Singing Can Help Children with Their Reading Skills 唱歌有助孩子閱讀
Q : My kid’s playgroup teacher says that singing is really helpful for his development. Why?
A : Your child has a great teacher! Most people think singing is just a fun hobby, but your teacher is one step ahead. He is more focused on the importance of singing and its impact on the early development of children, particularly on their literacy skills. Singing is one of the best ways to develop all-around skills for children, and it is also important when learning to read.
You can understand it like this. You may be familiar with phonics, one of the most basic English skills. Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing of the English language by developing learners' phonemic awareness, such as "b" in "bat". In English, there may be multiple sounds associated with certain letters. For example, the letter “C” is associated with at least three sounds: (1) The "c" sound in "Cat" is called a "hard" sound; (2) the "c" sound in “Circle” is called a "soft" sound and (3) there is also the “Ch” sound in the word "Cheese".
If the child has never learned pronunciation before in kindergarten or first-grade, s/he may be a lot slower or might have speech difficulties compared to other students. S/he will simply just hear sounds, rather than interpret them as texts.
Singing can be of great help for children when they are learning to read. When children are learning to sing a song, they do not need to study. Singing a song over and over again can help them consciously recognize different sounds. Because songs are full of rhythm, different sounds, and alliterations, they are actually subconsciously learning the relationships between the letters and the respective sounds of the spoken language.
Therefore, the conclusion is: SING! Teach your child traditional children's songs, their favourite rock, pop or cartoon theme songs, or you may even compose a song for them. You will instill your child a life-long love for learning and give them a good foundation for their literacy skills.
Q : 我的子女的學習小組老師說唱歌對孩子十分重要。為什麼呢?
A : 你的子女有個非常好的導師！有很多人一直只視唱歌為小朋友享受而好玩有趣的玩意。但這個老師卻可想多一步，他專注於兒童早期發展的方面，並且沒有像其他人一樣忽略了唱歌對讀寫能力的重要性。唱歌是小朋友全能發展的最佳方式之一，而且對於學習閱讀也至關重要。
你可這樣理解的。您可能熟悉稱為拼音的英文技能。拼音是教孩子們字母的特定的聲音，如“bat”中的“b”聲。在英語中，有很多的聲音要學習，孩子們也必須學會某些字母可以發出多個聲音，如字母c。 “cat”中的“c”的聲音被稱為“hard”，而“c”的聲音在圓圈中被稱為“soft”。字母c也會發“ch”的聲音，如“cheese”。所以，至少有三個聲音與單獨的字母c相關聯。
當孩子們在學習閱讀時，這對孩子們來說可以是有很大的幫肋。如果兒童以前沒有接觸過、學習過字母的發音，那麼在幼兒園或一年級教室裡，有關語音的課題可能會比其他學生學習得較慢，甚至變成不可能的任務。因為會令小朋友只是為了聽到他們的聲音，在不清楚字音和文字的聯繫下學習。
同樣地在唱歌上：歌曲都是可以被發音和被聽到。為了學習一首歌，孩子們無需讀書。而且因為歌曲充滿了韻律，韻律和不同的音色，他們實際上是正在學習語言的聲音。一遍又一遍地唱歌最喜愛的歌曲，幫助孩子們有意識地識別聲音，並且能夠操縱它們。
所以結論是：唱出來！唱傳統的兒童歌曲，或是教孩子們自己喜歡的搖滾或流行歌曲，或是卡通動話的主題曲，甚至是你們一起創作的歌曲。你都將會灌輸孩子終身對語言愛好，並給予她學習閱讀所需的基礎。
