Promoting Language and Literacy Skills through Music in Early Childhood Classrooms

Music experience during early childhood can promote language and literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness, vocabulary, and turntaking and self-regulation skills useful for communication more broadly. Incorporating music activities into the early childhood classroom can be particularly useful for Dual Language Learners' (DLLs) language development. Here, we review research on links between music experience and language and literacy development, discuss how early childhood teachers use music in their classrooms and the challenges they face in doing so, and provide some tips and specific resources and activities for teachers to help incorporate music into their classrooms.