Over the many years I have been doing this, I can 100% tell you the toys that parents wish they didn’t have in their house are musical instruments. As a parent myself, I get it! While they can be hard to tolerate sometimes, they can be great toys to teach speech and language skills! Using a drum, children can learn exclamatory sounds like “boom”, “bam”, “bang”. Also, you can tap out syllables or words in a rhythm that some children will imitate more easily than just hearing us say it(Mama, Dada, Baba). Using a xylophone, you can model “lalala” or “ding-ding-ding” as you play the different keys of the octave(or really any sound you want). This can also make your child aware of the various tones our voices can make! Using an instrument they can blow through(recorder, horn, harmonica, kazoo, etc) can provide them more awareness of their mouth. It also teaches them how to use their breath, lips, tongue, cheeks together to produce sounds(which they need to coordinate for speech too!). When they are blowing through something, their lips are rounded, their tongue is down and slightly back, and their cheeks have to “hold” the air in. Speech sounds can’t occur if systems don’t work together in coordination! The part of our brains that processes music occurs in a different part from where language occurs. Music can trigger neurons to fire in one hemisphere, while language is being triggered by neurons firing in the other. This creates a way for our hemispheres to “communicate” and work together! Musical instruments can be a fun, motivating way for children to practice using sounds, which eventually turn into words!
Sounds/Words to include: drum, piano, xylophone, whistle, horn, flute, bells, guitar, bang, boom, bam, lalala, ding-dong, blow, play, tap, hit, shake, etc.
*Create your own musical instruments from what you already have! Kitchen utensils and bowls/leftover containers can be a drum and drum sticks. Straws can be whistles, empty paper towel rolls can be horns, glasses can be different tones like piano keys(but be careful!), etc. Have fun!