Inging and making music are among the most enjoyable learning activities for children. Because they have both elements - enjoyment and learning - I consider them to be essential methods of reinforcing basic skills in numeracy and literacy. While this reinforcement is useful to all children, regardless of their academic abilities, my own experiences in the classroom and as the mother of a child with Down syndrome tell me that it is vital to children with learning difficulties.

One of the most important abilities music and singing stimulate is auditory discrimination. This is important for all children, and vital for children with learning difficulties such as Down syndrome. I also think singing and music are essential to the development of children's imaginations and their ability to express ideas in words, music, dance and gesture.

Taking singing first, there are several ways in which the reinforcement of academic learning takes place through singing. The most basic reinforcement is by repetition.

For slow-learning children like Down syndrome children, singing is a particularly beneficial way of learning to construct phrases and sentences for the words they are using will be much more memorable as part of a song.

Songs can also provide good language models which are easy to follow as the flow of the words is often enhanced by the flow of the music. Singing provides an added advantage for these children too: it requires greater mouth movement and better articulation on the part of both the teacher and the pupil. A good illustration of this advantage is the ease with which we can sing in a foreign language without being able to talk in the same language.

Even when children can read fluently, the process of placing words into rhythmic patterns enables them to develop a slightly different skill, essential for singing and still reinforcing their use of language. Without knowing it, they are learning the basics of poetry!

Songs also contain rhymes, and recognising and using them gives an essential skill which children with language difficulties need to absorb.

Another reading skill develops as children sing: singing enhances phonological awareness for you have to sing every syllable with the musical notes. As they do this, without realising it, children are identifying onset and rime eg. making certain words rhyme or thinking of words that start with a specific sound or letter.

This is especially evident in songs where successive verses use the next letter of the alphabet or in songs where you can make up your own verses by substitution of words (The poor King found a goldfish in his bath, .. a spider in his bath, .. an octopus in his bath.)

Songs aid language development in other ways too, for example, introducing new words and concepts to children, either individually at home in a family setting or in small groups or classes in school, and providing the 'prompt' and the opportunity to talk about them. Think of the number of songs about, say, the seasons, or songs that tell stories, songs with a message, songs with a moral even!

Action songs not only reinforce learning but also encourage better co-ordination.