Musical activities for young children
Table of Contents
Case Study
Darren, a young dad with a 2 year old child, has come into the nursery on a ‘bring your dad to nursery’ day. Darren, as a single father, wants to do the very best for his son; they do lots of ‘boys stuff’ like learning to climb, jump, kick balls and so on.
Harry, his son, is loving all the activities and they have a great relationship, but the nursery are concerned that his language skills are not developing.
Surinder, Harry’s key worker in the nursery, decides to speak to Darren about the language development and asks if they read and sing together very much. When Darren explains they are ‘more boy stuff orientated’ she tells them that there are lots of stories and songs for boys, but that actually children just like stories and singing. She explain that they do a lot at nursery, but that Harry would probably enjoy it and learn more if he were doing it with dad as well.
Surinder asks Darren if he and Harry would join their music session that morning with some other dads and children, and see how much they get from it. He agrees, although he is a bit hesitant.
After a short time in the music session, doing action songs and with the children choosing their favourite songs from a few picture cards on the floor in front of them, Darren sees that Harry is sitting down for quite a while, joining in with the actions and trying to say the words. At home Harry rarely sits down. Darren is delighted to see Harry being part of the group and enjoying himself, and he discusses all this with Surinder at the end of the session.
- How can Surinder help Darren to do more activities like this with Harry at home when he does not know many of the songs himself?
- What is Harry learning by being in the group and singing together?
- What is the benefit of Harry being able to choose a song using the picture cards?
- Why has Darren seen a new side to his child?
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