Preschool Songs and Movement: Cognition, Language, and the Intuitive Thought Substage

Songs Chosen

The songs that I chose are ‘The ants go marching’ and 'Freeze Game'. The song 'The ants go marching' is about ants marching to the ground to shelter from the rain. As they march, the number of ants is increasing progressively and the little one is stopping to do various things such as tying the shoes. In singing this song, I marched around the house while raising my fingers to indicate the number of ants. As the song goes by, I stop to mimic the different actions performed by the little ant such as sucking my thumb, tying my shoes, climbing a tree, shutting the door, taking a dive, picking up sticks, roller skating, checking the time, and shouting the 'END'. The freeze game is about children engaging in different actions and stopping when the song says FREEZE. I danced to the lyrics, hopped around, skipped around, twirled around, and stopped when I heard FREEZE.

Developmental Connections

'The Ants go marching' song plays a crucial role in the child's language development, cognitive development, and motor skills development. This song contributes to the child's language development as children are able to know in words and actions the different actions that the little ants make. As the ants march, the number of ants increases progressively. This will improve the child’s cognitive development as the song will give the child an opportunity to perfect their counting by demonstrating the number of ants with their fingers. Additionally, the song enhances the child's motor skills since as they move around, they can develop balance, agility, and control over their body movements.

The freeze game enhances the child’s cognitive skills, physical skills, and socio-emotional skills. Freeze game promotes the child’s cognitive development by enhancing their problem-solving skills and their abilities to remember. While singing this song, the children must listen for cues to different actions, memorize dance moves, and stop immediately when the music stops playing. The song contributes to the child’s physical development by enhancing their balance, coordination, and motor skills. Additionally, the freeze game enhances the child’s social-emotional skills. The dance encourages the child to cooperate and follow rules by moving and stopping as instructed.

Importance of Songs and Movement in Learning

Child play songs enhance their physical, language, emotional, social, cognitive, and moral development. The songs enhance the children's physical skills as jumping, clapping, movements, and dancing in the songs enhance their strength, balance, and coordination (Selmani, 2024). Activities such as singing, dancing, and learning rhymes enhance the children’s language and communication skills by enabling them to learn new ideas, words, and rhythms. Songs also play a crucial role in enhancing children's emotional development by enabling them to develop empathy for others, build self-esteem, and regulate emotions. Singing in groups enables children to develop connection and a sense of belonging with others (Selmani, 2024). Through songs and movement, children learn about different social skills such as cooperation, sharing, and teamwork. Songs and dance help children develop cognitive skills such as spatial reasoning, attention, and memory and this translates into critical thinking skills and creativity (Selmani, 2024). Additionally, songs enhance moral development as most songs carry themes of sharing, kindness, and environmental conservation.

Piaget’s Intuitive Thought Substage

The intuitive Thought substage lasts from 4 to 7 years and it is characterized by more intuitive thinking and not perception. At this stage, children ask a lot of questions in an attempt to understand the world around them. At this stage, songs and movement expand a child's knowledge through symbolic representation; songs enable children to engage in imaginative play and make sense of what is happening around them (Cherry, 2022). Children in the intuitive thought substage have limited conservation understanding. Songs and movements centered around the theme of quantity and appearance are crucial in helping children understand this concept. Additionally, at this stage, children exhibit egocentric thinking where they do not understand the different perspectives of others, and through songs and movement, children understand more the concept of diversity and learn to work together.

References

• Cherry, K. (2022). The preoperational stage of cognitive development. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/preoperational-stage-of-cognitive-development-2795461
• Selmani, T. A. (2024). The influence of music on the development of a child: Perspectives on the influence of music on child development. EIKI Journal of Effective Teaching Methods, 2(1). https://journals.eikipub.com/index.php/jetm/article/view/162