Language Development
When children hear nursery rhymes, they hear
the sounds vowels and consonants make. They
learn how to put these sounds together to
make words.
They also practice pitch, volume, and voice
inflection, as well as the rhythm of language.
For example, listen to how you sound when you
ask questions. Do you sound different when
you tell a story?
In nursery rhymes, children hear new words
that they would not hear in everyday language
(like fetch and pail in “Jack and Jill went up the
hill to fetch a pail of water”).
Nursery rhymes are short and easy to
repeat, so they become some of a child’s first
sentences.