Fun Way to Practice Listening Skills

Fun Way to Practice Listening Skills

 

Today's post has some great ideas on practicing listening skills by following the cuckoo bird throughout a few fun symphony pieces.  I write a few times a month for Dandelion Magazine's Blog at www.godandelion.com .  

 

 Dandelion Magazine is a local magazine for families with special needs.  Please head over there and read "Follow the Cuckoo! A Fun Way to Practice Listening Skills."

Thank you!

 

 

Bird Songs and Nature - Healthy for You and Your Mind!

Every weekend for the last few months,  my family and I have been visiting with wildlife in the middle of a beautiful preserve. There are so many wild flowers and trees. The whole walk/hike is serenaded by wild birds singing their signature songs. It is so pretty and so relaxing to be out in nature- even with 2 children who don't know the meaning of relax! The trails are just right for little ones and beginning hikers, even limited walkers could enjoy shortened trails. And we get to hear birds singing!

Enjoying the wildflowers

The place we have been going to is the Cosumnes River Preserve. If it is not close to where you live, then I would challenge you to find a bike trail or hiking trail near your home that gets you out into nature. We all need to get away from the noise of our neighborhoods and listen to the quiet! It is so healthy for you!

The other night, I was reading a chapter in The Power of Music by Elena Mannes that spoke about what happens to our brains when we hear birdsongs. Studies have been done to analyze brain activity when subjects listen to human song and to birdsong. She explains "the scans showed the listeners showed more emotion when they heard birdsong as compared to listening to beautfiul songs sung by a human voice. "

Walking the trail

Later she writes, "One possible explanation for the increased brain activity when subjects listened to birdsong is that they were trying to find the patterns in the birdsong: human song is more familiar."

I knew we were more relaxed and happy after an afternoon of listening to birds singing. But now, it is possible that we were also stimulating our brains while listening to the music of nature!

Looking at pretty flowers

By stimulating our brains, we are staying mentally healthy. Making new neurological pathways is always a great idea.

I want to challenge you this summer to find a place in nature for your family to enjoy. You can find an easy hike like we did, go to a quiet lake or pond in a park. Get away from the loud noises of city life and hear the birds!

Carolyn, at Wise Owl Factory has made a wonderful Nature Walk checklist and a Bird checklist.  Print them out and take them with you to add to the fun!

Free Bird Walk Pages

                        Nature Walk Take Along

I was so amazed at all the different birdsongs, I made a short video. If you can't see the video, click here.

We were amazed today to see a coyote playing with something in the grass!  We watched for about 5 minutes before he heard us and took off running.  It was awesome to see!

Coyote in the Grass

For another nature idea please read Take a Nature Sound Walk.

Getting Life in Balance and Calming Music

As some of you know, I was hit by a car while crossing the street in the crosswalk.  It has been a difficult 3 weeks but I am doing a lot better. 

I have written several articles on the Dandelion blog that you might be interested in.

Dandelion is a magazine for families with special needs who live in the Sacramento and San Francisco areas.  I write on their blog several times a month concerning music for the family and special needs children. 

The first article I wrote about the accident was An "I Can Do Everything" Mom Learns Her Limits.  This doesn't have anything to do with music but life as a mom who is on the go, full speed ahead, and then -bam! is on the couch after the accident.

The next one is The Calming Power of Music which is about me not being able to sleep at night without calming music.  My favorite music to relax to is Midori Bali: Reflection of a Tranquil Paradise.  It is full of nature sounds and calming instrumental music. 

How do you stay in balance?

What music helps you relax?

Music + Family = Love

Music and family time go together like peanut butter and jelly.  They were made for each other.  There are so many musical activities families can do together.  Children want their parents to sing and dance with them whether at home or in a class designed for the whole family.  Parents’ involvement is an important part of the pleasure of music for children.

Family Music Night

Listen and sing to your favorite albums together.  Children want you to hear their favorite music and they also want to hear yours!  It doesn’t always have to be about children’s music even though that can be fun too.

Dinner Variation

Have everyone bring their favorite song or two to dinner and play everyone’s songs through out dinner.  Everyone will feel important picking and playing music for the family.  The dinner music might be extremely varied from Bach to The Wiggles or from Taylor Swift to Cold Play.  But your kids will love knowing you cared to listen to their music.

Follow the Leader

Put on dance music and take turns being the dance teacher.  Let your child be the leader and follow his moves.  Then take a turn and teach them some of your moves.  The moves can be real dance moves or simple movements such as jumping up and down, twirling and kicking.  The important thing is to have fun!

Take in a Parade

Go to a parade together and listen to the marching bands and other music.

Free Concerts

Many park and recreation departments put on free concerts in the summer time.  Go together as a family and enjoy listening to live music.

