When I first started teaching I did not like singing. I was the kid in elementary school who just mouthed the words for 5 years rather than actually sing because I didn’t think it was something I could do well. My mentor basically told me, I was going to sing whether or not I liked it, because it was good for my students. And that’s what it comes down to- in my opinion and in research too.

Now that there are three little ones in our family I find myself being short on hands when they need something or someone. One of my go-to strategies in these moments is to ask one of the older ones to go sing to their little sister. They sing nursery rhymes and other traditional songs- Old MacDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the alphabet. Five Little Ducks is a current favorite. My husband has always been partial to Christmas songs, singing Silent Night to all of our children when they were newborns. I tend to sing whatever is on top of my head and something that is repetitive. Baby enjoys all of these musical selections and the chaos is put on hold- for a moment.

Recently a friend asked a group of moms what songs they like to sing to their new babies. I immediately thought of all the songs that I had taught in my preschool class- songs that connect to the seasons, holidays, or thematic vocabulary. But then I remembered speaking with a mom recently about singing in the classroom. Mom shared that she didn’t know the song we had been singing so we asked her what she liked to sing. Her answer was traditional songs in their home language. I am not familiar with these songs, but does it matter? No!

Singing is singing is singing. Just sing what you can.

Singing and sharing music is a bonding moment for people of all ages. There are no known societies that did not have some form of music in their cultural practices. (The Neurosciences and Music III: Disorders and Plasticity edited by Simone Dalla Bella, Virginia Burdet Penhune, Nina Kraus, Katie Overy, Christo Pantev, Joel S. Snyder) Very few people will admit to a lack of interest in music and even fewer claim a complete dislike of music altogether. Singing has always been a meaningful part of human experiences and is highly connected to memory. Have you noticed how it’s easier to remember something if there is a sing-song tune to it? We might have been taught using this method in school (to memorize the US Presidents’ names, or US states) or made up our own rhymes or songs to remember important information. I am continuously shocked when my kids can recite the lyrics of songs on the radio without reading the insert of the CD or cassette like I remember doing growing up!

Motherese attracts young children through the sing-song changes in intonation, and Acoustic Highlighting attracts attention typically through changes in duration, pitch, or volume. Similarly, singing itself attracts the listener to the message and its suprasegmental changes. It can be said that songs contain an abundance of Acoustic Highlighting. My children have loved listening to their great uncle sing in German. His deep voice is inherently interesting because it is a different pitch than they are used to. The German language is enthralling to them although the meaning of the actual words is lost on them. It doesn’t matter if they know the language because they can still benefit from the suprasegmental experience.

It can be easy to shy away from singing to our babies and growing children because “I’m not a singer”. But that mentality is something that we have learned. And just as we learned that we “aren’t” singers, we can learn to become singers to help develop our child’s language. Singing creates a bond between family members, a connection to cultural traditions, and a foundation for listening and learning in the brain. Sing whatever genre it takes to get you to a place where you are comfortable singing out loud. It doesn’t matter if you sing the alphabet, a traditional folk song, Public Enemy, or Christmas carols- as long as you are singing something you are building those connections.