How Poems, Nursery Rhymes & Songs help kids learn

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What is a Nursery Rhyme?

A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem, rhythm or song that is taught to kids mostly when they begin to attend nursery and also by parents at home. Learning these verses and rhymes helps in the development and overall understanding of vocabulary as the child grows from being a toddler to a little boy or girl. There are many rhymes that deal with counting, alphabets, animals, and fruits, assisting the in all round development of children. Rhymes have rhythm and that encourages children to have fun with music. Moreover, these have particular actions, dances or motions which children will gradually associate with a particular song/rhyme.

Each rhyme, poem or song has a rhythm which aids kids in remembering the words they contain, ultimately helping in the development of auditory memory skills in kids. The golden age for memory development is widely believed to be between ages 6-9. During this time a child is able to memorize quickly, plus remember things for a greater span of time, rather longer than any other period of time during their life span. I have also heard it said that children, who cannot yet read, remember better than their peers who can read, as the non-readers cannot refer back to the text for information but have to remember everything they have seen or heard.

Nursery Rhymes Are Captivating and Colourful

Pre-school songs and nursery rhymes have fanciful and captivating stories, vivid language and the characters are hugely colourful, these songs and rhymes have caught the imagination of children and fascinated them for centuries additionally children have been introduced to a world that though does not exist in reality but certainly helps them expand their imaginations beyond realms of this globe. These rhymes and songs tell us about dishes that run, about people who live in shoes, an egged shaped Humptey Dumptey who sits on the wall - what better way to introduce children to the fascinating world of literature, storytelling, make-believe and play-acting.

Develop Vocabulary and Other Concepts

Typically, a nursery rhyme consists of easy to understand vocabulary plus a catchy rhyme. This allows children too easily learn to sing the nursery rhyme, and because of this particular aspect nursery rhymes are more often than not used as a means to assist young children build their vocabulary. Many a times counting is present in a nursery rhyme, thus children starting learning how to counting while having fun using nursery rhymes. Children are also taught to sing in a rhythm and then they are gradually introduced to reading the same rhyme they have been singing. Upon learning a certain nursery rhyme a child, she or he will also start following that particular rhyme or poem on the page, in this manner many children start learning the fundamentals of reading.

A large number of nursery rhymes contain mathematical concepts, such as time, height, counting, measurement, temperature, position, weather volume, etc... you can take this opportunity and use the available concepts to develop vocabulary.

Parents are encouraged to take up reading with and to their kids as this will get them excited of doing things that you read and tell them about thus assisting in enhancing their language skills.