For Babies

Sing lullabies as you cuddle and rock your baby to sleep.  It’s okay if your voice will not get you on American Idol.  To your baby, you will sound like an angel!

Children are so happy when parents sing and make music with them.  Music brings families together, creating memories in the process.

Using Music to Improve Social Reading

Is my friend happy?

Is my brother sad?

Did I just make the grocery clerk angry?

To read these people’s emotions, we need to look at their facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice and feel the tension in the air.  It takes a combination of insights to accurately read how a person is feeling. Some children are really good at seeing how people feel and other children walk through life unconcerned about anyone else’s emotions or feelings. Using music is a  great way to practice social reading.

Music conveys emotions and feelings and we can make a game out of figuring out what the music is trying to tell us.

Does this song sound happy or sad?

Put on some music without lyrics and ask how the music makes you feel.  Music is full of complex emotions and is a great place to start. Either simply listen to the music or have your child act as the conductor as you play the music.  Explain that the conductor doesn’t dance but helps the musicians know what emotions and feelings the music is conveying.

Just like our tone of speech tells if we are happy or sad, the key the music is written and played in tells if it is happy or sad.  Major tones tend to be happy and carefree.  Minor tones are often heard as sad and gloomy.

As you listen to the music, ask:

Is the music fast or slow?

Is it happy or sad?

Is it bouncy like a rabbit or flowing like an ice skater?

Is it loud or soft?

Is it peaceful or agitating?

Is it soothing like a lullaby or upbeat like a marching song?

How does the music make you feel?

Classical music is full of emotions, changing from one emotion to another and then back again.  See if you and your child can follow these emotional changes.

In the beginning you should point out these feelings and then after some practice your child might start understanding and pick up on the emotions himself.  Music is a great tool for teaching and practicing social reading.  With some practice your child will be able to better understand the people around him.

Song ideas to start with:

Bach’s Toccata in D Minor – written for the church but because of the minor tones we associate it with Halloween music

Haydn’s Surprise Symphony – loud and soft and full of surprises!

Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony- happy music for children- full of birds and cuckoo clock sounds

Handel’s Minuet from Water Music – written for royalty, your child will want to get up and dance the Minuet

Rodeo by Aaron Copeland- very patriotic- your child will want to gallop like a horse

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – Can you pick out the seasons by the music?

Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata -full of emotion

One Ear at a Time

“Children can learn almost anything if they are dancing, tasting, touching, hearing, seeing and feeling information.”  -Jean Houston, Educating the Human Brain

I love this quote.  It makes me think of a perfectly happy child spinning in circles as she is singing and dancing barefoot in a field of green grass and wild flowers with an orchestra of musicians playing beautiful music for her.  Wouldn’t that be the ideal way to learn?  Carefree and happy.

Unfortunately that is not the way it usually works out for our children.

So many of my students have a hard time listening.  Some can’t hear well.  Some have trouble processing the information that is spoken to them.  Some are so easily distracted they can’t pay attention to what is being said because they are off doing something else. 

This week I was reading a book that explained that some children can’t process information when it is spoken to them.  But when the same instructions are sung to them, they are better able to understand and follow through.

Children with attention problems often have hearing problems.  And it is possible that one ear is better at hearing than the other.  So you need to speak or sing into each ear, one at a time.

In one of my singing classes, there are a couple of 7 year old girls who have a hard time paying attention.  I know they wait all week for singing class.  They love singing and learning new songs.  But when they see each other they can’t keep their hands off each other and start doing cartwheels and pulling on each other for the entire hour.  Now, in my classes we start off with a lot of moving and dancing.  So I am not expecting them to sit in chairs and pay close attention.  I understand children need to move and stomp and feel the rhythms with their entire bodies.  But when it is time to sing I still want them to sing.    

So I decided to do an experiment. 

Deliberate Movements

Instead of watching them do random movements such as cartwheels and flips, I initiated the movements for each voice warm-up.  During one warm-up, we held hands and swung them back and forth to the beat.  The constant movement helped them pay attention to their singing.

Singing and Speaking in Each Ear

During other warm-ups, I walked around the room bending down and singing in each girl’s ear.  This worked like a miracle!  One student, who always sings too high, off pitch, matched my voice as I was singing in her ear.  It got her attention and she was able to hear my voice and sing on pitch. 

I continued singing in their ears, going from one ear to the other so that both ears got a chance to hear my voice up close.  I loved how easy it was for them to then sing on pitch the rest of the class time.

Singing Directions

This week, I also tried singing instructions to my classes instead of just saying them.  It did get the children’s attention faster and they were quicker to jump up and follow me to the next activity.

