Name of Activity:.Microphone

Category:. Do You Hear What I Hear?

Props: A microphone (a plastic one, blow-up one, or one from a real tape recorder--the only requirement is it must be moveable)

Your Role: : Model

Directions: You pick up a microphone and say a sound pattern into it, as if it really could amplify your voice. Then put the microphone next to the mouth of your child and ask him to repeat the sound pattern. Keep going back and forth between the two of you, changing and extending the pattern until you have done at least six patterns. Some useful sounds are boop, la, ba, pa, and tum.

Goals for You: Your goal is to participate in a give-and-take, patterning activity with your child. Also, you can help expand both yours and your child's repertoire of auditory images.

Goals for Children: Your child will begin to focus on listening skills, short term memory skills, and on auditory recall. Also the musicality and rhythm of the activity helps children understand the nature of musical patterns.

Possible Strategy:

What to say "Listen to the sound I'm making. Can you hear them in your mind's ear. Whisper them in your mind's ear. Now try to say them with your voice. This time I'm going to say a pattern and I want you to say it right after me. I'm going to say the wound in the microphone, and then I'm going to put the microphone in front of your mouth and you say the sound. Remember these two things: Hear the sound in your mind's ear, and say the wound out loud into the microphone. Here goes."

What to do Put the microphone in front of your child's mouth. If your child doesn't imitate you, help him along.

Possible Shaping:

What to say "Let's try to go on as long as we can. Really pay attention and try to repeat just the sounds I make."

What to do: You can build on the "flow" of the sounds by having the sound patterns build one upon the other. It's important when you select the series of rhtym patterns that the sounds do "flow." The pattern should have an inevitability to it--as those these sounds are naturally linked to one another. That way, your child's response can be cued by kinesthetic as well as auditory stimuli.

Possible Ending:

What to say: "Great job! Let's put the microphone away and play with it another day. Maybe next time you can say the sounds first and I'll repeat you."

What to do: Encourage your child to listen for patterns in songs he or she hears.

Material on this site created by Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D. and Yakov M. Epstein, Ph.D. in conjunction with their forthcoming book titled Play for Success. All material on this site is copyrighted and may not be reproduced or cited without written permission of Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D.. Dr. Rosenberg is Associate Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Epstein is Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Science of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. He is also Director of the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education of Rutgers University.

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