A recent article in Education Week pointed out that there has been a decline in prevalence of nursery rhymes in our education system and in the home. This is part of a larger trend where teachers are generally reading to students at a lower rate than in previous decades.
Popular Nursery Rhymes?
Even if you haven’t read your kids nursery rhymes, you’re probably aware of some the most popular ones:
“Mary Had a Little Lamb”
“The Wheels on the Bus”
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
“Hickory Dickory Dock”
What Are Nursery Rhymes
At their core, nursery rhymes are simple, catchy poems or songs that are easy to follow along. They’ve long been used to help teach language to young kids. Importantly, they also back up the nursery part. Babies are also shown to benefit from them, as research has shown that the rhythmic speech information is perhaps foundational to the phonetics that they will learn as they get older. This comes down to how the infants process auditory stimuli neurally.
Why Are We Seeing Them Less?
So, why are they showing up less? One simple reason is that today’s parents didn’t grow up with them as much, so the rate at which they’re being shared has gone down. One possible explanation for this is that parents have been shying away from nursery rhymes because some of them are viewed as too scary or not age-appropriate for the intended age range.
Are All Nursery Rhymes Appropriate?
While such concerns are valid, it’s important to remember that, as is the case in literature as a whole, not all nursery rhymes are created equal. For example, one might argue Solomon Grundy introduces the concept of death too early for such a young child.
Bottom Line
All in all, nursery rhymes are a classic component of young learning. There’s real value to them, even if it’s less about the story itself and more about the construction and delivery of the words. Once kids are a little older, they’re better equipped to hold these rhymes in memory, and possibly pass them on in the future.
