Music in Development

I have recently found a music program for little ones called ABC Music and Me and am eagerly looking for a way to fund adding this program to the services we offer our families in early intervention.  Music allows children to be introduced to developmentally appropriate words and concepts that build early literacy skills while strengthening cognitive and social skills and having fun all at the same time!  

Music helps children develop such skills as listening, speaking, comprehension and vocabulary.  Participation in singing (doing the actions, choosing the songs, etc.) helps children prepare to succeed in the public school setting.  There are so many benefits from music for young children.

Research shows that music enhances early literacy and cognitive development, strengthening crucial brain pathways young children need.  Use of songs, rhymes, stories, and movement activities aid in developing phonological awareness (hearing different sounds that make up words), auditory processing (understanding what is being said), and verbal memory skills (being able to follow directions without visual cues).

We support age appropriate music at home!  Remember the songs your mom or dad or preschool teacher or nursery leader sang to you?  Start singing those to your child.  Encourage them to participate however they can - actions, dancing, signing, pointing to pictures to choose the song, whatever you can think of.  You can also sing slowly so they can feel more comfortable about joining in or pause before you say a key word and see if they will try to prompt you!

Music benefits kids in so many ways and it makes learning fun!

On another topic, this is Nurse Appreciation Week as well as Teacher Appreciation Week.  We appreciate all the people who are so skilled at working with young children and their families, but I would like to highlight our two nurses.

Joan has her BS in Nursing from the U of U.  She grew up in Roy and now lives in Davis County.  Joan likes the color yellow and her favorite food is Italian.  She likes to knit and read in her spare time.  Joan enjoys seeing how strong families work with and accept their child that has challenging issues.

Brooke attended Nursing School at Dixie and grew up in Kaysville.  She continues to reside in Davis County.  Brooke likes the color pink and her favorite food is BBQ Hamburgers and Hotdogs.  She enjoys shopping, baking, blogging, browsing pinterest, Netflix and especially NAPPING!  She would love to vacation in Europe.  Brooke loves the kiddos in early intervention.  She also loves her co-workers and the schedule (no nights, weekends or holidays!)

We appreciate our nurses and all they do!