Nursery rhymes and cognitive development

Nursery rhymes are one of the most useful and versatile learning tools in the first few years of a child's life. They have often been passed down through generations and are one of the few activities that don’t require any equipment.  

When it comes to development, nursery rhymes are a great way of acquiring new skills. Within this blog, we will take a closer look at how nursery rhymes can support children’s thinking (cognition) and give you lots of ideas how to support this development through play.

Number sense and counting

Many nursery rhymes include aspects of mathematics. Counting forwards and backwards is a common feature of many familiar rhymes, for example, ‘Five Speckled Frogs’, where the frogs disappear as they jump into the water.  

You can hold up 5 fingers and put one down every time a frog jumps from their log! 

Five little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log 
Eating some most delicious grubs (yum, yum!) 
One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool 
Now there are four green speckled frogs 

Four little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log 
Eating some most delicious grubs (yum, yum!) 
One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool 
Now there are three green speckled frogs 

Three little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log 
Eating some most delicious grubs (yum, yum!) 
One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool 
Now there are two green speckled frogs 

Two little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log 
Eating some most delicious grubs (yum, yum!) 
One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool 
Now there is one green speckled frog 

One little speckled frog sat on a speckled log 
Eating some most delicious grubs (yum, yum!) 
It jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool 
Now there are no green speckled frogs 

The accompanying actions to these rhymes also support children in linking number language to quantities, as they will be matching the names of numbers to the number of fingers they are holding up, or puppets they can see.  

Another great example of a nursery rhyme that involved counting and number is ‘Five Little Ducks’, which goes as follows:

“Five little ducks went swimming one day, 
Over the hill and far away, 
Mummy duck said 
"Quack, quack, quack, quack" 
But only four little ducks came swimming back” 

The rhyme then continues, counting down to zero with each verse and the final verse is... 

“No little ducks went swimming one day, 
Over the hill and far away, 
Mummy duck said 
"Quack, quack, quack, quack" 
and Five little ducks came swimming back” 

Language acquisition and comprehension 

Nursery rhymes are a key tool for supporting language development in young children. Through nursery rhymes, children will be experiencing new words that they may not have heard before in day-to-day speech. It is not uncommon for children to repeat words that they have come across in rhymes and songs in real life.  

As well as this, the introduction of new language through nursery rhymes also supports children with the ability to comprehend and understand new language. This is especially true of nursery rhymes that are accompanied by images, actions or props that will support this understanding.  

Nursery rhymes also give us an opportunity to talk to children about language from the past. We might know the rhyme ‘Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet’, but tuffet is not a word that we would commonly use in our everyday language. This helps children to think about and explore language. (A tuffet is a low stool or foot stool!). 

Creative skills 

Creative play is key to the cognitive development of young children, as it gives opportunity for children to experiment and ‘test’ new ideas. Nursery rhymes can be a great starting point for creative play, and in particular pretend play in young children. Often, children’s first attempts at role play are based on ideas that they are familiar with – this could be copying an adult at home, pretending to make cups of tea, or acting out a favourite story or rhyme. You may notice your child try to recreate ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm’ with their favourite stuffed animals, or clamber into a box to sing a rendition of ‘Row Row, Row Your Boat’ as they become more familiar with these rhymes.  

There are also many resources that can be added to your child’s toy collection that can support nursery rhyme themed pretend play. A lot of these things can even be ordinary things found in your cupboards at home – for example rubber ducks from the bathroom for ‘Five Little Ducks’, or some homemade finger puppets made from paper for ‘Three Blind Mice’ – you could even make some of these resources together! 

Alongside pretend play, nursery rhymes are a good way to encourage other aspects of creative play. For instance, some children enjoy creating artwork like paintings and drawings based on favourite stories and rhymes.  

Links to the real world 

Nursery rhymes are also a great way to support your child in understanding the world around them. They may listen to rhymes, and even join in singing them, and later make connections between these rhymes and their own experiences. For example, when playing in the rain, your child may make the connection to ‘Incy Wincy Spider’, and even relay lines from the rhyme to share this thought with you! 

These links may also help children in understanding different concepts that aren’t as ‘everyday’ to them. For example, some children won’t see farm animals in day to day life but will be able to grasp the concept of animals, and their characteristics from ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm’. This might also make later trips to see farm animals more interesting, as they will recall the song on their trip.  

We have more blogs coming soon that will explore the other areas of learning that Nursery Rhymes can promote!