Dance with your Baby!

Parenting tip: Dance to the rhythms of music to build communication skills.

Why?

• As you move baby’s arms & legs, you are helping her learn how to move.  By feeling her muscles and joints move together, her brain begins to create pathways that will help her make those movements, on her own, someday.
• When you move with baby, then respond to his non-verbal cues, that’s communication!  Watch for cues from baby, as you dance.  Does he smile & kick, wanting more dancing?  Is he disengaging from the activity, needing a short break?
• We help babies experience rhythm by moving along to the sounds we hear.  Later, as preschoolers, those rhythms will be given a visual component (through pictures and icons).  As students in Kindermusik Young Child classes, your child will begin labeling those rhythms, using traditional music notation. 

How?

• Have fun with the rhythm of nursery rhymes.
• Use movement and labeling to help baby experience opposites.
• To help baby feel the rhythm of a song, tap the sound of the WORDS on his body. 
• Play with the words in nursery rhymes - like playfully saying 'cackle cackle' while moving baby's arms/legs to match the words.

Want to learn more?

• On our blog – Try these 12 musical books, with baby.
• Also, read about the connection between rhythm and language development.