Research & Policy The Role of Nursery Rhymes in a Child's Growth
By Smruti Paradarshita
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Do you remember this rhyme that all of us have grown up with?





Nursery rhymes may just seem like a bit of fun, a way to spend time and interact with your children, or just a quick and easy way to distract them but the truth is nursery rhymes have so many more benefits for your child, both in the long and the short term and are incredibly powerful influencers in pre-school development.

Nursery rhymes have a lot more to offer than just entertainment value. They introduce babies and children to the idea of storytelling, promote social skills and boost language development. They also lay the foundation for learning to read and spell. Generally, children who will become good readers enjoy listening to speech, storybooks, and nursery rhymes. –As shared by Early Years Alliance

How do nursery rhymes help?

  • Children learn new words
  • Develop their non-verbal communications skills
  • Learn early maths skills
  • Children understand how words are formed
  • Enables children to copy actions
  • It boasts children language communication and literacy skills
  • Helps develop children’s social, skills
  • Children learn about different beats and rhythms
  • Provides the opportunity for children to value language and become confident learners.
  • Creates a close relationship between adult and child


Let us look at some of these key benefits of nursery rhymes on a child’s growth in details:

  1. Communication
Rhymes are fantastic vocabulary boosters. They often feature a pleasing rhythmic pattern and simple repetitive phrases that babies and young children find easy to remember and repeat. In order to develop their phonological awareness, children need to be repeatedly exposed to spoken language and nursery rhymes provide the perfect way to do this.

  1. Memory and Articulation

By introducing children to the patterns of sounds, nursery rhymes give their brain the input it will need to categorize words by their internal structure. This acts as a precursor to written language, where children have to identify the sounds of written words.

  1. Listening Skills

When you read nursery rhymes to your child, you are telling them a story. Because of the rhyming words, the storyline, and your pronunciation, children are lured into the story and pay attention to you. This helps them make sense of the story and at the same time makes them good listeners.

  1. Motor Skills

Repetition of rhymes and stories is good for the brain, teaching how language works and improving memory, concentration, spatial intelligence and thinking skills.

  1. Social Skills

Nursery rhymes develop humor. Because of the connection between movement, rhythm, and words, singing these songs can be a great group activity and is a great opportunity for children to get to know their peers.

With this note, let’s sing a rhyme together:

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

About the author

Smruti Paradarshita is working in Pratham Education Foundation and works on aspects of Content creation for the teacher capacity development portal: Gurushala. Any views expressed are personal.