Following Directions: How Music Can Help Your Child Hear & Understand
For kids who have a hard time hearing and responding when you give them directions, adding a little music or rhythm can help increase the likelihood that they will get the message.
So often as parents we get frustrated when our child doesn’t do what we ask, especially if it involves a safety concern like running into the parking lot or reaching up to touch a burning stove.
Other times it’s a little less urgent but we still need a little buy-in from our kids to keep our sanity as parents, am I right? How many times a day do you ask your kids to put on their shoes (like a million!), get in the car, pick up their toys, or don’t-get-a-snack-right-now-we’re-having-dinner-in-ten-minutes.
Sometimes it can feel like we are constantly nagging and feel like they can’t even hear us, am I right? Or who knows, maybe that’s just me!
But what if we are assuming something that makes this process more frustrating? What if we only think our child is actually hearing and understanding what we are telling them? When really for our child, all they hear is a Charlie Brown parent getting louder and louder and they’re not really sure why.
When we ask a child to follow a direction it requires at least three components.
- Hear the direction
- Understand the direction
- Feel motivated to follow the direction
As parents we so often assume that our child hears and understands us, but what if we’re wrong? What if some of the time they are so engrossed in whatever they’re doing that they don’t actually make sense of what we’re asking them to do?
If the first two components aren’t there, nothing will happen.
The key is to never assume your child hears you and understands you completely. As much as you think they do, you as a parent can maintain so much more sanity if you put extra effort into making sure they know and comprehend exactly what you are asking of them, and how to do it.
How to Help Your Child Hear & Understand Using Music
This technique focuses on the first two steps of hearing and understanding the direction. Because if they don’t understand what you’re saying, it’s impossible for them to respond the way you hope!
(Please note that the child being motivated to follow the direction is an entirely different subject, and is more related to behavior and emotional responses rather than simply understanding spoken language–that’s a topic for another day!)
But back to the first two components: it’s important to realize that some kids with Autism or other sensory disorders are actually unable to process multiple sensory experiences at once. So if you want them to look at you while you talk, they might only see you but not hear your words. Or they might close their eyes or look away so they can understand. Or, if they are focused on something else they may quite literally not even hear what you’re saying, even if it looks like they do!
So the technique for improving your child’s receptive language is this: Add a little rhythm or melody when you speak to your child.
Why, you ask?
Spoken language is processed only in the left hemisphere of the brain, but music is processed ALL over the brain. When you add musical elements such as melody and rhythm to regular spoken language, it lights up other areas of the brain that were otherwise untapped. And those might be the exact areas your child needs to tune in and hear you.
For a child who struggles to process language or shift their attention, giving their brain a little boost through music is going to increase the likelihood that they hear and understand what you are saying.
Pretty cool, right?
So this is what you do.
Take a typical direction like “put on your shoes”, “get in the car”, or “get ready for bed”, then make a little song out of it. It might look like this (by the way, scroll down for a video that demonstrates these directions!):
Put on your shoes
Put on your shoes
Put them on your feet, oh
Put on your shoe
Or…
Get in the car
Get in the car
Open the door and
Get in the car
Or…
Let’s get ready for bed
Let’s get ready for bed
Potty, pajamas, brush your teeth,
Let’s get ready for bed
As you sing or add rhythm to directions, the likelihood of your child hearing and understanding you goes WAY up. And for kids who need a little extra help to pay attention, it can make ALL the difference.
So try it out with your child, and if you get stuck and need a little help to figure out how to make a specific directive into a song please let us know—we are MORE than happy to help!
If you see your child respond well to music and would love to see what else it can do for them, request your FREE music therapy trial session with Harmony Music Therapy. It’s a great opportunity to see exactly what music therapy will look like for your child, and we can give you some great tips to use at home!
https://harmonymusictherapy.com//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUFc9VbxeWY
