Did you know that your child can hear even before he or she is born? The ear is the first sensory organ to develop during pregnancy.
Hearing also plays a special role in babies and toddlers. Babies can recognize the voice of their caregiver at an early age. Hearing is important for perceiving the environment and learning to speak. Since young children cannot yet read, they are especially dependent on hearing. They enjoy being read to or listening to audio stories.
From kindergarten age at the latest, children are fascinated by audio media such as music, podcasts and radio plays. Many children like to use their own listening box for this. From kindergarten age, you can produce little audio stories together or try out games with sounds. This trains accurate listening and helps to learn to speak well. Here are a few options.
You can go for a walk with small children from the age of 3 and listen carefully: What do we hear? What actually makes a noise? Tip: close your eyes – then your ears will perceive even more.
When your child is a little older, you can go on a sound safari together. Every smartphone has a built-in microphone, and many also have an app for recording voice memos. Go outside, e.g. into the forest. Collect different sounds together and record them. Do you and your child recognize the sounds afterwards? If you are out with several children, you can make a sound puzzle out of it and let each other guess which sounds were recorded.
Speaking needs to be practiced – and is particularly fun for children when they are allowed to consciously discover their own voice. Small vocal exercises such as speaking loudly and softly, trying out different moods or reciting tongue twisters strengthen articulation and expression. In this way, your child learns to use their voice in a playful way. You can find exercises for speech training here on Auditorix. In the next step, you and your child can conduct a short interview – for example with a family member, a neighbor or a friend. Topics such as favorite places, hobbies or wishes for the future are a good place to start. In this way, your child not only trains their voice, but also learns to listen, ask specific questions and shape conversations.
Producing and recording music yourself is fun for children and encourages their creativity. Your child can create their own sounds and rhythms with simple means – for example, with everyday objects such as cans and rubber bands or rattles made from rice and cups. Those who prefer to work digitally can use music apps such as GarageBand or Indigo Pads to playfully try out instruments and record their own melodies. This quickly creates a little beat that makes a radio play sound livelier and emphasizes moods, for example.
Almost every child has a favorite book or story. Make a little radio play out of it together. This works with children aged 4 and over. With a smartphone or tablet, you can easily record and combine different soundtracks – for example, using the Audio Adventure app. Read the dialog with distributed roles and think together about how you can use music and add sounds to the story. What does it sound like when it’s raining or storming outside? An overview of how to create sounds yourself can be found on Auditorix. You can find video instructions on how to tell stories with a tablet at kinder.jff.de.
If the weather doesn’t invite you to go out, your child can solve audio puzzles on AUDIYOUkids or Planet Schule, set a story to music themselves or put together an audio play. Accompany your child – especially if they can’t read yet. Children of primary school age and above can also learn to edit audio recordings here.
Then get your ears ready and have fun listening together, making noises and setting stories to music!
