Why Nursery Rhymes?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again

Songs and rhymes for young children have been passed down for generations. They’re fun, children love them and they provide a warm nurturing experience between parent and child. Even more, rhymes and chants have vast amounts of literary and educational value. Let’s answer the question, why nursery rhymes?

Ah, language development, a favorite topic of mine and also one so enormous it is hard to share knowledge enough to properly give claim to its significance. As children recite rhymes, they are learning new vocabulary, how to articulate words, proper and adventurous syntactical structure of sentences, and to modulate their voices and enunciate clearly. The words used in nursery rhymes and songs help a child develop language comprehension as they learn to associate key words with people, objects and events in their daily lives. Nursery rhymes foster responsiveness and, through repetition, to anticipate what’s coming next. They are practicing pitch, rhythm, volume and voice inflection all the while they are learning to manipulate and use language to their advantage. Young children are able to respond to rhythm and tone before they understand language but both have common foundation of tone patterns, stress and rhythm.

Studies have suggested that a child who knows at least eight nursery rhymes upon entering public school is going to be a better reader. Why? Before a child can comprehend text, a child must establish metalinguistic skills, the ability to create a mental picture of what she interprets from the texts. Nursery rhymes are a beautiful template for such a visual masterpiece. A child will learn story sequence, to count and learn concepts such as many, few, beside, plenty, middle-sized and so many more. Nursery rhymes provide a world rich in language, both imaginary and real.

People learn differently and, to state the apparent, have different strengths and strategies for learning. Hense, the different intelligences have been established, a topic of discussion all on its own. Songs, chants and nursery rhymes engage different or additional parts of the brain than language alone because of their melodic nature. A child who demonstrates a delay in language often needs multiple avenues of learning potential. Putting information to rhythm stimulates more parts of the brain and studies have suggested music to be a useful tool for learning (a topic we will address on its own in the near future). Nursery rhymes, when repeated over and over again to a child, provide a script for the child and when strategically used, can target specific areas of learning. The Crooked Man, my son’s favorite rhyme, can teach past tense /-ed/, and For Want of a Nail, my older son’s favorite rhyme, teaches cause and effect and was template enough for him to create his own rhyme titled, For Want of a Lego. My two year old daughter knows and loves Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat and learned to use the wh-question “Where have you been?” in a variety of contexts.

Nursery rhymes, to be most effective, should be repeated over and over again. Repetition of storybooks, rhymes and chants is critical for learning, especially regarding young children. Because of this, I wanted my nursery rhyme book to be full of common, well-known rhymes with grand illustrations. I found my treasure in the book Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose illustrated by Scott Gustafson (a book discovered and recommended to me by my co-blogger and good friend, Lindsay). My children and I know this book and love this book and it is one we visit regularly. The illustrations are delightful and imaginative, perfect depictions for mental images to establish themselves. Now that we know the rhymes, we enjoy the ABC Rap which recites the alphabet to a new and quick rap rhythm followed by a recitation of a nursery rhyme to the same rhythm. We go until we can think of no more nursery rhymes. To my husband’s disgruntle, it has proven to be our favorite extended car activity.

Nursery rhymes are to be shared and adored together. On our quest to bring you useful knowledge and skill to enhance and delight your child’s learning within the wonderful world of language, we remind you first of nursery rhymes, a way to bond your child with language as well as you with your child.

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider who sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away.