Musical Games to Kickstart Baby’s Development
Children learn through play. Would it surprise you to know that you should start playing with your baby as early as the newborn phase? Each activity we offer our babies comes with its fair share of learning opportunities, and this is especially true for musical games. “Sing-playing” with babies can seem silly, awkward, or even trivial, but Calgary developmental psychologist, Dr. Theanna Bischoff, says that in fact, there are unique learning experiences presented by your songs and rhymes.
Every experience, sound, and physical sensation in your baby’s world triggers thousands of neurons in their brain, which form a neural network. When we repeat an experience over and over, the brain learns to trigger the same neurons each time and make connections - “what fires together, wires together.” It can be beneficial to have neurons wired together because our neural networks help us to learn and recall information in an effective way. For example, while you sing and hold your baby, you also introduce new vocabulary. When you hold up a stuffed dog as you sing about a dog, baby learns to associate the name of that toy with the words you sing. When you sing about parts of the body and kiss your baby’s feet or tickle his tummy, he learns new words through both language and sensation.
But what does a musical game look like for a newborn?
Here are six fun “sing-play” activities to try with your little one:
1. Play + Stop: Sing to baby about action vs. stillness to help them learn verbs, anticipation, and the word “stop.” Good verbs to demonstrate for newborns include clap, tap/pat, bounce; older babies could also use stamp, jump, and spin.
o Example: “And then we clap clap clap clap clap and STOP! And then we clap clap clap clap clap and STOP! And then we clap clap clap clap clap and STOP! That’s how we clap and STOP.”
2. Intro to Instruments: To the tune of “Oh When The Saints Go Marching In,” insert the name of different noise-makers and demonstrate the sounds they each make. Instruments could include a shaker, a drum, a bell, a harmonica; non-traditional “instruments” could also be crinkly wax paper, a toilet paper tube “horn,” or a spoon and pot “drum.”
o Example: “Oh when the shaker comes marching in, oh when the shaker comes marching in, it goes [shake instrument]! Oh when the shaker comes marching in.”
3. This + That: Sing to baby about two different objects in front of them/in your hands to demonstrate nouns/object names and also contrast between items. Items could be direct opposites (eg: a black cat and a white cat), categorical (eg: a dog and a cat), or just two different objects (eg: cat and spoon).
o Example: Holding a banana and an apple - “Yellow and red. Yellow and red. Yellow yellow yellow yellow red red red. Yellow and red. Yellow and red. Yellow yellow yellow yellow red red red.”
4. What’s in the Box?: Sing to your baby about a special mystery item in a box or bag before revealing the item, displaying it, and giving it a name/noun.
o Example: “What’s in the box? What’s in the box? What is the object hiding in the box? A spoon was in the box. A spoon was in the box. A spoon was the object hiding in the box.”
5. This is the Way…: Teach baby about action words (verbs), object names (nouns), and programs/routines in their day by singing about what you’re doing at any given moment. Pick an action, a object, and an activity that go together and put them into your song.
o Example: “This is the way we wipe the table, wipe the table, wipe the table. This is the way we wipe the table. After we’ve had supper.”; “This is the way we buckle up, buckle up, buckle up. This is the way we buckle up when we drive to grandma’s.”; “This is the way we go upstairs, go upstairs, go upstairs. This is the way we go upstairs. When it’s time for night-night.”
6. There’s a [blank] on my [blank]: Help baby learn body part words by pairing an object and a body part and singing to the tune of “Happy and You Know It.” Some easy objects to play this game with include a sticker, a scarf, a hat, or a sock.
o Example: “There’s a sticker on my cheek, on my cheek. There’s a sticker on my cheek on my cheek. There’s a sticker on my cheek, there’s a sticker on my cheek, there’s a sticker on my cheek on my cheek.”