Are you tired of singing the same song or reading the same book over and over to your young students or child? Each year there seems to be a particular song that is on your toddler’s playlist on repeat. Just think that the research says that with the use of contextual repetition a child will actually learn more new words than if you were to read several different books or sing different songs with the same target words. ( Horst 2013). Repeating is an important part of language development.
I love using songs and visuals in my treatment with children. This is why I create differentiated books and songs that I can use with groups of children. My resources are centered on a theme and are introduced in a treatment session and then used in their circle time activity.
I began to notice that there were some songs that the students consistently asked for when allowed the choice. I use a song choice card which gives the child some autonomy as well as gives me information on the individual preference. The more that they repeated the song or book the more language I was getting from them.
I began then to use the same structure of the song or book to create new materials. There was the repetition of the structure and in the case of the songs, the same melody but might have a different theme. By only changing one part of the song/book allowed me to focus on the theme vocabulary.
A child does not learn a word hearing it only once. A child needs to hear a vocabulary multiple times to be able to connect to other words they know. Something that I noticed and used in my therapy is gradually releasing the responsibility of singing the song to the child. It follows the strategy “I do”, “We do” “You do”. This demonstration, prompt, and practice assist the child. When I combine this with repeating the song over and over the practice creates the opportunity for a child to lea
My newest series of songs are based on Monkeys Jumping On the Bed. This is a really fun song that is great combined with movement that has children giggling. I began with having ghosts for Halloween jumping on the bed. Then for Thanksgiving, it was the turkeys that were having fun on the bed. Santa watched and was concerned when the elves were jumping on the bed. The repetition of the lyrics with minimal changes increases a student’s ability to independently sing the song as well as to learn the new seasonal vocabulary.
REFERENCES:
- Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: ASCD
- .Horst, J. S., Parsons, K. L., and Bryan, N. M. (2011a). Get the story straight: contextual repetition promotes word learning from storybooks. Front. Psychol. 2:17. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00017
- Horst JS (2013) Context and repetition in word learning. Front. Psychol. 4:149. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00149
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