs?
Training Modules Children and Youth Module 8 Rhymetime and Togethertime; Why do we have these programs?
Rhymetime and Togethertime
Why do we provide these programs?
• Brain development
• Talking, singing, reading and playing with your baby helps to develop neural pathways in the baby’s brain.
• Muscle development
• Movement activities help develop muscles, babies need to move their arms, legs, backs heads to strengthen their muscles so they can learn to roll, crawl, sit and stand and walk.
• Clapping helps the muscles in baby’s hand to flatten and strengthen so they can crawl.
• Baby will copy mouth and facial movements which helps muscles in mouth for learning to speak.
• Toddlers need to expend energy, practise walking, hopping, skipping and jumping skills, develop balance.
• Emotional development
• Babies recognise expressions on their parent’s faces.
• Toddlers are beginning to recognise feelings in themselves and others.
• Language development
• Talking, singing, playing and reading all involve language.
• Mother tongue should be encouraged and will provide baby with scaffold for learning two languages.
• Silly words and sounds help muscles in the mouth for making the different sounds in our words.
• Baby will copy what they hear.
• Lots of different words and concepts in songs and books.
• Exposure to rhyming words and rhythm.
• Toddlers are naturally curious and inquisitive about their
world, books can help. The mystery bag encourages curiosity.
• Early literacy skills
• Hearing sounds in words- Singing words often breaks them into syllables which makes it easier to hear the individual sounds in words.
• Enjoying pictures in books.
• Understand that books have a story.
• Learn shapes and letters and eventually words.
• Background knowledge to the world
• Connect pictures to story and meaning
• Relationship development
• Time with parent/carer
• Special bonds developed through sing, talk, read and play.
• Routines can be established around books/songs making bedtime/dinnertime/toilet time easier.
Answer these
Which of the above do you feel strongest about? Can you think of a way to talk to parents about that? Write it down.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
You have just written your own ‘aside’.
Asides
What is an aside? A line or two, not part of the main body of a talk or speech, said to certain people not the whole group. So during a program where we are talking to the children/toddlers/bubs about the song we’ll sing or book we’ll read an aside is said to the parents giving a small amount of information about why it is important.
• Choose an aside for your session –here are some samples. There are more in Objective in the Training Package folder.
• Each branch has a set of laminated cards with asides on them, they are colour coded for Rhymetime, Toddlertime and Storytime. They are very wordy so adjust them to suit your style.
• Be confident when you use asides. It is important and it is research based. You can use post it notes or palm cards to help you remember.
o When you sing to your child, have your baby facing you. That way they can see your expression and they also start to mimic the shapes you make with your mouth.
o When you read to your child at home use lots of different voices and expression in your reading. This helps with comprehension and also gives your child experience with different sounds.
o Every time you and your child sing together you are giving them knowledge of sounds, words and the joy of music. You are also strengthening their vocal chords.
o Your voice is the one your baby most wants to hear. If you don’t feel confident singing, use recordings and play them softly in the background for you to song along with.
o Babies need to hear fluent language to learn to speak. Sing songs in your home language right from the start.
o Making silly sounds with your baby helps them to learn to make different sounds with their mouths. These all help your child learn to speak. So blow lots of raspberries, moo and baa along with the cows and sheep and choo choo with the trains.
o When we sing we slow down our speech which makes it easier for babies to hear the parts of words. This helps them hear the sounds in words while having fun singing and enjoying music.
o Rhyming words help your child to understand sounds in words, that’s why we sing and say nursery rhymes together.
o Clapping, bouncing or tapping along with songs develops rhythm in your child.
o Counting songs and rhymes help your child develop understanding of number.
o Sing and say the alphabet with your child. At first it will be just a series of sounds and words but eventually they will begin to make connections with what they read and see in books.
o Talk about the pictures in books. This helps develop comprehension and understanding of the world.
o
When reading with your child, keep the books
near so your child can touch and play with them.
Watch a couple of these from Saraj Ghoting
http://brad-soucy.squarespace.com/videos/
OR
https://vimeo.com/240572898/bfc0d55b2e https://vimeo.com/240571239/90714c564f https://vimeo.com/240572942/360e833264
Asides collection can be found at
Objective>Community services>Library>Childrens-Programs>Asides
Module 9 is here
Activity
Choose two asides from the Objective list or from the blog post and write it in your own words.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

