photo credit: Baston

Through my many years as an elementary school teacher, I found music to be a great tool for teaching basic skills.  I created songs as a means of teaching reading, math, and language.  I discovered that children responded to and seemed to grasp the skills easier and with a great deal of enthusiasm.   I strongly agree with Leah Kmetz, MT-BC,  a board certified music therapist who stated, "Through involvement in music activities children and adults have the opportunity to work on goals beyond just quality of life."

Several years ago, working as a home teacher,  I had an autistic student named Robert. I soon learned that Robert enjoyed music.  I decided to teach him to read through the use of a song I had created and used in the classroom with my kindergarten students.  The song teaches letters and their corresponding sounds through the use of a catchy tune.

Robert loved the music and soon learned to sing the song and read the words.  Since Robert was doing so well, one morning I decided to skip the music and begin the lesson without the use of my music tapes.  Robert became agitated and started screaming and kicking his feet.  I couldn't imagine what was wrong until his mother came in and explained that Robert wanted me to play my music tapes.  The minute I pulled out my tapes he calmed down and we proceeded to have a successful lesson.

Robert learned to read many of  the words in the book and was so pleased with himself that he would ask to sing them over and over again. Needless to say, his mother was thrilled that Robert was learning to read and she had found that his love for music was a great way to keep him focused on learning.

That's Bingzy! Busy Building Self-Esteem book and CD gives kids a chance to sing along with the CD while developing a can-do attitude.  The book is in rhyme and the CD reinforces the rhymes through old familiar tunes, making it easy for young children to catch on. Like Robert, any child will benefit from music, especially when it helps build their self-esteem and character.

Yours truly,

Arlene Richards &

The Bing Note Team!

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