Nursery rhymes and cognitive development in preschool children

Lullabies, sung or read, with or without actions, are a rich way to extend your baby’s life and

the cognitive development of the preschool child.

Children’s songs have a long history: they are sung, recited or read, some have actions and are often passed down to you by your parents. Aren’t they dating? Don’t you want to give your baby the best and the most up-to-date?

The fact is, the baby won’t mind. If it feels natural to you, and it will be, if you were also sung to as a child, in whatever language your mother tongue is, then it’s perfect to pass on to your little one too. They do not know that some, at least in English, are about 500 years old. They will come to recognize the words, the melodies, the actions.

They are always at hand. Amuse a child on a long car ride – how many nursery rhymes can you remember? Or while the baby is waiting for his food, he may always respond to ‘Baa baa black sheep’ when he sings it, or ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’.

Then there is language development. Strong rhymes can lead baby to predict the next word and join in, long before that word is part of their spoken vocabulary: ‘I once saw a little bird / Coming hop, hop -‘ ‘Hop!’ your little one screams with joy. The word for a nursery rhyme can be a request for everyone. ‘Oh dear’ (sung) was a toddler’s way of requesting a nursery rhyme session at the piano at sixteen months. And the word ‘spider’ or seeing one, real or in a picture, would lead to an attempt to perform the actions of ‘Ipsey wipsey spider raised the waterspout’, even at thirteen months. Another, at twelve months, would respond to the sung ‘Twinkle twinkle’, or a star shape seen, with the diamond shape on the fingers.

Some of the actions are very dramatic. ‘This is the way ladies ride / Tri, tre, tre, tree, tri tre tre tree’ with its ending in which the butcher boy says ‘bumpety bumpety bumpety – off’ – all so exciting inside (and outside ) from the knee of an officiating adult.

Some of the words are old-fashioned, even archaic, but any language of this age is a good language, and if used correctly it can be perfectly understood. At three years old, a girl still used childish language, so she begged to be picked up: ‘Uff uff, or my heart will break’, a phrase her brother used at six months when he was trapped in a fence ‘Help me o My heart will break! ‘(the lullaby is’ There was a lady who loved a pig’)

But aren’t they full of violence and death? Everybody seems to know the (aporyphal) story that ‘Ring a ring a rosies / a pocket full of corsages’ is about the plague. But it doesn’t matter to a child, who really enjoys playing and falling. In fact, another child used the word ‘awfawdow’ (‘everyone falls down’) when looking at any nursery rhyme book, or even when seeing a parent sitting on the floor. But there is also death and violence, in terms the child can understand: ‘Goosy goosy gander’ has’ an old man ‘thrown down the stairs,’ Solomon Grundy ” died on Saturday, buried on Sunday ‘and’ Who killed Cock ? Robin? ‘(‘ a sparrow with an arrow ‘answered a child immediately upon hearing the phrase as the title of a picture book). Once, these casual glances at death could have prepared children (just a little bit) for the deaths of siblings and even parents, which were far more common than they are now. Today rhymes are just part of the cycle of life and death, which most of today’s fortunate children learn through the life and death of pets and grandparents.

Well, I can hear you say, some of them aren’t bullshit? Yes, of course that is true. There are the most open ones like ‘Two children sliding on the ice, / All on a summer day’ and the more subtle ones that tell stories that are simply impossible ‘There was an old woman who lived in a shoe’. But nonsense, puns, fantasy, and imagination are all ways the young child learns about reality as well. They can laugh at these rhymes backwards, understanding the humor and its unreality.

In short, offer nursery rhymes to your baby from birth. They will give infinite pleasure to the little one and will also remind you of your own childhood.