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Communication is more than words. It is music. It is movement.
One summer, when I was an undergraduate student, I volunteered for a few days at a summer camp for kids with special needs ranging from mobility issues to cognitive challenges. One nine-year-old boy did not speak, but he had a favorite song that he would "beep." ("Beep" is the musical vocalization he used in place of words.) If you "beeped" the first melodic phrase to him, he would "beep" the second phrase back to you. For him, communication was music.
Recently, my niece turned one. She's still in the baby babbling stage, but when we say "dance!" that little being lights up. She places her hands palm to palm and shakes from side to side. For her, communication is movement.
Throughout the world there are music and movement traditions that bring people together, from songs for holidays and special occasions to dances and sports ingrained in culture. Not only can music and movement provide common ground and shared experiences for various peoples of various ages, they also involve the multiple intelligences - and not just the musical and kinesthetic ones. Connecting to and working with others through music involves our emotional (intrapersonal) and social (interpersonal) intelligences. Physical activity benefits our mood and ability to learn as our body produces "feel-good" chemicals, such as endorphins and serotonin. From an early literacy perspective, music and singing are crucial in developing phonological and phonemic awareness, and moving to or playing with rhymes and stories aids vocabulary acquisition, comprehension, and narrative skills.
In addition to these positives, our library staff has noticed that the current slogan for our Gotta Move! program ("An active storytime for the young and the restless!") tends to attract caregivers who feel that the child in his/her care would normally be unwelcome, disruptive, or too active at other story based programs. For these reasons, the Gotta Move! (Music, Movement, and Early Literacy) program at my library has been well received by current as well as new patrons.
The Gotta Move !Program
The Gotta Move! program has its roots in the Mother Goose on the Loose (www.mgol.net) model established by librarian Betsy Diamant- Cohen.1 It has been adapted to connect with the six early literacy...