Joyce Bibzak, M.Ed., M.S.

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Using Music and Movement to Help Little Ones
Develop Language

• Joyce Bibzak, M.Ed., M.S.

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Introduction

• My background
• School Counselor
• Graduate Degree in Early Childhood Special
  Education from Elmhurst College
• Currently a Developmental Therapist Working with
  Toddlers and Their Families
• Last But Not Least, a Mom and a Grandmother
• Our topics will include
• Part I Effective (And Fun) Language Teaching
  Singing and Moving. But Why?
• Part II The Ear/Brain/Body Connection that
  Makes It Work and What Happens If It Doesnt
• Part III How It All Comes Together for Young
  Children

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We know that movement and music seem to help
children learn---especially language. WHY?
What is it about this particular combination of
activities that fosters the development of
language in young children?
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Finger Plays!
YOUR Favorites???
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What Do ALL Finger Plays Have In Common?
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• Common Elements of Finger Plays Using
• Music and Movement
• Rhythm
• Rhyme
• Often Melodic
• Movement of Body
• Usually Memorized
• Often Passed on Orally

So, how do all these elements come together to
teach language?
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Listening to (and processing) music
involves discriminating timbre and pitch and
recognizing familiar melodies.
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Timbre How we hear the differences between
the sounds of different instruments or voices
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Pitch How we hear the tones move up or down as
we listen
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How we remember familiar songs and melodies
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Right Frontal Lobe Timbre
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Brain PosteriorPitch Perception
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Left Frontal LobeRecognition of Familiar Song or
Melody
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When there are auditory/language processing
problems they may present as

• Child having difficulty following directions
• Difficulty rhyming words at an early age
• Comparatively underdeveloped vocabulary, grammar,
• syntax and sentence structure
• Difficulty separating meaningful sounds (i.e.
  language)
• from background noise
• Tendency to confuse similar sounding words
• Difficulty remembering and reproducing letter
  sounds

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• Did you know?...
• Language-learning difficulties (both receptive
  and expressive)
• tend to run in families, especially among male
  family members
• Research has found that many children with
  auditory/language
• processing delays also have a higher frequency
• of sensorimotor difficulties
• So
• Using multiple sensory channels and movement
• will be especially helpful in fostering their
  language development
• as well as help in sensorimotor development.

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OK Now we know how our brain hears. How does
our brain move our fingers, arms and legs to
music?
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Brain Synapses Connections and exchanges of
information from brain cell to brain cell
This is how the different parts of the brain work
together
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To move in a coordinated way, we need two main
elements
Vestibular (balance) skills and Propioceptive
skills (awareness of where our bodies are in the
space around us)
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If all the systems work together as
designed, this is what it looks and sounds like
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Video of Days of the Week and/or Head,
Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
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• Three Main Problems That Can Slow Down
• Language Acquisition Using Music and Movement
• Activities
• Vestibular (balance) problems
• Motor planning problems
• Auditory processing delay

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Physical Therapists can help children with
balance and motor planning difficulties. Speech
and Language Therapists and Learning Specialists
can help with auditory processing delays BUT WE
can help children put all these pieces together
to help them learn language. HOW?
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By teaching them to use music and movement
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In 1949, Dr. Donald Hebb determined that when
many senses are used at the same time to learn a
skill, there are more synapses firing
simultaneously in the brain. The more
synapses fired, the more brain connections are
made and the more learning is retained. This is
referred to as associative learning. In other
words, Cells that fire together, wire
together.
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Remember the elements of a finger
play? Rhyme Rhythm Often Melodic Movement of
Body Usually Memorized Usually Passed on
Orally
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Of all those elements, which do you think is
the most important to the learning of
LANGUAGE??
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ITS RHYTHM!
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Dr. Jenny R. Saffra Both music and language
require the ability to track consistent patterns
of sound and rhythm.
Dr. Phyllis Weikart Being able to keep a
steady beat helps a person to feel the cadence
(rhythm) of their particular language.
Dr. Weikart found that using rhythm sticks to tap
out syllables in words helped children develop
language.
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What is it about rhythm sticks and kazoos?
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Phyllis Weirkart Tapping and acknowledging each
words syllable is one important part of helping
children develop language. The other part is the
incorporation of the movement of the childs
hands and arms.
Brewer and Campbell (1991) Movement and
rhythm stimulate the frontal lobes and enrich
language and motor development.
Thats the rhythm sticks part now for the kazoo!
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Factoid One of the very best ways to facilitate
rhythm and movement is to stimulate the balance
(vestibular) system. One of the very best ways
to stimulate the vestibular system is the use of
Children as young as 10 months can produce sound
with a kazoo.
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Video of Small Children Playing Kazoos
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Remember us? /
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The vestibular system is also crucial to the
development of language for another reason It
enables us to move from side to side in a
coordinated fashion AND also to move our eyes
from left to right in a functional and
coordinated way. As in READING.
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Neurophysiologist Dr. Carla Hannaford states
that, the vestibular (inner ear) system and the
cerebellar (motor activity) areas are the first
sensory systems to mature. These systems
interact, conveying information back and forth
from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain,
including the visual system and sensory
cortexThis interaction helps us keep our
balance, turn thinking into actions, and
coordinate moves.
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Heres an example of children using associative
sounds, pictures, and body movements to help them
remember letter sounds.
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Video of Jolly Phonics Here.
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And this method of helping little ones learn
language is not limited to English-speaking
countries
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Video of Pakistani children and teacher here
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Video of Asian children with music and movement
here
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So, to pull it altogether We need to involve as
many senses as possible to help the brain and
its interrelated systems stimulate language
development in our smallest learners. As more
parts of the brain are being used, more synapses
are being fired, links are being made, and
senses, information and experiences
remembered. This is learning.
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Human beings learn 10 of what we read 20 of
what we hear 30 of what we observe 50 of what
we see and hear simultaneously 70 of what we
discuss 80 of what we experience and 95 of
what were taught using all channels.
Dr. Carla Hannaford, 1995
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References and Acknowledgements
Campbell, D. Brewer, D. (1991). Rhythms of
learning. Tucson, Arizona Zephyr Press. Hebb,
Donald. (1949). Quoted in online article,
Hebbian Theory. Biotiny.com, 2012. Hannaford,
C. (1995). Smart moves Why learning is not all
in the head. Arlington, VA Great Oceans
Publishing. Saffran, J. (2003). Musical learning
and language development. Annals, New York
Academy of Sciences. NY. Tallal, P. Gaab, N.
(2006). Dynamic auditory processing, musical
experience and language development Trends in
Neuroscience (2006). Weikart, P.S. (2009). The
Movement Foundation for Music A Brain/Body
Connection. Presentation delivered to Missouri
Music Educators Pre-Conference.
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Illustrations and Photographs All illustrations
and photographs used in this presentation are
available at googleimages.com All videos used as
part of this presentation are available at
googleimages.com or You Tube. The Jolly Phonics
video featuring Victoria Carrolton is available
for viewing at You Tube under the search
heading, Jolly Phonics.