Singing for Speech Therapy

I decided to try the ear experiment at home with my 4 year old daughter.  She has a hard time saying some of her sounds.  We have been working on the” th” sound for words like the, that and this. 

I leaned over close to her ear and sang “the” to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. Then I leaned over to the other ear and sang the same thing.  When I was done I asked her to say “the” and she said it exactly how she heard me say it!  It was wonderful.  She has not continued to say “th” sounds correctly in her regular speech but when I chant them in her ear she will say it correctly.  So she can do it!  She just needs to keep practicing and hearing it clearly spoken to her.

Some children have a hard time listening.  Some can’t hear well.  Others have a hard time processing what is said to them.  Some are easily distracted.  One way to help these children is to sing to them, one ear at a time!

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if everyone sang to their children as they gave directions and taught them new things?  Our children could be dancing and singing as they were learning.  A lot more happy and carefree!

Which Music Will Calm My Child? Which Music Will Get My Child Moving?

Music has the ability to change our feelings and behaviors.  Slow, soft music can make us feel calm and relaxed.  While fast music with a lot of rhythm can make us feel energized and get us dancing.  Parents have asked me to suggest music for their child to listen to while falling asleep or to get them moving. 

We all know each person is made up of body, mind and spirit.  Did you know that music is made of three components that match those parts?  The three parts of music are rhythm, melody, and harmony.

 Rhythm affects our body and stimulates our arms and legs.  Percussion is the group in the orchestra that provides rhythm.  Percussion instruments include the drums, cymbals and shakers.

 Melody affects our mind and stimulates our head.  The woodwind instruments, such as the flute, clarinet, and oboe provide melody. 

Harmony affects our spirit and touches our hearts.  The string instruments provide the harmony in the orchestra.  Violin, viola and cello are string instruments.

The goal is to select music to stimulate or calm the body, mind and spirit in order to create balance.

Not everyone will react the same way to a piece of music.  So I can suggest pieces to play for your child but you will have to see her reaction to it to determine if it is right for her.

Most of these suggestions are classical music and that is because classical music usually contains all three parts:  rhythm, melody and harmony that is necessary for balance.

Stimulating Music

Children who are lethargic or have weak limbs need to be stimulated with rhythm.  They need rhythmic percussion to invigorate them.

For children with weak muscles and limbs and to energize sleepy bodies play stimulating music with the volume slightly louder than usual.

“Bolero” by Ravel-orchestra

“Mephisto Waltz” by Liszt – piano

“Stars and Stripes Forever” by Sousa-marching band

“German Dance” by Mozart- orchestra

“The Toy Symphony” by Leopold Mozart-orchestra with horn and glockenspiel calling out “cuckoo”

Calming Music

Hyperactive children can be calmed by playing music with more melody and harmony and less rhythm and percussion.  Instead of being physically and mentally active she will be relaxed and soothed.

“Romeo and Juliet” by Tchaikovsky-symphony orchestra

“Carmen Suite” Nos. 1-2 by Bizet – orchestra with a lot of wind instruments

“Andantino from the Flute Quartet in C Major” by Mozart-orchestra with a lot of flutes

Music for Anxiety

Anxious children respond well to music that has pronounced rhythm and melody

Waltzes by Strauss- orchestra

Anything by Mozart but you can start with the “Adagio from the Divertimento in B Flat (K. 287)” The Italian word adagio means “to put at ease”.

Music for Chronically Ill

Soft music is wonderful for chronically ill children

“La Mer” by Debussy-orchestra

“Andantino from the Flute Quartet in C Major (K.171)” by Mozart-orchestra

Music for Emotionally Sensitive Children

Children who are emotionally sensitive need a lot of harmony in music.

“Jupiter Symphony” by Mozart-orchestra

My Favorite Sleeping Music.

Classical music has a calming effect that helps children fall asleep.

Some studies also show playing classical music as children are falling asleep and waking up can reduce the incidences of seizures since episodes frequently occur just before or after falling asleep and soon after awakening.

My girls’ favorite nighttime music is “Classical Naptime for Tots”.  It has a variety of classics from Bach, Debussy, Beethoven and Puccini

They also love Jewel’s Lullaby CD from Fisher Price

My Favorite Stimulating Music

“Jazz for Kids” is a favorite to play while using all kinds of rhythm instruments like sticks, bells and maracas.  It features Jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing child friendly jazz songs.

“First Steps in Classical Music:  Keeping the Beat!” is a favorite full of classical pieces to play with rhythm instruments.

Everyone has different musical preferences. Try these suggestions and see how your family responds.  If the song doesn’t work for you and your child then skip it and move on to another piece.  In order to save costs, you can find most of these songs on You Tube and these CD’s at the local library.