Songs and rhymes help them:
* To get to know and bond with other people in their lives
* To hear the sounds and rhythms of language
* To explore the meaning of words
* To play with sounds expressively
* To learn about time and phases in time, such as the way events follow each other
* To experience different emotions and to either 'wind up' or 'wind down'.
Learning to communicate is about learning to share meanings with others, to recognise the intentions of others. Songs and rhymes are valuable because they have a fixed structure with which babies can become familiar. Then they begin to recognise and anticipate what comes next - in other words, to sense what the adult 'has in mind' and is communicating to them. This is a very important step. This is why the simplest children's rhymes, such as 'round and round the garden, like a teddy bear', are often the best.
What most adults will do intuitively is to repeat the rhyme, but when they repeat it, to do it different ways - speeding up, or doing it very slowly, delaying the tickly moment. Everyone knows how much pleasure small children get from these rhymes - it is not just the fun of being tickled, but the pleasure they get from the anticipation, getting to know from your actions what will come next.
Find a song or rhyme for different times, such as:
* Lifting them out of the cot
* Nappy changing
* Putting them in the car seat/buggy
* Soothing them before sleep Having songs or rhymes that you always sing for certain activities can be very reassuring for babies.
* Find more ideas at the Music One2One website: education@ exeter.ac.uk/music-one2one.